Good thing the Gf bought an impala after I told her repeatedly not to buy any GM products...

Edit: holy crap when did I become a senior member?

Where are the Lee Iacocca's and G. Gordon Liddy's when we need them?

Retired. :)

Sitting at home in their mansions and counting the millions of dollars while laughing at the big 3.

Exactly..... sigh. :cool:

I saw a hedge fund manager (Bill Ackman) on Charlie Rose last night talking about how GM was very overvalued at even $3 a share. One could buy all of GM for $2B right now. Pretty amazing. Gates or Buffet could buy it just for the hell of it.

Those two will never invest in a company like GM,they did not get where they are today by making stupid decisions.

It would be less of a headache for them to just burn 2billion,rather than try to keep a company on the verge of death alive.

I dunno. I used to joke that if I ever several million dollars to spare, one of the first things I'd do would be to buy a Buick dealership and burn it to the ground.

At last check, Bill's personal wealth was $49 billion. He can easily afford to amuse himself by purchasing GM for $2 billion and then selling it to someone like Citroën or Fiat for three chickens and a goat.

2b?

Gb!

Kill the unions, put all 3-companies together, into one, then make the euro focus, g8, 1 truck, and a c6z.

citreon needs to take over GM so I can have this:
http://image.motortrend.com/f/948428...arter_view.jpg
http://static.taume.com/image/2008-C...5-Interior.jpg

A US conglomerate of the big 3 also makes sense. It'll never happen but it might make for some damn interesting cars. I like the one truck thought. One very badass truck.

What it more likely to happen, that all three suddenly figure out how to make better cars profitably or they join forces to focus the entire brain trust on a slightly smaller share of each market segment?

The roadblock to any salvation is the pensions though. Can a new owner null and renegotiate those contracts?

At the risk of sounding like Jason, we (the US) need to read up on the history of British Leyland Motors. After being nationalized in the mid 70s, they went on to a long and troubled history of producing mediocre and unprofitable cars. Mired in bureaucracy, they muddled along until their complete dissolution a few years ago, which is how MG came to be owned by Nanjing, and several other brands (including Jag) by Indian carmarker TATA.

My understanding of politics is not deep but nationalizing the big 3 sounds like capitalism failing and communism stepping in to "fix" things.

Agreed. It is easy for me to say but the big 3 are reaping what they have sown, corporate and employees. Corporate went for big profits by focusing on SUVs; good short term, bad long term (never mind that we wanted SUVs and bought SUVs). Employees killed the golden goose with overly demanding union driven benefits. They need to figure out a new business model, and any assistance provided by the Fed needs to have some serious incentives attached to motivate them to find a good one.
Even Democrats like Pelosi are saying that this needs to be the plan if they do anything for the Big 3.

Auto plants converted to wind turbine plants FTW! At least in Obama's and T. Boone Pickens' eyes.

Clearly Buffet or Gates buying GM would probably not be a good move for them; that is implicit IMO.

hustler's moderately intellectual side:
If what everyone says about the unions is true, then it must be addressed and the good of the nation must be represented. The party is over, and its time to relax the demands or the industry will fail. Its not the job of the USA to make sure everyone gets to keep the job they have now, but the USA may be able to help people find work elsewhere, in other industries.

I think their cars are selling well enough if you look on the streets, even though they're raging shitboxes. Now, if the USA could keep big huge banks from gang-fucking people, maybe this would never happen again. However, I seriously doubt the USA can overcome corporate skullfucking of financial powerhouses.

Aren't the Hondas and Toyotas made in the US built by workers from the same Unions that the big 3 use? Honda and Toyota aren't on the verge of collapse.

So is the problem the Union or is it GM?

I remember a shitstorm last summer about Toyota trying to dump off the UAW and threatening to close plants because paying labor was eating up revenue.