There was no pall over the showroom at Schumacher Chevrolet in Little Falls today -- nobody staring despondently at a TV while Barack Obama announced that GM was filing for bankruptcy. There wasn't a TV at all, in fact, and business looked normal, with salesmen standing vigil in the lot and at their desks and a secretary busily taking phone messages. Owner Judith Tilton-Schumacher was not there, but we spoke to her a few weeks ago after Chrysler announced plans last month to close 800 dealerships nationwide. The Chrysler announcement was followed the next day by GM's decision to close 1,400 dealers.
"I'm sad, the whole thing is sad," Tilton-Schumacher said at the time. However, her business continues to be brisk. "We've been up since January." Schumacher is an unusually bright spot in an industry undergoing tough times, as CBS reported late last year. Maybe because it's located smack on a Main St. rather than a highway?
Obama put an upbeat spin on the GM bankruptcy, and promised that the US government would stand behind GM warranties. The stock market, meanwhile, seems happy about the news, with the Dow up 217 points at midday. GM documentarian Michael Moore chimed in with his own thoughts this morning.
What do you think? If what's good for General Motors is good for the country, then what is a GM bankruptcy good for?
(Disclosure: Schumacher is a Baristanet advertiser.)
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Comments (16)
I spent a few hours this morning studying all the various GM miscues over the past 25 years, and it appears that the roots of their bankruptcy can be traced directly to this.
Can't say as I'm surprised by this news.
Hopefully by the time when Obama Motors and Barack-Chrysler are done merging into one state-run auto company I'll have my house and can buy a Jeep at fire-sale prices.
The only real question here is: what else needs the Governments hand in it?
Poor Ford.
Run a company well and what do you get?
The good news is that Obama and Biden are spending 1 hour a day, designing cars.... 1 hour a day running banks.... I hour a day running insurance companies.... I hour a day working on health care... 1 hour a day plucking feathers from birds (because tickling a terrorist's ass with a feather is all the CIA is allowed to do....)
The future is so bright, I gotta wear shades!!!
HOPE/CHANGE!!!
GM had some great cars back in the day.
I'd like a mid 50's Buick Skylark Convertible, myself, or anything with a really cool speedometer, and anything from 1936-1939, just to trot out for some local parade or to wax up when domestic affairs are on autopilot.
Then the 70's came and went, and then the Reagan 80's came, and cynical corporate bullsh*t set in, and that was the end of the end. So much for Morning in America.
...which reminds me. Anyone on Baristanet still have a Reagan era GM car (besides ROC, that is)?
Complainer, you kill me on a daily basis.
Until recently my family owned Brunner Dodge in Verona. When it was closed last year it was the oldest Chrysler franchise held by the same family in the world. The problems with Chrysler date back 40 or 50 years. There were too many dealers in too small an area for them to profitable. I remember growing up in the 80's when there was a dealer in every town including Caldwell Chrysler, Montclair Dodge, us in Verona, Decozen Chrysler in Montclair and Bob Ciasulli (Former race car driver & mechanic) Chrysler in Little falls. As the years progressed you were no longer able to have a "small town" dealership. You could not make enough to cover the enormous overhead. Dealers for decades begged the car companies to fix this problem and nobody ever listened. Currently the most valuable franchise is BMW. How many BMW dealers can you think of and how far apart are they?
Spiro, 'ya do not have to go all the way back to then.
Visit Chevrolet & look at a new Corvette
or Pontiac and ask to see a G8 GT-X,
or Buick for a Lucerne Super, or Cadillac to see a STS-V or a DTS Level III or a CTS-V or the just out CTS-V Sport Wagon.
Over at Chrysler a 300 Heritage Edition, a Dodge Challenger SRT-8 or a Charger SRT-8 Super Bee !
Jeep? Commander, Grand Cherokee or the 4-Door Wrangler.
There's plenty excitment in those and others.
Ford has the best Mustang ever built, in the 2010 - OUT NOW. Luxury hits the GT.
The cars are terrific, but the companies way over-extended themselves expecting the good times to last well into the 2000s, and the puidding hit the walls !
BTW, I have been in the car business for only 30 years, so....I have seen this all before, when it took down American Motors, Oldsmobile, Plymouth, Imperial and many others, but this time is the worst.... but they all will survive, if Americans support them with purchases.
Our government is not gonna let America's #1 industry die.
Hey Spiro, it's all Bush's fault.
Actually, Whatsupwiththat, GM started declining long before Bush showed up. I think it was right around the time that Chrysler touted the "rich Corinthian leather" in it's Cordoba.
Cars are noisy, bad for the environment and prohibitively expensive to own and run. They should be banned. When cars are banned, people will be forced to use bicycles and other more eco-friendly forms of transportation, e.g. horse-drawn buggys.
The demise of GM presages the eventual collapse of the automobile industry and heralds a new age of pollution free vehicles. It is time for humanity to free itself from it's additiction to fossil fuels and automobiles.
When cars are gone, the super-annoying phenomena of cell phone use while driving will also vanish. Garages will be freed up for more important tasks, such as the storage of books, gardening equipment, guitar amplifiers and drum sets.
"" right around the time that Chrysler touted the "rich Corinthian leather" in it's Cordoba. ""
35 years ago? I think not !
(You are referring to 1975 ?)
Your books will become damp & ruined, as will your Amps, but of course you know that. You forgot to mention those jumbo dog biscuts.
You'd love my garage, it's heated AND air conditioned & dehumidified BUT only cars go in it.
BTW, I used to play the drums, way way back in a
different lifetime. I was inspired by another Sandy, Sandy Nelson, recall him ?
I was listening to an interview on CBS-880 radio with a salesperson at a Chevy dealer who had all the confidence that the Impala has the best value in its class in the world. I think this echos the problem from Detroit: you can't remain competitive if you don't see the bigger picture ... and the benchmark for the Impala's class is the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, and Nissan Altima. GM should be asking "why do consumers buy these cars more often than other brands" instead of insisting their products ought to be the best in the world. If Detroit ever wants its glory back, it needs to begin listening to its potential customers who currently drive Hondas, Toyotas, and Nissans, and offer them something even better, like Lexus and Infiniti did back in 1990, stealing customers away from elite brands like Mercedes and BMW.
Oh, BTW 90% of the dealerships that Chrysler Corporation closed did not have all 3 brands (Dodge, Jeep & Chrysler). Many were one of the three or had 2 of the 3. They want dealerships with ALL 3. It was costing too much for Chrysler. On Main St to have a Chrysler Only store, and around the corner & up 2 blocks to have a Jeep store and 4 tenths of a mile East to have a Dodge store. Less than 2% of the stores that had all 3 were closed and those were in ubber under populated areas.
New Jersey lost 30 dealers, all of which had either only 1 OR 2 of the 3 brands. No 3-brand point was closed.
NOT SO FAST, WE ARE GOING TO COURT, 'EN MASSE !
Judge to rule on Chrysler franchise terminations
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Jun 3, 7:44 AM (ET)
By BREE FOWLER
(AP) A supporter covers her face during a rally at the Timberline Dodge dealership in Portland, Ore.,...
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NEW YORK (AP) - A bankruptcy judge will rule Wednesday on whether Chrysler can terminate the franchise agreements of 789 of its dealers as part of its ongoing restructuring.
U.S. Judge Arthur Gonzalez is expected to hear testimony from Chrysler LLC executives, as well as dealers during the hearing.
Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Chrysler maintains that it needs to reduce its dealer base to a leaner network of about 2,400 dealers in order to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as a stronger company.
Chrysler claims that many of the dealerships in question, which amount to about a quarter of its dealer population, were chosen because they are either unprofitable or located too close to other Chrysler dealerships.
But the dealers argue that they don't cost the automaker anything, just make it money by selling Chrysler's cars and trucks.
They maintain that if Gonzalez approves Chrysler's motion it will result in the shuttering of hundreds of dealerships and thousands of workers will lose their jobs.
A group representing about 300 of the dealers slated to lose their franchises have filed an objection. They also earlier objected to Chrysler's motion to sell the bulk of its assets to a group led by Italy's Fiat Group SpA, because it was tied to the plan to eliminate the dealerships.
A trio of dealers testified during the third and final day of the sale hearing, saying that their businesses would mostly likely be forced to close if they lost their franchises.
In addition to the dealers group, attorneys for several individual dealers have also filed objections.
Separately, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit agreed late Tuesday to hear an appeal by a trio of Indiana state pension and construction funds of Chrysler's sale to Fiat. Arguments will begin Friday, The Wall Street Journal said, citing the court's order.
Gonzalez said in his ruling late Sunday that a speedy sale was needed to keep the value of Chrysler from deteriorating and would provide a better return for the company's stakeholders than if it had chosen to liquidate.
But the Indiana funds, which own $42.5 million of Chrysler's $6.9 billion in secured debt, aggressively objected, saying the sale does not provide a big enough return for secured debt holders, while paying off unsecured stakeholders.
Chrysler requested Monday that the sale be certified for immediate appeal in order to move the case quickly to U.S. District Court. It's unclear how much the appeal could delay the sale's closing and Chrysler's emergence from court oversight.
Chrysler has said that any delay could cause the deal with Fiat to crumble, as the Italian automaker has the option of pulling out if the sale does not close by June 15.
Also on Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on GM and Chrysler dealership closings.
GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson and Chrysler President James Press, along with John McEleney, chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, and other dealers, are expected to testify.