GTOJack

GM stock dropped 15% today to close under $10/share for the first time since 1954. Is the Camaro going to be a must have/keep car if GM declares bankruptcy? With nothing else being produced at the plant, will it become expendable as GM searches for more new subcompacts? Will there be room in GMs production plans for a heavy RWD coupe?

99SilverSS

I'm certainly no expert in bankruptcy info but I don't think the stock price is a major driving force that would cause GM to file. I'd think that spending more than they take in and depleting all their savings would lead to bankruptcy. Not that this isn't happening but it's further down the road than a low day on Wall Street.
Interestingly enough stock prices do effect market capitalization and right now some company or person (Bill Gates) could offer to buy all GM's outstanding shares valued at $5.65 billion at today’s close. That is if the shareholders would agree to sell. Stock price also has an effect on GM's ability to borrow money on credit; also not good at this time.

As for the Camaro I know for a fact that had this car been at the 2008 auto show or even 2007 and development started a year later or not yet it would not be produced. This car just got far enough along to make it. All it's Zeta siblings in NA have died. That being said I'd think the Camaro like any other car in GM's lineup will earn it's keep if it makes money for the corp. If it costs more or puts a drain on GM then they would have to drop it especially under bankruptcy.

GM is such a large and powerful force in the US and has far outreaching influence past just the auto industry that IF bankruptcy was a real possibility the US govt. could be called in to help. I just think in this economy if it looked like not only would GM be in bankruptcy but closing its doors and dumping hundreds of thousands of workers out and it's pension and healthcare obligations for a million retirees I'd think the govt. would have to step in. It would behest them to loan GM enough money to stay going and meet it's obligations then let the whole thing go down and take the US economy with it. The problem is I don't see a Lee Iacocca with a sure bet K-car/Minivan proposal to spin to Congress. Maybe the Volt..

GTOJack

GM has enough cash on hand to get thru 2008, but 2009 is going to be a real challenge if sales dont pick up.

snooter

dumping hundreds of thousands of workers out and it's pension and healthcare obligations for a million retirees

thats part of the problem..GM became entangled in socialism and is now reaping all the "rewards"..gm has to gut health care for retirees as they are no longer productive...im sure the liberals here will of course go off on tangents and such but its time for GM and all the auto companies to eliminate the failed socialistic policies the UAW had so dearly embraced for the last 60 years....far as camaro..better buy when you can and get ready for a 4cyclinder under the hood

8Banger

Amen brother!

Z284ever

The Camaro just barely made it under the wire. At this point it's an orphaned program on a dead architecture.

Anything could happen. It could be cancelled tommorrow.

GTOJack

The pension fund is in great shape so the retirees have no worry there. VEBA will fund the healthcare obligations but GM has to contribute $4.5 billion into it to get it started. One problem I see with the UAW overseeing the VEBA fund is what happens if a bankruptcy judge declares the current UAW contract null and void? Its going to be tough to tell the UAW to go pound sand if they are in charge of the multi-billion dollar VEBA fund.
If sales tank farther in 3rd and 4th quarters, the new Camaro will hanging on by a thread.

Big Als Z

Oh shut up, both of you.
First off, the last thing GM needs is bad press about how pepole who worked for GM for 40 years got dummped on with zero benifits and no help from them so they defend for themselves.
GM has already worked out a deal for the Union and now they manage thier own pension fund and GM contributes to it.

As for Camaro having a 4cyl in it, enough with the stupid comments. Some auto guy turns a comment said by Lutz into this whole new paradox that the Camaro is gunna get a 4cyl when in fact if that was the case, the 4cyl Camaro would out do the V6 Challenger and Mustang.
But I forgot, 4cyls = teh sux0rs.

Get a life, go back to the lounge.

snooter

thanks for the enlightment..and yes your inability to see the harm being done by forcing GM and the others to pay for ex-employees (again a failed socialism program embraced by the UAW) has contributed to $10 GM share price (6 billions market cap)...ford is not much better ($4.42 share price/11 billion market cap)..now toyota is at 147 billion market cap..i ask you to toss aside whatever hat you wear and ask....what does toyota do that we cannot seem to emulate?...i patiently await enlightment..

Ponykillr

Interestingly the shareholders only represent $8 billion of the pie. That means lenders actually own GM due to its massive debt. Even if you owned every single share you still would not own the company.

GTOJack

You would in fact own the company if you owned every share. But you would also be responsible for $34 billion in debt.

ChrisL

nope

Z284ever

How so?

They're all dead except for the DTS replacement, and that could change at any time.

Ponykillr

You would own it on paper.. and that paper would be worthless. The lenders have first claim on the assets; so if GM went 11 the shareholders get nothing. So in reality it is the lenders that own the company not the shareholders.

99SilverSS

Well Toyota has sweatshops, cheap overseas labor and not to mention help from the Japanese govt. in keeping the Yen in good standing in relation the dollar for the best help to companies trading with the US. Not that there is much volume in Japan to sell Domestic cars but the govt. there basically put up a Keep Out sign in Tokyo Harbor... guess they didn't like the way the last American ships in the harbor treated them....

Hindsight is always crystal clear and what you call socialism is what is actually called normal business practices by a majority of American companies for a very long time. This is far bigger than the UAW and the auto industry. Sure covering retirees with pensions and healthcare doesn't look good today but when these deals were made it was a normal practice. Neither GM nor any other corp. that offered ever imagined the skyrocketing cost of healthcare in America and the extended life expectancy that has taken place, partly because of it. But a deal is a deal and as much as it hurts GM and the others they must stick to their agreements. Millions of people are dependent on them and we don't live in a Socialist country so besides falling to the poverty level there isn't much help if GM and the Domestic brands scrap their obligations.