[sgarnett]

The Senate, UAW, et al, just gave up (ie failed) on reaching a compromise a few minutes ago.

I don't know how GM will come out after bankruptcy (they just hired the bankruptcy lawyer), but the stock market futures are looking ugly tonight. It actually held up well through some dismal recent employment numbers, but I suspect tomorrow is gonna be ugly. Rebuilding my retirement is going to mean austerity and no new cars for a very long time, and I suspect that will be true for many others. That can't be good for any automaker.

I'll admit I wasn't convinced that bridge loans to March could solve the problems for GM, so I don't claim to know what the right answer was. Nevertheless, this is going to be a big kick in the teeth for the economy.

This post has been edited by sgarnett: Dec 12 2008, 04:07 AM

[marka]

Howdy,

Also... How does an overabundance of dealerships cost GM money?

Mark

[94bird]

Howdy,

Also... How does an overabundance of dealerships cost GM money?

Mark

Good question. I don't know how it directly costs GM money. It certainly makes it harder for dealerships to make money, when they have so many competitors. I can also understand an argument that having too many dealerships dilutes the brand's image. Which looks better to a customer, having a thriving dealership with a lot of customers and frequent turnover of new cars, or having 3x that many dealerships that appear much more stagnant?

Last I heard Toyota has only about 2500 dealerships across the country and GM has about 6500. They both sell similar numbers of vehicles in the US each year. GM's factories and labor force are downsizing, but their dealership presence hasn't kept the pace.