Here's an e-mail letter we received today from General Motors:
You made the right choice when you put your confidence in General Motors, and we appreciate your past support. I want to assure you that we are making our best vehicles ever, and we have exciting plans for the future. But we need your help now. Simply put, we need you to join us to let Congress know that a bridge loan to help U.S. automakers also helps strengthen the U.S. economy and preserve millions of American jobs.
Despite what you may be hearing, we are not asking Congress for a bailout but rather a loan that will be repaid.
The U.S. economy is at a crossroads due to the worldwide credit crisis, and all Americans are feeling the effects of the worst economic downturn in 75 years. Despite our successful efforts to restructure, reduce costs and enhance liquidity, U.S. auto sales rely on access to credit, which is all but frozen through traditional channels.
The consequences of the domestic auto industry collapsing would far exceed the $25 billion loan needed to bridge the current crisis. According to a recent study by the Center for Automotive Research:
• One in 10 American jobs depends on U.S. automakers
• Nearly 3 million jobs are at immediate risk
• U.S. personal income could be reduced by $150 billion
• The tax revenue lost over 3 years would be more than $156 billion
• One in 10 American jobs depends on U.S. automakers
• Nearly 3 million jobs are at immediate risk
• U.S. personal income could be reduced by $150 billion
• The tax revenue lost over 3 years would be more than $156 billion
Discussions are now underway in Washington, D.C., concerning loans to support U.S. carmakers. I am asking for your support in this vital effort by contacting your state representatives.
Please take a few minutes to go to www.gmfactsandfiction.com, where we have made it easy for you to contact your U.S. senators and representatives. Just click on the "I'm a Concerned American" link under the "Mobilize Now" section, and enter your name and ZIP code to send a personalized e-mail stating your support for the U.S. automotive industry.
Let me assure you that General Motors has made dramatic improvements over the last 10 years. In fact, we are leading the industry with award-winning vehicles like the Chevrolet Malibu, Cadillac CTS,
Buick Enclave, Pontiac G8, GMC Acadia, Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, Saturn AURA and more.
Buick Enclave, Pontiac G8, GMC Acadia, Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, Saturn AURA and more.
We offer 18 models with an EPA estimated 30 MPG highway or better — more than Toyota or Honda. GM has 6 hybrids in market and 3 more by mid-2009. GM has closed the quality gap with the imports, and today we are putting our best quality vehicles on the road.
Please share this information with friends and family using the link on the site.
Thank you for helping keep our economy viable.
Sincerely,
Troy Clarke
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Dear Troy:
I appreciate the e-mail, but this is a hard one for me. GM and the other US automakers have had a 30 year long heads-up on the inevitability of this very day.
Back then, you fellows met the long lines at the gas pumps, and ratcheting prices, with the horrific Fairmount and K-Car. We were in effect punished for trying to be sensible. (GM did nothing at all that I can recall, except for one lone bright spot: the years-later rollout of Saturn.)
In stark contrast, Toyota responded with the Corona. The first ride I took in one in 1974 woke me up, rudely and up to now unchangeably: this car from Japan wasn't cheap junk, as I'd been taught growing up; it was in fact less expensive and plainly better than its American counterparts.
I was a college senior then but saw it clearly (why couldn't you?). You'd already frittered away your competitive edge. Three decades later, you've still not recovered from that fundamental, tectonic shift. And Toyota builds factories and cars on your home turf.
Over the ensuing years, I wanted to buy American, I really did. When I shopped for new cars, I'd test-drive a few American models; on vacation, I'd rent American cars to gauge their progress. But the stuff you produced never fit my style, sensibilities, or demands for quality. Empirically, an entire segment of upwardly mobile and affluent customers--my contemporaries--felt exactly the same. It's telling that I eventually became a GM customer only because I leased a Saab.
US automakers, time and again, have demonstrated the polar opposite of a customer-centric business model. In perpetuating your unholy alliance with oil companies (who can be painted with a very similar brush), you've sought instead to make the market and use your formidable marketing muscle to drive demand for unconscionably ostentatious and wasteful products like the Hummer. Concentrating less on getting me from here to there and more on my fragile male ego. All the while using an old, doomed technology--the internal combustion engine.
You've spent your time and resources perfecting this aging (if not already obsolete) albatross, much the same as if the brightest engineers of the early 20th century had labored tirelessly to perfect the Conestoga wagon.
Instead of looking ahead, and re-inventing the automobile when times were flush by using the vast cash and resources at your disposal (the cash from sales and the money earned on your money via GMAC)--which would have given you first-mover status and a lock on years of unimaginable profits--you decided to serve the gods of short term profit and "shareholder value." You played ostrich.
This industry in general--and GM in particular--which once ruled the world's economy but has now come begging, has created its own insular culture and heritage, mirrored by its senior executives who've been harvesting millions in compensation. Remarkable not for vision or courage, but for hubris.
For this, GM has richly earned our scorn rather than our money.
Sincerely,
----------------------------I appreciate the e-mail, but this is a hard one for me. GM and the other US automakers have had a 30 year long heads-up on the inevitability of this very day.
Back then, you fellows met the long lines at the gas pumps, and ratcheting prices, with the horrific Fairmount and K-Car. We were in effect punished for trying to be sensible. (GM did nothing at all that I can recall, except for one lone bright spot: the years-later rollout of Saturn.)
In stark contrast, Toyota responded with the Corona. The first ride I took in one in 1974 woke me up, rudely and up to now unchangeably: this car from Japan wasn't cheap junk, as I'd been taught growing up; it was in fact less expensive and plainly better than its American counterparts.
I was a college senior then but saw it clearly (why couldn't you?). You'd already frittered away your competitive edge. Three decades later, you've still not recovered from that fundamental, tectonic shift. And Toyota builds factories and cars on your home turf.
Over the ensuing years, I wanted to buy American, I really did. When I shopped for new cars, I'd test-drive a few American models; on vacation, I'd rent American cars to gauge their progress. But the stuff you produced never fit my style, sensibilities, or demands for quality. Empirically, an entire segment of upwardly mobile and affluent customers--my contemporaries--felt exactly the same. It's telling that I eventually became a GM customer only because I leased a Saab.
US automakers, time and again, have demonstrated the polar opposite of a customer-centric business model. In perpetuating your unholy alliance with oil companies (who can be painted with a very similar brush), you've sought instead to make the market and use your formidable marketing muscle to drive demand for unconscionably ostentatious and wasteful products like the Hummer. Concentrating less on getting me from here to there and more on my fragile male ego. All the while using an old, doomed technology--the internal combustion engine.
You've spent your time and resources perfecting this aging (if not already obsolete) albatross, much the same as if the brightest engineers of the early 20th century had labored tirelessly to perfect the Conestoga wagon.
Instead of looking ahead, and re-inventing the automobile when times were flush by using the vast cash and resources at your disposal (the cash from sales and the money earned on your money via GMAC)--which would have given you first-mover status and a lock on years of unimaginable profits--you decided to serve the gods of short term profit and "shareholder value." You played ostrich.
This industry in general--and GM in particular--which once ruled the world's economy but has now come begging, has created its own insular culture and heritage, mirrored by its senior executives who've been harvesting millions in compensation. Remarkable not for vision or courage, but for hubris.
For this, GM has richly earned our scorn rather than our money.
Sincerely,
At least, as Troy asked, we're sharing this information with frends and family.
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