GM, Chrysler May Need 'Considerably More' Aid Than $21.6 billion - Treasury

 GM, Chrysler May Need Considerably More Aid Than $21.6 billion - Treasury
General Motors & Chrysler

US Treasury's chief auto adviser says GM and Chrysler may be too optimistic about their future sales

The US Treasury, under the new Obama administration, is getting wise.

Steve Rattner, the Treasury Department's chief auto adviser, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that GM and Chrysler may need a lot more money than they are currently asking for.

GM says it needs an additional 16.6 billion US dollars in government bailout loans, on top of the 13.4 billion it has already received. Maybe they're suffering from a little OCD and 30 billion makes a nice round figure. Chrysler is asking for 5 billion in addition to the 4 billion they have received from the US Treasury.

But Rattner says that the grand total "could be considerably higher" than that 21.6 billion that the two troubled Detroit automakers are currently waiting on. He believes it all depends on auto sales, which have plummeted and show no signs of bouncing back.

"What they've asked for depends on them achieving plans that are somewhat ambitious...like all management teams, they tend to take a reasonably -- slightly perhaps -- optimistic view of their business," Rattner said in the interview according to a Bloomberg transcript.

Rattner is also not very optimistic about Chrysler's chances of becoming a viable business on its own. "If you read their numbers, ... they are ... just kind of barely making it. You know, they just kind of inch along," he said. Rattner believes Chrysler's proposed alliance with Fiat is a "worthy idea to consider."

But GM and Chrysler need not worry about the trough going dry just yet. Rattner hinted that the Obama administration may seek more money for automakers from the Congress. What choice do they have?

 

Source: detroit news

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 Renegade Renegade
Well, they can use the money from AIG.
March 21, 2009 2:15 pm
 radmeister radmeister
What's the point take one bonus away from one guy that didn't deserve it and give it to another guy that doesnt deserve it. Spend it on healthcare, education, and infrastructure.
March 21, 2009 5:52 pm
 Joe_Limon Joe_Limon
stop giving them money! Throwing money at a problem is a very expensive way of fixing things.
March 21, 2009 2:38 pm
 Max_Speed Max_Speed
I'm so sick of this, why does an entire country have to pay for the mistakes of some stupid CEOs ?
March 21, 2009 3:38 pm
 Iconic Iconic
It's called socialism for the rich and capitalism for the rest of us. It's the greatest hypocrisy of the US.. among many others.
March 22, 2009 3:58 pm
 radmeister radmeister
At first people started to dislike GM and Chrysler for their inferior products priced the same as a higher quality honda or toyota. But now this hate is getting personal, when you see these bastards take your hard earned money from you regardless of if you buy one of their pieces of junk or not. And then they keep asking for more and more, with no results. I mean what have they come up with so far, a Corvette with stickers....The volt was in the works years before this happened, the camaro same thing it has been a work in progress for over 5 years. I think the government should just let them die, after this they wont make a comeback, you know why? People are starting to hate them on a more personal level, hell they have taken all this money from us and they didnt even have the decency to give a discount...Let them die, the demand for cars is still out there, toyota or honda or VW Group will take over their factories and give the people jobs.
March 21, 2009 5:49 pm
 michaelk michaelk
The bigger issue is the fact that taxpayers are spending money on supporting inefficient car companies when no other lines of business would receive that support. Granted, the industry employs a lot of people, but it obviously does so at a much higher price than in other countries. Even if they were to receive more money, it would again be of no use: no one wants what they're selling, and they would just need more to stay afloat later down the line. It's simple economics.
March 21, 2009 9:14 pm
 Joe_Limon Joe_Limon
Why is it that while more people agree with not giving these companies money, the more that the blame shifts to the designs, or CEO's supposedly padding their wallets? It seems very clear to me, you cannot operate a company where 1/5th of the people you are paying are still at work! Seriously, you cannot profit when you have a mass production company paying salaries and benefits that would make an equivalently skilled employee over at Ferrari jealous.
March 21, 2009 9:38 pm
 Aesthetics Aesthetics
the big three will spend the rest of its 100 years paying its debt if it starts making money. it should be saved for really long term investment but from they way they are going, might as well shut them down and place them in the history books. they really should spend the bulk of the money they are getting all on technology because over the last 30 years, money has gone to marketing. technology also contributes to quality so exporting will suddenly be attractive. if faltering from competition, one has no other option other than to seek a formula to follow for survival and then lead when profiteering. consumers are gettting smart because things are getting more and more expensive.
March 22, 2009 12:06 am
 brandon brandon
People, people......people.GM sold 6 million cars and another 3 million trucks worldwide last year. Ford about 5 million and chrysler about 2 million. These are huge benchmarks by any standards. The only reason why vw group and toyota are slighty more successful is because their governments pay their health insurance costs. So basically the bailout money is another way of getting around europe's and japan's free health care system.
March 22, 2009 2:48 am
 dom6698 dom6698
I think in Europe there is a feeling that GM took over our factories long ago in order to stop us competing with them, and we think GM, Ford and Chrysler now have a duty to ALL of their employees to ensure they return to profitability and keep people in work. Ford Europe and GME (Opel & SAAB) are still successful companies compared to their American counterparts and I don't see why successful Europeans should be punished for American under investment and bad management.
March 22, 2009 11:43 am
 Joe_Limon Joe_Limon
if opel and saab are still profitable entities, then why are they looking to GM to bail them out?
March 22, 2009 1:42 pm
 Titus2 Titus2
It's simple stupidity to say that the government GIVES money to GM and others. They are not giving, they are LENDING the money! They will give this money back! The only difference from getting a loan from the bank is that they are probably not paying any interests, or how they call them... This whole thing is OK, really! Still, they should come up with some better cars and engines. They should use diesel engines, they have 30% better fuel economy. And even if we are talking about gasoline engines, VW Europe gets 170 HP from a 1.4 liter engine with two turbochargers, not from a 2.5 gas guzler as you do in the USA.
March 22, 2009 2:03 pm
 Joe_Limon Joe_Limon
You don't know what you are saying, that twin turbo'd 1.4 liter still pumps just as much if not more gas then the 2.5 liter. Sure Europe can get plenty of hp out of their small engines, but that comes out of making a potentially fuel efficient engine.
March 22, 2009 3:40 pm
 dom6698 dom6698
To be fair the Japanese are just as bad at this, plus VW only just uprated its 2.5 to 170 hp from 150 in the New Beetle and Jetta. But as ways of getting power goes, the VW group TSI, PSA THP, FIAT group T-JET and Renault TCe engines are far better engines.
March 22, 2009 8:45 pm
 genie genie
Joe, you keep saying that cr*p, but it doesn't become more true the more you say it. The VW 118TSI engine in the Golf uses 6.1L/100km, thats 160hp out of 1.4L, now tell me what car and what N/A engine produces those power figures with that fuel economy (excluding hybrids). Smaller engines are more fuel efficient because once you're up to speed and just require a small amount of power to maintain speed, you can drop the revs right down to minimise boost pressure and hence get the fuel efficiency of a NA 1.4L, then if you require power, you change revs, increase boost and get the power of a larger engine, with the bonus of lots of low down torque. A 2.5L NA engine at cruising speed and power requirements still sucks in more air and hence requires more fuel to be burnt, hence having lower fuel efficiency.
March 22, 2009 6:41 pm
 Joe_Limon Joe_Limon
Fine, the Cobalt can get 5.4 L/100km and get away with 155hp. http://www.auto123.com/en/chevrolet/cobalt-4-dr/2009/specification/ls-xfe?carid=1091201402 [edit] and for an explanation... the larger displacement offers more low end torque so the car can be run at lower speeds then a smaller displacement engine, lower speeds mean that all that size displacement gets negated. And you know what? since it isn't boosted things wear less, and is cheaper to make and fix.
March 22, 2009 8:17 pm
 dom6698 dom6698
Joe, that site also says the average used price for a Cobalt is $51,168.
March 22, 2009 8:48 pm
 Joe_Limon Joe_Limon
Give me epa numbers to compare, there are none on that golf. I am guessing it's a European combined cycle... in which case it would be a lot less... after all the 60mpg jetta got only 40mpg when rated by the epa. [edit] and to be fair to that site, there are a few listings in it's average at $99999
March 22, 2009 9:08 pm
 genie genie
I eagerly await your Audi example, so I can tear that to shreds as well. I just can't be bothered at the moment to look up what exact engine and car you keep using to make your ridiculous point that Euro cars are less fuel efficient than American ones, or that Euro engines focus on size rather than fuel economy.
March 22, 2009 6:45 pm
 Joe_Limon Joe_Limon
and to correct you, euro car's focus on power per liter, not just size.
March 22, 2009 8:35 pm
 radmeister radmeister
Didn't the Audi A4 2.0L TDI get something like 53mpg average on a 2200km test through Switzerland? The US talks a lot of crap and use misleading figures to bait people into buying their junk, like the new F150 oh it get's 29mpg....My A$$ does that thing get 29mpg, maybe when it runs on 3 pistons at 90km/h on the hwy with an empty box and not towing anything. My dad had a 2007 Harley Davidson F-150 and towing a 2100lb transformer/ups station it got 4mpg in the city. I took it out one time to Toronto which is about 61km from where i live, there and back was 1/4 tank of gas which was about 30$ at the time. Thats like 11mpg, it was terrible. My friend in his 2003 TDI golf got on average 58mpg on the hwy, and now with his brand new 2008 gets 61mpg. True he drives like a grandma, but those figures are very impressive. Also joe 5.4 is not that impressive, at 90km/h in 5th gear i was getting 6.3l/100km in my 320whp 9-5 aero, but that changed drastically at speeds above 120km/h, and at 282km/h(fastest i went) i was getting 32L/100km. What i'm getting at is north american vehicles can get those "amazing" figures only in their super controlled testing environment, real life figures are very different. With the TDIs i have to say that their figures are almost EXACTLY what the european combined cycle says. Stop making excuses everybody that knows somebody with a TDI will tell you they get between 1100-1300km/tank on the hwy. I will tell you when we went to Quebec which is about 1100km each way we got there on 1 tank and still had a little bit, on the way back same thing 1 tank. American cars are a joke, i remember calculating the equivalent MPG for the Volt based on cost of electricity to gasoline, and back when gas was 1.10$ it was 57mpg, now when its at 0.84$ it is more like 44mpg which is a joke.
March 23, 2009 7:26 am
 Joe_Limon Joe_Limon
I don't understand how you can be so ignorant. You blatantly compare epa mileages to european cycles, and you give worst case scenario's, and you blindly speak out of your a$$ about how that company did their mileage test. Every time you see a good number from an american car company you foo foo it saying that number was achieved in top gear at 90km/h. You are the most ignorant biased person I know. At least I like foreign and american cars, I may dislike porsche/benz, but those at least that is purely on the opinion base of looks. Not numbers. Get a life radmeister, no, nevermind, get an opinion that doesn't make you sound handicapped.
March 23, 2009 11:11 am
 radmeister radmeister
I think you are the ignorant one, that doesn't want to accept reality and all you do is state OH European cycle is cheating and wrong US cycle is better and more realistic...I'm telling you from experience that the EPA standard is BS and doesn't apply to the real world. I guess Audi lied when they drove across Switzerland with multiple cars and all of them were in the range of 50mpg +-3mpg. I guess EPA is right those cars only get 40mpg right? Audi carefully started at the top of the Alps and coasted down 2200km...I guess the same way i drove 1100km in a downhill vacuum tunnel all the way to Quebec on 1 tank of diesel in a magical 2003 TDI. And when my dad had his F150(big mistake, has a sprinter now) leprechauns siphoned fuel out of my tank in Toronto....But noo the EPA is right the F150 gets 29mpg.
March 23, 2009 11:19 am
 Joe_Limon Joe_Limon
I am stating that you cannot compare the cycles, what is nice with the epa ratings is that they are the worst case scenario. I would much prefer a debate with a single set of numbers such as the epa. Rather then what you so willingly are doing by comparing the epa mileage to the european milage. That and you are right, there are so many factors that effect the economy. The fact that your dad has a fully loaded version of the f150 with the largest engine choice and with a massive load in the back makes your numbers even more useless then the epa ones.
March 23, 2009 1:46 pm
 Pharmc575 Pharmc575
Very nice site!
June 16, 2009 6:10 am