[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by Design1stCode2nd

I’d say the current economy is merely the last straw. I don’t see Honda, Toyota, BMW or any other manufacturer close to filing chapter 11. They are all operating in the same economic situation. They don’t have the baggage that GM has but then who is responsible for that baggage in the first place (rhetorical question obviously).
Reasonable question. Unfair comparison...Honda, BMW are tiny companies compared to GM...and Toyota has the Japanese gov't on their side. What does GM have? A rep, and a bunch of people (seemingly the gov't, too) wishing death upon them.
In addition, it's crazy easy for foreign companies to do business and sell things in this country whereas domestic companies (not just the big 3) are being thrown under the bus....

What has brought GM and the rest of the big 3 to this point is years and years of mismanagement and short sightedness. There were a number of years when gas was cheap and profits huge but we all knew that wouldn’t last forever. Same thing with housing. You just knew that was going to pop and people were going to be in trouble. And here we are.
Agreed.

Allowing GM to continue as it is now without a chapter 11 restructuring is folly. We have an opportunity to remake the North American auto sector where the big 3 can be profitable and have a future. It’s time to hit the reset button and start over.
Does it not phase you that the "destroy" button is wired into the "restart" button? GM going Chapter 11 is not the rosy field it seems to be.

Originally Posted by trm0002

Because GM was losing billions of dollars a quarter BEFORE the economy tanked. "Bailing" them out won't stop the fact that they were already losing money to begin with.

Were they losing that much $$ before gasoline shot up so quickly? It was an outstanding one-two punch. First gas prices doubled in less than a year, essentially killing all their profitable vehicles while they were in the middle of an expensive restructuring. And then the economy tanks while they're not making as much money as they used to, and they get dragged even further down...