A price war on small cars in Europe is hammering GM. Stagnating home sales have hammered Peugeot, and they've been selling assets and pulling out of Le Mans to stay afloat.
Sounds like Saab all over again. Buy Peugeot, rebadge a Cruze and then say it was "born on the streets of Paris..." :P
Is Saab officially dead? GM should buy it back if they can get it cheap enough and make Saab's out of Opel's like they were and do the assembly here in the states. :shades:
Forecasters with the benefit of real-time sales data predict that February sales will be up slightly to 1,050,000 units, lifting the Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate (SAAR) to 13.8 million, up 6.4 percent from February 2011. This according to new projections by Kelley Blue Book. GM is predicted as a big loser.
February’s winners are seen as Chrysler, Volkswagen, and Hyundai-Kia, in that order. GM is looking with worried eyes at the report. It predicts a 5.8 percent decrease in sales for GM. In a rising market, this would translate to a hefty 2.4 percent decrease in market share if Kelley is right.
Guess they didn't see the gas price forecast again, right? Or, perhaps they put a huge clamp down on fleets?
If you are looking for deals, look for them amongst the domestics. Dealers of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have more than 80 days’ supply of vehicles available on average. Toyota, Honda and Nissan are slightly up to more than 50 days’ supply. Hyundai and Kia are short of cars with only a 30 days’ supply of vehicles on average. Domestics spent more than $1,000 per unit more on incentives in January compared to their Japanese and Korean counterparts, a trend that will continue in February.
Is Saab officially dead? GM should buy it back if they can get it cheap enough and make Saab's out of Opel's like they were and do the assembly here in the states. :shades:
Well you know what they say about "insanity" (doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result).
I'd say SAAB is currently dead, but it's possible it can be brought back. I read on autoblog (IIRC) that 6 or 7 companies have bids on whats left of SAAB. Rumor is BMW is one of the bidders. Mini was dead for years for example. I'd love to see a BMW owned SAAB. They might actually build a SAAB worth buying.
GM had it's chance with SAAB. Why shut it down only to try to pick up the pieces again? Plus GM already has a mess going on with the European brands it currently has. I don't think the market (or GM) needs another brand built off a European GM platform. Why do you think GM closed SAAB in the first place. Building SAABs from Opel platforms wasn't working. Then building SAABs rebadged from Subarus and Trailblazers was a travesty.
IMO, GM still needs to on its remaining brands. There has been improvement, but still a lot of work remains.
Sabb may not be dead yet. Apparently there is interest coming from BMW... Tho, there has been "interest" from other parties but nothing ever came about then, so...
And to make matters worse, companies like G.E. just do some creative accounting (basically money laundering between countries, in essence) and claim that they made no profit (in the U.S.). They did this last year and dodged a several hundred million dollar tax bill.
Even if GM had to pay tax, they'd have a dozen ways by now to avoid paying it at all. And that's what's really bankrupting our nation. The companies that make billions in profits don't pay anything back in the end regardless of what the actual tax code says. The sad fact is that U.S. corporations by and large don't even end up paying money on their profits.
One last fact - we have the lowest actual corporate taxes in the entire world.
Giving our corporations a free ride on top of that is just insanity. GM made a profit and should start to give us taxpayers back some of the money that we gave them.
Yes, it says we're at 38%. On paper. But that link to debtclock.org that I posted shows that the actual amount collected is 8%.
True, same can be said of personal tax rates. On paper they are as high as 35% but the average effective rate is under 10%. I've finished my taxes and we're at 13%. According to the tax policy center the average effective individual federal tax rate (2007 is the most current year I could find quickly) was 9.3%. I bet is lower than that currently.
As for GE, yes they use every tool at their disposal and they were able to get a ton of green energy tax credits too.
I hate to hear from friends that have worked with GM engineers that told me how much time and effort went into making their cars fail just after warranty expired.
I have no doubt that in my experience (with Chrysler in my case from the 90's), that at LEAST 75% of the problems and failures I had were intentional, purposeful, planned, and engineered that way. They were known issues that would occur as expected and designed by the "planned obsolescence" geniuses at the Big 3. The plan was to have the car completely fall apart between miles 36,000 aand 65,000. Between years 3 and 6. No part would be purchased that could last a long durable time.
'18 Porsche Macan Turbo, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
Corporations pay 8% and I think my effective rate was something like 15%.
Let's not go overboard in painting a picture that we are tax-free in this society. The last I knew our "tax-freedom" day was still sometime in May; we work to that point to pay all our taxes. I know most of us have social security and medicare taxes, state, maybe county, and even city income taxes, property taxes, gas taxes, electricity and cable taxes, plus sales taxes. And most of those taxes are levied on our after-federal-tax income.
Today I just had the pleasure of paying my annual tax to the city, a property tax on my 2005 and 2007 vehicles - to the tune of $195. That then allows me to go to the DMV to pay them $43.50 per vehicle to register the vehicles, which then allows me to get my vehicle inspections (about $60 total) there. Whether you call them "taxes or fees" they're all required and hurt, so it doesn't matter how they're defined.
To whomever mentioned that $5/gal gas is going to help the Volt ... well that is true. But what does that do to PU and SUV sales? How many Volts are made compared to Silverados? If gas were to some reason stay above $5/gal on average around the nation, we'll be looking at another round of auto bailouts.
Corporations pay 8% and I think my effective rate was something like 15%. Those are some lucky "people"...
I wonder if the gov't might actually collect more in revenues if they did go ahead and eliminate corporate taxes altogether, but have some kind of stipulation that the money be paid out in dividends? Any dividends I get are taxed at 15% if they're qualified, and 25% if they're not.
Well, 25% or even 15% is a lot more than 8%. Might be more profitable for the gov't to not take the taxes at the corporate level, but instead, get it from the investors who get the dividends? I'm sure I'm over-simplifying it a bit and missing something, though.
I don't think anyone was painting that picture. We have a lower ROI for our tax expenses than most developed world residents IMO, as so much of what we lose either leaves the country or goes into corrupt pockets. We pay relatively less but have a lot less to show for it.
$5 as a nationwide average for regular will result in pains far greater than the end of 2008. It would unravel consumer spending, which is the backbone of the economy.
The investors who receive the most, the top very few, would just find a way to dodge it, as they do with the current taxes.
I have no problem with the idea of cutting corporate taxes, so long as it involves an ideal of shared sacrifice in personal tax policy, and is also coupled to an end of our policeman ideal which sucks down so much tax money to begin with.
My Malibu will be 2 years old next week and it will turn 12,100 miles tomorrow. That averages out to using 4 gallons a week in it. 4 gallons a week isn't much to chase if I were to chase higher efficiency. Even a Prius would only net a little over one gallon a week of savings when compared.
But I'm still glad that the news shifted the conversation to how gas has doubled in price since Obama took office. I'll be watching to see if this run-up is planned by Obama. If he can bring us to $4.50 gas and then back to $3.25, he will be a hero, even though gas will still be up 85% from Jan 2009. Kinda like the 75% off sales when they mark the list price up 65% the night before.
Congratulations on the 2 year anniversary. Hard to believe it's been that long already. It doesn't seem that long ago that you got that Malibu. Unless I'm thinking of Uplanderguy...I know he bought a Malibu fairly recently.
Oh, and if you're only using 4 gallons per week, you might as well just drive that Malibu until it wears out. At that rate, to get better efficiency you'd be spending dollars to chase mere pennies!
However, I don't think you should use January 2009 as a baseline for fuel prices. I remember filling up for as low as $1.49 per gallon in December, but that was an artificial low. I paid $4+ per gallon back over the summer of 2008. Prior to that, I think the last time I saw gas for around $1.49 per gallon might have been early 2002. Maybe for a brief moment in late '02/early '03.
True, same can be said of personal tax rates. On paper they are as high as 35% but the average effective rate is under 10%. I've finished my taxes and we're at 13%. According to the tax policy center the average effective individual federal tax rate (2007 is the most current year I could find quickly) was 9.3%. I bet is lower than that currently.
That tax rate, though, at debtclock.org takes into all of the secondary taxes and fees, plus payroll and social security taxes. The problem is that the vast minority of the money in the U.S. is held by those that are paying 92% of the actual bill. We're being squeezed like peasants while the rich make off with money.
Oh, and I want one question to be asked to our leaders in the upcoming debates:
"It is a fact at this point that large multinational corporations and small business are diametrically opposed to each other. Given that you can only chose one of the two, which side do you support in your policies?"
Nobody asks the hard questions. It's such a disappointment to hear about blather about who hates Obama the most, when that's not even a factor.
That tax rate, though, at debtclock.org takes into all of the secondary taxes and fees, plus payroll and social security taxes.
One thing to consider is corporations pay half of the payroll tax since they are responsible for making social security and medicare taxes equal to employees. Currently corporations contribute more to payroll taxes as they pay 6.2% into Social Security vs 4.2% for individuals.
>Let's not go overboard in painting a picture that we are tax-free in this society. The last I knew our "tax-freedom" day was still sometime in May; we work to that point to pay all our taxes.
Yes. The problem with talking taxes is some are talking federal income tax only and even then only about the total effective rate rather than the marginal rate. And there's the problem of all those other taxes we all pay, from property to sales tax, auto taxes, gas tax, tax for no gas, utility taxes, etc.
Volkswagen’s record sales put it behind General Motors’ 9.03 million vehicles in the No.2 spot worldwide, ahead of Toyota Motor, which was hamstrung by the earthquake and tsunami disaster last March. But VW’s net profit was almost triple the $7.6 billion G.M. earned last year .
At $5/gal., let's see who's REALLY number one. I think Volt-svagen sales could grow even stronger!
While most automobile assembly plants are idled in mid-December to allow workers an extended holiday break, production typically resumes in late December or early January. The Hamtramck, Michigan-built Chevrolet Volt took off the entire month of January as well as the first week of February, according to the Detroit News.
Just why production of the Volt was paused for such a long period is unknown. A federal investigation into the extended-range EV’s batteries resulted in a few structural changes to the vehicle which would have forced some minor retooling at the assembly plant. In addition, a new Low Emissions Packaged aimed at qualifying so-equipped Volts for California’s high occupancy vehicle lanes was confirmed yesterday, and it is possible that its implementation could have also been responsible for a few delays.
Chevrolet is also likely realigning Volt production with demand. Last year, the automaker missed its national sales target of 10,000 Volts sold by more than 2,000 units, and it has swept its 45,000-unit 2012 target under the table.
Since gas prices are cyclical, I'll compare today's prices to those of 1 yr ago. They were $3.15 a year ago. That puts them up by over 15%. $3.67 today. Did we really think we could make BP pay $20 billion into a cleanup fund and it not come back to the consumer? Did we really think no permit issuing was a good idea? Keystone XL? Bills that are up under Obama: gas doubled since inaug day electricity 11% per year cable tv, phone, internet 8.5% per year property taxes 20-30% college 8% per year medical expenses and premiums 8% per year food 5.3% in last year
The warm winter should have really drove down prices.
Gas topped $4 per gallon for such a short time in the summer of 2008 that I never actually paid over $3.88 that year. I could go a couple weeks between purchases because I had 5 vehicles. By Nov, 2008, I was paying $2.10 to come home from Fla.
There are people out there that actually think that higher fuel efficiency will lower the cost of gas at the pump.
A new Volt owner in my neighborhood. At least 3 Cruzes. A new Regal.
Sounds like VW makes way more profit per vehicle than GM. Where does that profit go? shareholders. Where did GM's profit go? The unrealized profit that is.....to customers and employees. What a terrible idea.
Just saw the new Beetle featured today on tv show. $24000 list price for the one they were testing on the show. Cruze is much less.
Blame this dirty little SOB for our current troubles! This pipsqueak has wrought a lot of havoc with his saber rattling and big mouth despite the fact we import no oil from Iran. Let him sell it all to the Chinese for all I care.
Looks profits will "Run Deep" into trouble in February!
Edmunds agrees with Kelley that GM will get it on the chin, and predicts even more hurt: Unadjusted for sales days, Edmunds foresees a 5 percent decrease in GM sales. Ford (+18%) and Chrysler (+32.5%) are doing much better on the Edmunds spreadsheet than predicted by Kelley.
If Edmunds’ predictions pan out, then GM will suffer a huge hit to their year-over-year market share, dropping almost three percentage points from February of last year. According to Edmunds, “GM’s year-over-year decline is a direct result of its aggressive incentives push that pumped up sales in early 2011.”
Pretty much all of that lost market share will be snapped-up by the cross-town rivals. Edmunds has Ford gaining 1.1 percent in share, and Chrysler a very respectable 1.9 percent.
You see, at the end of the day, "At GM, the results don't change, only the excuses."
Old GM is alive and well...minus the debt, of course, thanks to the bailout!
I have no doubt that in my experience (with Chrysler in my case from the 90's), that at LEAST 75% of the problems and failures I had were intentional, purposeful, planned, and engineered that way. They were known issues that would occur as expected and designed by the "planned obsolescence" geniuses at the Big 3. The plan was to have the car completely fall apart between miles 36,000 aand 65,000. Between years 3 and 6. No part would be purchased that could last a long durable time.
This runs counter to how many of those cars I still see being driven daily here in salty northeast OH.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
It most certainly runs counterpoint to the excellent 1985 Chrysler Fifth Avenue I had back in the day. I sold it to my brother in 1993 and he's STILL driving it with north of 250K+ miles on it! Memories of the one Mopar product I had make me want to get a new red 300-C in the future.
I would say that planning for failures in GM cars ended in the early 90's. I was told to design my part to last 150,000 miles under the most severe use. That was 1995 and GM was setting a new profit record that year.
They were already down to under 30% market share. Gas was about to drop from $1.25 to 89 cents over the next 3 years. They were planning for an army of commuters that wanted 21 mpg FWD pickup trucks.
Now we have 21and 22 mpg RWD pickup trucks and we have discovered 100 years worth of oil and gas in the US.
I tend to agree and the best proof may be the average age of today's fleet - over 10 years.
Remember when cars were worth nothing after just a couple of years?
Now we're driving cars that are over a decade old (on average).
RL Polk usually tells us the makes with the highest % of cars still on the road, wouldn't it be interesting to see the ones with the lowest? Wonder if they publish that...
Back in the early 60s my dad was the king of the $150 car. Many hideous examples but one I remember was a 58 Pontiac wagon that was no more than five years old when he bought it and was totally spent. The paint was faded and it needed something replaced constantly. It also had an amazing sudden acelration incident that newarly left you without yours truly.
2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
"GM said it has "talks continuously with all sorts of parties," while declining to acknowledge that specific alliance talks with Peugeot are taking place. In its last conference call for reporters and financial analysts, GM executives said the automaker remains committed to returning Europe to profitability and that the subsidiary isn't for sale. Meanwhile, Peugeot chairman Phillippe Varin estimates Europe's overcapacity at about 3 million vehicles. Peugeot and Opel together sell about that number, meaning that the industry might be better off if the two companies simply shut their doors, or if they found Chinese partners eager to try their hand abroad. Since those two options are unlikely, the two auto makers will first try to contradict a time-worn adage of Wall Street: two rocks tied together are unlikely to float."
Maybe starting Saab up again isn't such a bad idea! LOL.
Peugeot and Opel together sell about that number, meaning that the industry might be better off if the two companies simply shut their doors, or if they found Chinese partners eager to try their hand abroad.
So, essentially, they got rid of one Saab, still have another and are now going about acquiring another? Your tax dollars at work... :sick:
Can hardly wait for French flavored Sonics...
2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
I'm sure there will be lots of bitchin' about taxpayer money and a foreign investment. However, my main concern is whether this makes technical and financial sense. I don't know a lot about Peugeot, and still can't figure out what Renault really brought Nissan other than some added European distribution. I think Peugeot also owns Citroen and they have some clever, if overcomplicated ideas at times. Maybe Peugeot has lower cost eastern European manufacturing facilities? Technically, Opel is already providing US GM engineering and product base for many of the newer US products. Financially, France is more screwed up than Germany. Maybe Peugeot has stronger market penetration in southern Europe, but that's where most of the PIIGS financial problems are in Europe right now? Any ideas or insight out there???
Nissan got Carlos "le cost cutter" Ghosn's leadership out of the Renault deal. First thing he did was pull them out of California and relocate them to an area with a much lower cost of living (TN).
GM is still offering an average of $3,000 in incentives per vehicle sold.
These include cash back rebates as high as $4,500 on several models including the Chevrolet Silverado 1500, GMC Sierra, Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Impala, and Buick Lucerne.
GM's full-size pickup trucks have been slow-sellers recently, so they're offering cash back rebates as high as $6,000 on the leftover Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.
On the financing side, GM is offering 0% to 3.9% financing on nearly every model.
There are also some incredible hidden dealer incentives on some leftover GM vehicles, such as $10,000 for the leftover 2011 Cadillac DTS and STS models, and up to $8,000 on the 2010 Cadillac Escalade.
Analysts are expecting an incentives war to heat up during the first quarter of 2012 and we're expecting GM to be a part of that.
GM has been selling cars at a brisk pace recently, with the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain being the hottest sellers.
Deals on those particular vehicles will be hard to come by this January since demand is still high.
However, GM has cut back production on the Chevrolet Cruze after inventory started piling up at dealerships - be on the lookout for good deals on this compact vehicle.
GM is by far the most generous American maker when it comes to incentives. In January 2012, GM’s Total Cost of Incentives (as calculated by Edmunds) was $3,171 per unit. Ford spent $2,788, Chrysler $2,447. The industry average stood at $2,141. In January 2012, only BMW put ($28) more on the hood of its much pricier cars than GM. GM out-spent Mercedes Benz which had been in a bitter fight with BMW for the luxury sales crown last year, and spent $3,107 in January.
He went to the show and the White House even told car makers he was coming, but he totally dissed the imports. Apparently Mercedes-Benz went through quite an effort to get a hydrogen car here and Obama didn't even visit the lower level where they were located.
Glad I only had to pay taxes and not buy a GM product to support the French...
The two companies would share engineering and development costs and GM, which filed for bankruptcy during the economic downturn, would provide cash to help Peugeot slash its debt by selling assets, Dow Jones reported.
Comments
Sounds like Saab all over again. Buy Peugeot, rebadge a Cruze and then say it was "born on the streets of Paris..." :P
-Rocky
February’s winners are seen as Chrysler, Volkswagen, and Hyundai-Kia, in that order. GM is looking with worried eyes at the report. It predicts a 5.8 percent decrease in sales for GM. In a rising market, this would translate to a hefty 2.4 percent decrease in market share if Kelley is right.
Guess they didn't see the gas price forecast again, right? Or, perhaps they put a huge clamp down on fleets?
If you are looking for deals, look for them amongst the domestics. Dealers of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have more than 80 days’ supply of vehicles available on average. Toyota, Honda and Nissan are slightly up to more than 50 days’ supply. Hyundai and Kia are short of cars with only a 30 days’ supply of vehicles on average. Domestics spent more than $1,000 per unit more on incentives in January compared to their Japanese and Korean counterparts, a trend that will continue in February.
Looks like they've got inventory under control!
Regards,
OW
Well you know what they say about "insanity" (doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result).
I'd say SAAB is currently dead, but it's possible it can be brought back. I read on autoblog (IIRC) that 6 or 7 companies have bids on whats left of SAAB. Rumor is BMW is one of the bidders. Mini was dead for years for example. I'd love to see a BMW owned SAAB. They might actually build a SAAB worth buying.
GM had it's chance with SAAB. Why shut it down only to try to pick up the pieces again? Plus GM already has a mess going on with the European brands it currently has. I don't think the market (or GM) needs another brand built off a European GM platform. Why do you think GM closed SAAB in the first place. Building SAABs from Opel platforms wasn't working. Then building SAABs rebadged from Subarus and Trailblazers was a travesty.
IMO, GM still needs to on its remaining brands. There has been improvement, but still a lot of work remains.
link title
I for one would like to see Saab survive, but if they remain under GM's thumb in doing so then let them die.
I doubt it'll go that high, but this price creep will surely help the Volt, not to mention other EVs and hybrids too.
Even if GM had to pay tax, they'd have a dozen ways by now to avoid paying it at all. And that's what's really bankrupting our nation. The companies that make billions in profits don't pay anything back in the end regardless of what the actual tax code says. The sad fact is that U.S. corporations by and large don't even end up paying money on their profits.
One last fact - we have the lowest actual corporate taxes in the entire world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_around_the_world
Yes, it says we're at 38%. On paper. But that link to debtclock.org that I posted shows that the actual amount collected is 8%.
Giving our corporations a free ride on top of that is just insanity. GM made a profit and should start to give us taxpayers back some of the money that we gave them.
True, same can be said of personal tax rates. On paper they are as high as 35% but the average effective rate is under 10%. I've finished my taxes and we're at 13%. According to the tax policy center the average effective individual federal tax rate (2007 is the most current year I could find quickly) was 9.3%. I bet is lower than that currently.
As for GE, yes they use every tool at their disposal and they were able to get a ton of green energy tax credits too.
I have no doubt that in my experience (with Chrysler in my case from the 90's), that at LEAST 75% of the problems and failures I had were intentional, purposeful, planned, and engineered that way. They were known issues that would occur as expected and designed by the "planned obsolescence" geniuses at the Big 3. The plan was to have the car completely fall apart between miles 36,000 aand 65,000. Between years 3 and 6. No part would be purchased that could last a long durable time.
Corporations pay 8% and I think my effective rate was something like 15%. Those are some lucky "people"...
Let's not go overboard in painting a picture that we are tax-free in this society. The last I knew our "tax-freedom" day was still sometime in May; we work to that point to pay all our taxes. I know most of us have social security and medicare taxes, state, maybe county, and even city income taxes, property taxes, gas taxes, electricity and cable taxes, plus sales taxes. And most of those taxes are levied on our after-federal-tax income.
Today I just had the pleasure of paying my annual tax to the city, a property tax on my 2005 and 2007 vehicles - to the tune of $195. That then allows me to go to the DMV to pay them $43.50 per vehicle to register the vehicles, which then allows me to get my vehicle inspections (about $60 total) there. Whether you call them "taxes or fees" they're all required and hurt, so it doesn't matter how they're defined.
To whomever mentioned that $5/gal gas is going to help the Volt ... well that is true. But what does that do to PU and SUV sales? How many Volts are made compared to Silverados? If gas were to some reason stay above $5/gal on average around the nation, we'll be looking at another round of auto bailouts.
I wonder if the gov't might actually collect more in revenues if they did go ahead and eliminate corporate taxes altogether, but have some kind of stipulation that the money be paid out in dividends? Any dividends I get are taxed at 15% if they're qualified, and 25% if they're not.
Well, 25% or even 15% is a lot more than 8%. Might be more profitable for the gov't to not take the taxes at the corporate level, but instead, get it from the investors who get the dividends? I'm sure I'm over-simplifying it a bit and missing something, though.
$5 as a nationwide average for regular will result in pains far greater than the end of 2008. It would unravel consumer spending, which is the backbone of the economy.
I have no problem with the idea of cutting corporate taxes, so long as it involves an ideal of shared sacrifice in personal tax policy, and is also coupled to an end of our policeman ideal which sucks down so much tax money to begin with.
But I'm still glad that the news shifted the conversation to how gas has doubled in price since Obama took office. I'll be watching to see if this run-up is planned by Obama. If he can bring us to $4.50 gas and then back to $3.25, he will be a hero, even though gas will still be up 85% from Jan 2009. Kinda like the 75% off sales when they mark the list price up 65% the night before.
Oh, and if you're only using 4 gallons per week, you might as well just drive that Malibu until it wears out. At that rate, to get better efficiency you'd be spending dollars to chase mere pennies!
However, I don't think you should use January 2009 as a baseline for fuel prices. I remember filling up for as low as $1.49 per gallon in December, but that was an artificial low. I paid $4+ per gallon back over the summer of 2008. Prior to that, I think the last time I saw gas for around $1.49 per gallon might have been early 2002. Maybe for a brief moment in late '02/early '03.
That tax rate, though, at debtclock.org takes into all of the secondary taxes and fees, plus payroll and social security taxes. The problem is that the vast minority of the money in the U.S. is held by those that are paying 92% of the actual bill. We're being squeezed like peasants while the rich make off with money.
Oh, and I want one question to be asked to our leaders in the upcoming debates:
"It is a fact at this point that large multinational corporations and small business are diametrically opposed to each other. Given that you can only chose one of the two, which side do you support in your policies?"
Nobody asks the hard questions. It's such a disappointment to hear about blather about who hates Obama the most, when that's not even a factor.
One thing to consider is corporations pay half of the payroll tax since they are responsible for making social security and medicare taxes equal to employees. Currently corporations contribute more to payroll taxes as they pay 6.2% into Social Security vs 4.2% for individuals.
So 7.65% needs to be added.
Yes. The problem with talking taxes is some are talking federal income tax only and even then only about the total effective rate rather than the marginal rate. And there's the problem of all those other taxes we all pay, from property to sales tax, auto taxes, gas tax, tax for no gas, utility taxes, etc.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Well SOMEBODY has to cover all of those union pensions and bailouts.
I'll let you know next week! I'll wager the PU sales tanks in the next 3 months driving up inventory for a nice incentive war.
Regards,
OW
At $5/gal., let's see who's REALLY number one. I think Volt-svagen sales could grow even stronger!
While most automobile assembly plants are idled in mid-December to allow workers an extended holiday break, production typically resumes in late December or early January. The Hamtramck, Michigan-built Chevrolet Volt took off the entire month of January as well as the first week of February, according to the Detroit News.
Just why production of the Volt was paused for such a long period is unknown. A federal investigation into the extended-range EV’s batteries resulted in a few structural changes to the vehicle which would have forced some minor retooling at the assembly plant. In addition, a new Low Emissions Packaged aimed at qualifying so-equipped Volts for California’s high occupancy vehicle lanes was confirmed yesterday, and it is possible that its implementation could have also been responsible for a few delays.
Chevrolet is also likely realigning Volt production with demand. Last year, the automaker missed its national sales target of 10,000 Volts sold by more than 2,000 units, and it has swept its 45,000-unit 2012 target under the table.
Regards,
OW
Bills that are up under Obama:
gas doubled since inaug day
electricity 11% per year
cable tv, phone, internet 8.5% per year
property taxes 20-30%
college 8% per year
medical expenses and premiums 8% per year
food 5.3% in last year
The warm winter should have really drove down prices.
Gas topped $4 per gallon for such a short time in the summer of 2008 that I never actually paid over $3.88 that year. I could go a couple weeks between purchases because I had 5 vehicles. By Nov, 2008, I was paying $2.10 to come home from Fla.
There are people out there that actually think that higher fuel efficiency will lower the cost of gas at the pump.
Sounds like VW makes way more profit per vehicle than GM. Where does that profit go? shareholders. Where did GM's profit go? The unrealized profit that is.....to customers and employees. What a terrible idea.
Just saw the new Beetle featured today on tv show. $24000 list price for the one they were testing on the show. Cruze is much less.
Looks profits will "Run Deep" into trouble in February!
Edmunds agrees with Kelley that GM will get it on the chin, and predicts even more hurt: Unadjusted for sales days, Edmunds foresees a 5 percent decrease in GM sales. Ford (+18%) and Chrysler (+32.5%) are doing much better on the Edmunds spreadsheet than predicted by Kelley.
If Edmunds’ predictions pan out, then GM will suffer a huge hit to their year-over-year market share, dropping almost three percentage points from February of last year. According to Edmunds, “GM’s year-over-year decline is a direct result of its aggressive incentives push that pumped up sales in early 2011.”
Pretty much all of that lost market share will be snapped-up by the cross-town rivals. Edmunds has Ford gaining 1.1 percent in share, and Chrysler a very respectable 1.9 percent.
You see, at the end of the day, "At GM, the results don't change, only the excuses."
Old GM is alive and well...minus the debt, of course, thanks to the bailout!
Regards,
OW
This runs counter to how many of those cars I still see being driven daily here in salty northeast OH.
I was told to design my part to last 150,000 miles under the most severe use. That was 1995 and GM was setting a new profit record that year.
They were already down to under 30% market share. Gas was about to drop from $1.25 to 89 cents over the next 3 years. They were planning for an army of commuters that wanted 21 mpg FWD pickup trucks.
Now we have 21and 22 mpg RWD pickup trucks and we have discovered 100 years worth of oil and gas in the US.
Remember when cars were worth nothing after just a couple of years?
Now we're driving cars that are over a decade old (on average).
RL Polk usually tells us the makes with the highest % of cars still on the road, wouldn't it be interesting to see the ones with the lowest? Wonder if they publish that...
http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/27/general-motors-last-tango-in-pa- ris/?source=cnn_bin
"GM said it has "talks continuously with all sorts of parties," while declining to acknowledge that specific alliance talks with Peugeot are taking place. In its last conference call for reporters and financial analysts, GM executives said the automaker remains committed to returning Europe to profitability and that the subsidiary isn't for sale. Meanwhile, Peugeot chairman Phillippe Varin estimates Europe's overcapacity at about 3 million vehicles. Peugeot and Opel together sell about that number, meaning that the industry might be better off if the two companies simply shut their doors, or if they found Chinese partners eager to try their hand abroad. Since those two options are unlikely, the two auto makers will first try to contradict a time-worn adage of Wall Street: two rocks tied together are unlikely to float."
Maybe starting Saab up again isn't such a bad idea! LOL.
So, essentially, they got rid of one Saab, still have another and are now going about acquiring another? Your tax dollars at work... :sick:
Can hardly wait for French flavored Sonics...
Jury is still out. Imagine if Akerson (and Jeremy Anwyl) got his wish to add $1.00/gallon gas tax? :sick:
Where do these guys live? In electric La-La Land?? :lemon:
Now that they got rid of Slob, they want to merge with Pew-jot? Ridiculous!
Regards,
OW
-Rocky
I have heard European guys pronounce it as Pooh-jho. Same guys say Rhen-Oh for Renault.
Nissan got Carlos "le cost cutter" Ghosn's leadership out of the Renault deal. First thing he did was pull them out of California and relocate them to an area with a much lower cost of living (TN).
GM won't get anything.
Didn't they get enough already? JK!
Regards,
OW
GM is still offering an average of $3,000 in incentives per vehicle sold.
These include cash back rebates as high as $4,500 on several models including the Chevrolet Silverado 1500, GMC Sierra, Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Impala, and Buick Lucerne.
GM's full-size pickup trucks have been slow-sellers recently, so they're offering cash back rebates as high as $6,000 on the leftover Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.
On the financing side, GM is offering 0% to 3.9% financing on nearly every model.
There are also some incredible hidden dealer incentives on some leftover GM vehicles, such as $10,000 for the leftover 2011 Cadillac DTS and STS models, and up to $8,000 on the 2010 Cadillac Escalade.
Analysts are expecting an incentives war to heat up during the first quarter of 2012 and we're expecting GM to be a part of that.
GM has been selling cars at a brisk pace recently, with the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain being the hottest sellers.
Deals on those particular vehicles will be hard to come by this January since demand is still high.
However, GM has cut back production on the Chevrolet Cruze after inventory started piling up at dealerships - be on the lookout for good deals on this compact vehicle.
Regards,
OW
GM is by far the most generous American maker when it comes to incentives. In January 2012, GM’s Total Cost of Incentives (as calculated by Edmunds) was $3,171 per unit. Ford spent $2,788, Chrysler $2,447. The industry average stood at $2,141. In January 2012, only BMW put ($28) more on the hood of its much pricier cars than GM. GM out-spent Mercedes Benz which had been in a bitter fight with BMW for the luxury sales crown last year, and spent $3,107 in January.
Regards,
OW
http://www.autoblog.com/2012/02/27/ed-welburn-finds-a-fan-in-president-obama/
He went to the show and the White House even told car makers he was coming, but he totally dissed the imports. Apparently Mercedes-Benz went through quite an effort to get a hydrogen car here and Obama didn't even visit the lower level where they were located.
Ouch.
The two companies would share engineering and development costs and GM, which filed for bankruptcy during the economic downturn, would provide cash to help Peugeot slash its debt by selling assets, Dow Jones reported.
Regards,
OW