While GM is hemoraging money and jobs at a dizzying rate they are persisting in pursuing a "head in the sand" policy. I just noticed the new Hummer marketing campaign in which a dude, embarrassed bringing tofu and other "homo-food" through a grocery counter checkout line while behind him a "real man" is buying racks of ribs and other "man-food", runs directly to buy a hummer to restore his manliness. Then the commercial brags that the H3 gets a whopping 20 miles a gallon...highway! That is the problem with GM, it is run by the same stupid people who elected George Bush the Lesser. Now comes word that hope may be on the way in the form of a
Toyota buy-in which would bring cash, technology and IQ. Details below the fold.
This possibility comes from Business Week Online:
Top executives at Toyota Motor are mulling their own overture to GM to head off rival Nissan from forging an alliance that could help the Japanese-French car company, according to people with knowledge of the Japanese auto maker's plans.
This means that Toyota would have the means, plants and manpower to pump millions of efficient, innovative cars onto America's highways in a couple years. Despite a dedication to streamlining and flexibility in the early nineties Detroit's boardrooms have proven to be as in touch with reality as Paris Hilton. Fuel has been over $2/gallon for a couple years and they're still partying like it's 1999. Have you noticed the marketing push in advance of Saturn's upcoming (kinda) hybrid Greenline Vue? Naw, instead they're watching SUVs rust on the lot despite guaranteed $1.99/gal. gas for a year (gee whiz, hotcakes!!). These numb-nutz need stem cells injected into their brain stems. Terry Schiavo showed more brain activity than GM management and the American auto industry is facing a dried up feeding tube.
Toyota is so smart that they want to save GM, not dissect it:
One Toyota source says the company has "war-gamed" a way to assist GM. Despite Toyota's juggernaut-like growth, which has resulted in the company increasing its U.S. market share from 9.3% in 2000 to 14.6% today and earning in excess of $10 billion a year the past three years, the company fears the kind of social and political backlash that could come if General Motors falls apart.
Unlike Nissan/Renualt, the worlds largest automaker doesn't want to buy a piece of GM but synergize toward mutual benefit:
Given the companies' history, it is possible that Toyota could make GM an offer of expanding joint ventures, and even sharing technology and vehicle development, without buying an equity stake. While other auto makers have merged or struck alliances that involve equity swaps, Toyota has steered clear of such deals. GM, meanwhile, has recently been unwinding several mostly unsuccessful joint ventures it struck with Fiat (FIA ), Suzuki, Isuzu, and Fuji Heavy Industries.
As a person who owns an Envoy and has always bought American cars because I think it's in the countries best interest if not my own, I am crossing my fingers that the worlds best managed auto company can come to the rescue of the world's best positioned auto company to keep a lot of strategic jobs and techology in the USA while bringing CO2 emmissions and oil dependence down. It couldn't hurt.