General Motors Is Headed For Bankruptcy - Again

This is a great article - especially near the end where it compares the VW leadership's focus on product excellence and details:

Martin Winterkorn has a PhD in Metallurgical Engineering, and he has spent his entire career in the automotive industry. At the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show, Winterkorn was caught on amateur video sitting in, and studying Hyundai’s newly introduced i30, a competitor to VW’s best-selling family car, the Golf. Here is an excerpt from a story about this incident published along with the video by The Truth About Cars, an auto industry blog:

    “(Martin Winterkorn) pulled on the adjuster of the steering column, and heard – nothing. At Volkswagen, there is an audible (“klonk!) feedback whenever the steering column is adjusted.

    Immediately, Klaus Bischoff, head of Volkswagen Brand Design was summoned. He pulled on the adjuster: No sound. “Da scheppert nix,” exclaimed Winterkorn in his heavy Bavarian accent. “There is no rattle!”

Winterkorn was livid: “How did he pull that off?” He, the blasted Korean. “BMW doesn’t know how. We don’t know how.” He, the blasted Korean, must have found out how to battle the dreaded Scheppern.

Tension is high. This could affect careers. Someone quickly explains that there had been a solution, “but it was too expensive.” That gets Winterkorn even more enraged. “Then, why does he know how?” For less money. He, the Korean. There is no answer. Hyundai has beaten Volkswagen at the Scheppern front.

"Dear Mr. Woodhill, I am embarrassed for you writing such an article when GM currently has about $40 billion in cash and liquid assets in the bank and is projected to earn about $4.00 per share next year which comes to another $8 billion profit to add to it. GM currently has enough cash in the bank and liquid assets on hand to buy back ALL of it’s shares at the current market price if it chose to do so. GM’s liabilities per the balance sheet are maybe $15 billion which is very manageable for a company of GM’s size. The shortfall in the pension and benefits is estimated depending on who you check it out with between $15 and $25 billion. GM has well over $100 billion on hand in its pension trust fund and the shortfall is payable over many years into the future. There has just been a law enacted which increases the future interest rate expected on the future returns for pension plans that will significantly decrease the present value of the future obligations and GM has billions in tax deferrals to use up. It doesn’t matter if GM loses some market share as they are downsizing. What matters is how much profit they are making whether they are first in sales or not. A big problem GM had before was that they strove to be #1 regardless of their profit status or the reputation they were sacrificing to remain first in sales. I will be very happy to send you a contribution to enable you to sign up for Security Analysis 101 as it appears you have never taken that course or need a refresher." -- First Comment. This pretty much sums up the article. Bullshit.