General Motors Reports $1.1 Billion First-Quarter Loss

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBN96Q4Q7E.html

DETROIT (AP) - General Motors Corp., the world's largest automaker, said Tuesday it lost $1.1 billion in the first quarter, clobbered by rising health care costs, lukewarm response to some new models and special charges. The loss at its worldwide automotive operations more than doubled to $1.3 billion, most of it in North America.
It was GM's steepest quarterly deficit since the first quarter of 1992, when it reported a $21 billion loss primarily because of changes in accounting procedures for retiree health care costs.

The January-March result amounted to a loss of $1.95 per share, compared with earnings of $1.3 billion, or $2.25 a share, in the year-ago quarter, when the company benefited handsomely from its finance arm and improved business in Asia.

GM said its revenue fell 4.3 percent to $45.8 billion from $47.8 billion a year ago.

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[NewJeffCT]

1. I bet GM would support universal health care...

Isn't that the main reason they make more cars in Canada than in the US - they don't have to pay for health care in Canada?

[NNN0LHI]

2. Be nice if they supported higher CAFE standards n/t

[Roland99]

3. General Motors loses $1.1B

CEO cites health-care costs, 'disappointing' U.S. sales

http://quotes.freerealtime.com/dl/frt/N?tmn_id={17C2588F-1518-4369-BDC7-5912DA5217FC}

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - General Motors Corp. said Tuesday that it lost slightly less money in the first quarter than analysts had expected as the world's biggest automaker, undergoing a multimillion dollar restructuring, swung to a loss of more than $1 billion.

Shares of the Dow component (GM), which have hovered around 12-year lows, fell 52 cents, or 2%, to $25.68 in early trade.

GM's net loss was $1.1 billion, or $1.95 a share, including $265 million, or 47 cents a share, of special charges for restructuring in Europe and cutting salaried positions in the U.S.

Its adjusted loss came in at $839 million, or $1.48 a share, compared with a profit of $1.2 billion, or $2.12 a share, a year ago. The results matched its earlier outlook and were a penny better than the average analyst forecast of a $1.49 a share loss from Thomson First Call.

[bushisanidiot]

4. Could it be that americans' credit cards are maxed out and they

aren't allowed to file bankruptcy anymore no matter the circumstances?

hmm.. that would sure cause sales to go through the roof.

nice job, president DUMBASS!!

[indepat]

5. A get-'um-on-the-streets and we'll-fix-'um-later corporate mentality

has borne its fruit when considering GM stock is about where it was in the late 1960s when I heard a GM official make this remark.

[Sven77]

6. subsidized by taxes

how many years did the govt give handouts to develope renewable energy cars. GM had an electric car model and stopped producing after a limited run. the people want hybrids and all GM can come up with is suburbans. I cant wait for Toyota to be #1, they already surpassed Chrysler/Dodge. How many people died before Ford/Firestone admitted there was a problem with their SUV's.

[kysrsoze]

7. Actually, what most people want are reasonable sized sports sedans

It's all about cars that have higher horsepower (Accord, Altima, Maxima, Mazda 6, 300, etc.), but at least those cars don't weigh in at 6,000 lbs. Look at what Chrysler is selling. Its hottest car is a big ol' blingmobile. Of course, even the 300C hemi v8 has new technology - displacement on demand. The Prius is getting press but isn't a huge seller. That will likely change over time though as gas gets more expensive. It appears people want good gas mileage AND higher horsepower, so I'm betting the Accord hybrid and the Lexus hybrids will be very popular.

The biggest problem Ford and GM have is lack of innovation. They thought huge truck profits were going to last forever, so instead of building cars people want, they ended up building big behemoths that people no longer want. They don't know how to analyze and follow the market. That's their biggest single problem. Ford builds the Thunderbird, which should have been a hit but it was so expensive, previous T-Bird owners couldn't afford it. Same with the Chevy SSR. Of course, the Chrysler PT Cruiser has been a huge car b/c people can afford it.

Ford and GM completely suck.

[Nostradammit]

10. "The Prius is getting press but isn't a huge seller"

Uh, given that a used Prius is selling for the same price as a new one, and you have to wait a year to get a new one I don't know that this is true.

But Ford and GM do completely suck.

[Nederland]

15. Prius Sales

The Toyota Division recorded best-ever year-end passenger-car sales of 965,091, an increase of 10.7 percent, and December sales of 82,210, up 33.1 percent. Camry led the way by posting year-end sales of 426,990, an increase of 3.0 percent. December sales for Camry reached 35,032 units, up 13.1 percent over last year. Corolla was the best-selling compact car in America with best-ever year-end sales of 333,161, an increase of 2.0 percent. December sales for Corolla were 26,408 units, up 29.0 over 2003.

The second-generation Prius gas-electric hybrid posted its best sales month ever with 6,287 units, an increase of 50.4 percent over the same period last year. Year-end Prius sales were a best-ever 53,991, up 118.5 percent over 2003.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/01/04/313808.html


To sum up:

Prius sales in 2004: 53,991
Camry sales in 2004: 426,990

So I wouldn't call it a huge seller, but I suppose it depends on how you define the term. It certainly is a "hot" car with excellent profit margins for the company, which is why everybody and the brother is jumping into the hybrid market. They want a piece of the action...

[kysrsoze]

17. Agree - it is popular and profitable, but not a huge seller - yet

[customerserviceguy]

13. GM got its last money from me in 1982

when I bought a Pontiac in the middle of a recession. Then, when the heater core started leaking radiator fluid on the front passenger's carpet, only a year and a half later, they told me it was my own tough shit. Other breakdowns, and other "tough shit" stories, and I was through with them for good.

I guess enough people have been eating their tough shit for enough years now, that its hurting sales. Good.

[no_to_war_economy]

8. but but but their SUVs are so cool looking

MSRP starts at $70,675 / gosh I will take two!

[KittyWampus]

9. Holy Gas-Guzzling Hummers, Batman! That's A Lot Of Loot!

[Robert Oak]

11. oh outsourcing it increases profits & reduces costs, NOT!

[underthedome]

12. New Solstice and the Saturn Sky a step in the right direction

hopefully it's part of a wider turn around

[entanglement]

14. Toyota is kicking GMs ass big time n/t

[The_Casual_Observer]

16. I hope they go out of business and do the Earth a favor.

[underthedome]

18. We'll that's just dumb and against American workers

If a demand for SUV's is there I rather have Americans building them.

[tabasco]

19. How is GM going to blame this on the unions?

After cranking out unreliable, gaz-guzzling garbage for years, GM can kiss my ass. I used to be a "buy American" type of guy, but not anymore, thanks to the greed and short-sightedness of American auto companies.

The stupid management is responsible for this but they will blame the "greedy unions." Freepers will believe it, the dumbasses.

[cosmicdot]

20. come on GM and help push national healthcare

GM wanted to control medical care ... all its peers did it ... what a neat way to have control and knowledge of one's employees and their privacy: what MDs they see, what Rx they take, determining what medical treatment one can or cannot have; if the costs would be covered or not, or 80% or less or not at all

... that's power ...

now, it wants to blame its problems on something involving its employees/people


Now seems like a good time to capitalize on the situation to, hopefully, everyone's advantage and needs ...

National healthcare advocates as a team should be lobbying GM to get behind the effort. GM helped to create the mess; it should help fix it ... at the same time, though, by helping to enable a positive step, GM will be helped, too. Our loss that we currently don't have a White House interested in such an opportunity.


"Less than a decade ago...your medical needs from birth to death rested in the hands of a doctor, whom you chose. Quicker than a hog eats supper...America's health-care system--including your personal doc--has been swallowed damn-near whole by a handful of national corporate mutants called HMOs...

"When did we vote on this? Did I miss the national referendum in which we decided that remote corporate executives with an army of bean counters would displace my hand-picked doctor, and would decide which (if any) hospital I can enter, how long I can stay, what specialists I can consult, and what (if anything) these medical professionals are allowed to tell me about my own medical needs? I
know Congress did not authorize this fundamental shift to health maintenance organizations (a phrase...that sounds as warming and welcoming as a lube and body shop). To the contrary, Congress in 1994...trashed the Clinton health-care reform legislation on the grounds that it would do the exact thing being done to us now: limit the choice of doctors and put the bean counters in charge.

"...ads...flapped their arms wildly to scare us about the old bugaboo, "socialized" medicine, but while we were looking over there, they blindsided us with something even harsher: corporatized medicine, a brave new world in which the Hippocratic Oath has been displaced by the bottom-line ethos of HMO profiteers like Robert Scott. A mergers and acquisition lawyer who never cared for a patient in his life, Scott headed the $20-billion-a-year Columbia/HCA corporation until July 1997. A far-flung HMO (*the Frist family), Columbia/HCA demanded that its local hospital executives return a 20 percent profit to headquarters, or else. How did they meet Scott's demand? By cutting back on services, on employees, and ultimately on us patients.

One place Scott did not cut back, however, was on his own paycheck. In 1995, he took a 43 percent salary hike, which meant he drew a million bucks from the till. A month."

from Chapter 1, "CorporateWorld!-They Get the Gold Mine, We Get the Shaft", There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos by Jim Hightower (1997)