[quote]NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection early Monday, a move once viewed as unthinkable that became inevitable after years of losses and market share declines which were capped by a dramatic plunge in sales in recent months.
In the end, even $19.4 billion in federal help wasn’t enough to keep the nation’s largest automaker out of bankruptcy. The government will pour another $30 billion into GM to fund operations during its reorganization.
Taxpayers will end up with a 60% stake in GM, with the union, its creditors and federal and provincial governments in Canada owning the remainder of the company.[/quote]
Or if Stronach’s plans all work out they will be Saturns here in N America.
He gets Chevrolet in Russia, and Vauxhall in he UK in the GM deal. Return of the Vauxhall Viva maybe?
This was one of the downfalls of the North American brands – they put on the blinders and refused to believe that anybody else on Earth could build a decent car.
Even when their own overseas divisions were making awesome cars, they didn’t bring them to North America, because, hey, there’s no way a European Escort can be better than a North American Escort, is there?
Ford has recently learned this lesson, and is turning around, with some popular European and Australian (gasp!) models now in North America. GM never did. Opel makes awesome cars.
Did you own an Omni/Horizon too?
Chrysler took the VW Golf and FUBAR’d it completely.
The GM Astro van was quickly ripped from the Aussie GM Holden version that had been around for years. Ford could only counter with the AeroSlug to compete with Dodge.
There’s a Saab variant in every GM division and Saturn’s award winning Astra is a rebadged Opel.
Don’t forget the Suzuki under 100 nameplates (Geo, Asuna, Chev, GMC)
The logistics of keeping myriad of these things from smashing into each other would be mindboggling unless there were some GPS guidance and proximity alarms.
[quote=“Soggy”]
The logistics of keeping myriad of these things from smashing into each other would be mindboggling unless there were some GPS guidance and proximity alarms.[/quote]
Instead of thinking of it as a flying car, think of it as an airplane that you can drive. You’ll still need a pilot’s license.
Well The 5th Element gets rave reviews from me.
Far better than the Star Trek or Star Wars movies before it.
Stylish as BladeRunner, unpretentious, funny.
I actually remember most of the scenes (the Blue Diva… great)
