Posted on 11/12/2008 6:10:51 PM PST by DeaconBenjamin
BERLIN: US automaker Ford has asked Berlin for aid but the government is divided on how to help Germany's key but troubled industrial sector.
After General Motors' German subsidiary Opel, a second US group implanted in Germany has thus turned to Chancellor Angela Merkel for aid.
"We sent a letter on the same day as Opel," a Ford spokesman told the Sueddeutsche Zeiting newspaper on Wednesday.
Both auto makers have pressed the government for tax measures that would boost the sale of new cars, but neither has received a response for the time being, the report said.
The head of Audi, the high-end line made by the Volkswagen group, said he favoured a "junkyard bonus" to encourage households to get rid of older cars, in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily.
Rudolf Stadler also said he was concerned that competition could be distorted if US car makers got help from Washington.
"If the United States supports its auto industry, the European Union would be well-advised to do the same," Stadler said.
US President-elect Barack Obama has indicated that he wants to support GM, Ford and other US auto manufacturers.
The German automobile importers federation VDIK also called for a bonus for households that junked old vehicles, saying it would be an "incitement to trade in old clunkers for new cars that respect the environment."
The answer should be FRAK NO!!!!!!!!!
Ford: Shakedowns are Job One!
Well Porsche is flush with cash after they took the NY/UK hedge funds for about $8 billion in a short squeeze.
A reverse “Marshall Plan”? Get real.
ping
Would the river run rouge?
Hey Hey hey....OPel was not implanted into Germany. Adam Opel AG was a German firm purchsed by GM in 1923, making it a part of GM nearly for lomger than Chevrolet.
And no, my 1970 Opel GT is not a “chick’s car”
The only way a bailout of Ford or GM would work is if the stupid unions have to agree to big benefit cuts. Big ones.The unions are the problem. Of course they won’t and all the employees will be out of work living in towns where there will be no work. New ghost towns are on their way. This country is in such deep dodo.
And now some a$$h0!e taxing freak college punk is going to get the reins. I did not feel too positive about the future finances right now.
After all, their founder was a big fan of the most famous German in history.
Unless you’ve done an engine swap, yeah, it’s a chick car. :D
The UAW messed up long ago. Maybe a Ford, GM fire sale to Toyota and Honda could revive the domestic giants. The UAW is what Pelosi wants to save. Their time is over.
I didn't know that Henry Ford was Lutheran.
Not if you ever owned one. A motor swap makes it ungodly fast, but you have to wreck the car to do it. It isn’t unibody construction, it is monocoque. The engine bay is 19 inches wide at it’s narrowest and needs major surgery to fit a big motor. The extra weigh messes up the handling.
Mine has a Lenk suspension that is lowered 2 inches and handles well. There is also anouther cool thing about a small car. It is only about 4 feet wide, so I can put two tires on the white line in a turn, cut a nice apex, put two tires on the yellow line and end the turn with two on the white line again, all while staying in my lane.
I owned 5 70’s F bodies many with a stroker 383 built motor. The Opel gets more looks than all of them put together.
Monocoque is another word for unibody.
You should at least swap out for the Opel 2.4... And the turbo Pontiac 2.0L is almost a direct drop in.
The last time I saw an Opel GT, it was modified much like yours, lowered and with wider tires than stock, but it clearly had the stock 1.9L. Unfortunately for it, my much larger XKR could pull off the same tricks and it just got eaten in the straights. :D
Swap that motor out right away. :D
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