Posted on 04/09/2009 5:21:36 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Unless US auto-maker General Motors can get a grip on its debts even its radical new car won't be able to save it.
GM's new Mini-style car, the fuel-efficient Chevrolet Spark
As oil creeps back above the $50-a-barrel mark, what better time for GM to unveil its compact Mini-style car, the fuel-efficient Chevrolet Spark?
At this weekend's New York International Auto Show, it may be Project Puma, GM's tie-up with Segway, that is the focus of media attention but the Spark will be the cream of the crop – a stylish, chic and small car, the exact opposite of the fuel-guzzling 4X4s the troubled US car manufacturer is known for.
But as GM's silver-tongued marketing men attempt to convince visitors and the media that the Spark has what it takes to revitalise the ailing company's fortunes, back in downturn Detroit the mood will be somewhat more sombre.
After three days of the latest round of intense talks with President Barack Obama's 15-strong auto task force, and facing another round of talks next week, GM's management, led by recently-elevated chief executive Fritz Henderson, is staring bankruptcy in the face.
With restructuring experts on hand from investment bank Rothschild and Boston Consulting Group to focus on drastic new cost cuts, not to mention Wall Street law firm Weil Gotshal standing in the wings in case a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is the only option, Henderson and his cohorts face an enormously difficult task.
Although much has changed at GM over the past 12 months – the cataclysmic collapse in car sales, the injection of $13.4bn (£9.1bn) of government funds and, most recently, the ousting of GM chairman Rick Wagoner by the Obama administration – much remains the same.
GM is still struggling under $62bn of debt,
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
if they throw those 2 girls in with the car
ill take it
they can keep the car
I guess this is the last spark for GM, then.
We don’t want these cars. We want SUVs, not mobile golf cart/eco-coffins.
This thing is just waiting to get smushed by a truck.
The GM Spark/Yugo
yitbos
I wouldn’t be caught dead in that car, and when that car crashes with other GM Trucks, SUV’s etc, dead is exactly what it’s passengers will be. If I want to be seconds from death on the road I’ll drive a motorcycle.
...betcha that there tangeriny one would roll real nice
Anything that makes a Toyota Yaris look downright sturdy can’t be a safe thing.
looks like a big green turd....I’ll bet one of those headlight assembly’s costs 800 bucks.
As for the production item itself, as the saying goes, stupid on stilts...
Kinda looks like a VW Beetle. Now, what was the origin of the Beetle? Didn’t some guy that spoke “Austrian” have a hand in it?
Geez, I’d need two of them....... one for each foot.
Are you sure the one on the right is a girl?
Unbelievably stupid to think they’ll sell many. Perhaps some people will buy them to tool around their gated communities. But out on the streets? Who would pile their kids into those little rattletraps? Or their dogs? Can’t you just see some huge German Shepherd crammed into the thing and snarling out the window?
With barely enough space for the driver and one bag of groceries, the Spark will hurt the economy. People will cut down on buying because they can’t get stuff home.
Do they have roll bars? I can sort of see them with racing stripes and numbers on the doors whizzing around a race car track in Disneyland.
see post 17 shes hot too
At least that guy had a BIRTH CERTIFICATE. It was edited a few times, but...Still...
You paid $24 billion to develop it. Now The Obammunist will use taxpayer bucks as rebates to make it cheap enough to sell some.
yitbos
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