General Motors to File for Bankruptcy

Decades of decline and seven months of negotiations with its union, creditors, and the U.S. Treasury Dept. will culminate in an historic bankruptcy for General Motors (GM) in New York on Monday morning, June 1, senior Obama Administration officials and company sources said Sunday night.

The company will still face a horribly slumping economy, and it will have to fight its own battered image. But if American consumers give the new GM a look, it could finally emerge a winner.

The Impact Of Chrysler's Bankruptcy

The U.S. government has described Chrysler's action as a "prepackaged surgical bankruptcy," through which it hopes the company will be able to exit the bankruptcy process within 30 to 60 days.
If Chrysler achieves this, it will emerge with a new global partnership with the Italy-based Fiat . Instead of cash, Fiat will provide the equivalent of billions of dollars in research- and investment-related (R&D) investments for a 35% stake in the new Chrysler.

However, many experts think a quick trip into (and out of) bankruptcy might be unrealistic.

U.S. Auto Sales on Track for Worst Year Since 1970

As bad as things are for Chrysler, which just declared bankruptcy, and for General Motors, which is also on the brink, it’s worth repeating that U.S. sales are nearly as bad for Toyota, Honda and Nissan, too.

That says buyers are sitting on their wallets regardless, despite deep discounts. Incentive programs from Ford, GM and Hyundai will even pick up your car payments if you lose your job.

A comeback in demand for cars and trucks remains remote as ever, as the seasonally adjusted annual sales rate for April 2009 was about 9.3 million units, according to AutoData Corp. That’s an estimate of how many cars and trucks the industry would sell in an entire year, based on the monthly sales rate in April.

Chrysler’s Fall May Help Obama to Reshape G.M.

Fresh from pushing Chrysler into bankruptcy, President Obama and his economic team are hoping that the hard line they took last week gives them leverage to force huge changes in General Motors, a far larger and more complex company.

Officials say that, difficult as Mr. Obama’s decision was on Wednesday to take all the risks of a Chrysler bankruptcy, the politics of reshaping G.M. will be far harder. Already a shadow of the company that once dominated the American landscape, G.M. will be forced to eliminate tens of thousands of additional jobs and close factories and dealerships nationwide.

Biden: Holdouts among Chrysler debtors

Speaking on a conference call with reporters, Vice President Joe Biden said he was optimistic that Chrysler could still complete a merger with Fiat SpA, get the debtors on board and win approval from the UAW for its concessions.
"Whether it all gets done in time and still locks up, completes the Fiat deal, which appears close at hand, is going to be a close call," Biden said.
"I’m not prepared to predict what that outcome will be. I do believe it's within Chrysler's capacity that either through this reorganization on their own and tying up with Fiat, and or an orderly reorganization in bankruptcy, to survive and come out of this."
Biden said Detroit was going through a "painful transition," but that "I really generally believe that American automobiles can still, over the next decade of the 21st century, lead the world."
He added: "I think it can be done within the timeframe set, but I’m not prepared to bet my daughter’s graduate school tuition on that."

GM Plans to Eliminate as Many as 1,200 Auto Outlets

General Motors Corp., facing a June 1 restructuring deadline to avoid bankruptcy, will begin notifying outlets the automaker plans to eliminate by May 11, the company told dealers today in a video conference call.
The Detroit-based automaker told dealers it is targeting 1,000 to 1,200 underperforming outlets and will cut more than 450 stores with the ending of the Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab brands, Susan Garontakos, a GM spokeswoman, said in an interview. GM plans to reach its goal of reducing its network by 2,600 sites through attrition and consolidation, she said.
GM said yesterday it intends to cut dealerships by 42 percent to 3,605 from 6,248 at the end of last year to help reduce liabilities by $44 billion and keep $15.4 billion in U.S. loans. Dealers Russ Shelton of Rochester Hills, Michigan, and Lynn Thompson of Springfield, Missouri, said GM is determined.

A broken Auto Light Socket-How to diagnose

A broken Auto Light Socket, really annoying, then how to deal with it,

below diagnose tips might be helpful for you:

1. Make sure the test light works before doing any diagnostics.

2. Connect test light to the negative battery terminal (or any good body ground),and touch the probe end to the positive-side battery terminal. Then, the test light should light up.

3. Be careful not to touch two contacts at the same time or you could cause a short circuit and blow a fuse.

4. Keep in mind that when several lights are out, the problem is most likely a fuse.