The lowest gas prices for regular gas in the last two days ranged from $2.52 a gallon to $2.73 a gallon. These prices were available in Porterville, Hanford, Visalia, Lancaster, Redding, Oroville, Mecca, Vallejo, and Fairfield.
A Summary of the New GM Called General Motors Company
On July 11, 2009 GM emerged from bankruptcy as a new company called General Motors Company. The old GM sold its best assets to the new company which will be primarily owned by the American and Canadian governments which collectively will hold 72.5%. The Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, a union health care trust, will hold 17.5% with the remaining 10% held by the old GM.
The old GM will remain in bankruptcy and its factories, brands, and other operations will eventually be liquidated. The old GM will now be called Motors Liquidation Company. Shares in the old GM will likely be worthless and it is contemplated that the Treasury Department will eventually make a public offering for the new GM stock sometime in 2010.
The new GM will retain the GMC, Chevrolet, Buick, and Cadillac brands. It will no longer offer the Saturn, Pontiac, Hummer and Saab brands. Nevertheless, GM’s remaining dealers will continue to honor warranties for those vehicles. The new GM is planning on closing approximately 1,100 over 6,000 dealerships and eventually hopes to pare down to 3,600 dealers by the close of 2010. Additionally, GM’s present 47 plants, manufacturing engines, transmissions, and stamping and assembly plants will be reduced to only 34. And the number of employees will likewise be reduced from the present 91,000 at the end of 2008 to only 64,000 by the end of 2009. GM is also expected to reduce American executives by 35%, and overall administrative white-collar employees by 20% by the end of this year.
Pontiacs Last Coupe
The targa-top Pontiac Solstice will be the last of the Pontiacs and after only a few months of production. Pontiac is scheduled to close production in 2010 and the Solstice coupe will be the last of Pontiac’s new models. With total production of only approximately 1,100 units when operations will end at the Wilmington plant in the end of July, the Solstice may become a collectors item. The coupes will be numbered sequentially so that it will be easy to determine which exactly of the 1,100 cars a collector may own. The GXP version has a sticker price of $31,000 and comes with a 4-cylinder 260 hp engine. One reviewer extolled the beautiful exterior but was disappointed by its relatively plain interior and by the relatively small size cockpit. He was further disappointed by the lack of convenient storage spaces in the passenger compartment and small luggage area. The reviewer also complained about the layout of the dashboard instruments and the wind and road noise. Despite its many faults, that particular reviewer found it to be a sexy little car designed by one of General Motors’ top designers who has subsequently left and is now employed by Tesla. The Solstice GXP seems to be a lot of sizzle but very little steak.
If your vehicle is always in the shop and the dealer is unable to fix it you may be driving a lemon. Call the California Lemon Law Firm of Delsack & Associates at 888-395-3666 (888-ExLemon) for a free consultation.
The Pontiac Pickup That Won’t Be
At the New York 2008 Auto Show Pontiac had announced the G8 Sport Truck which was a sort of evolution of the Chevrolet El Camino. The El Camino had been built on and off by Chevrolet from 1959 through the late 80s. Like the El Camino the G8 was half car, half pick-up with a 6-liter 361-horsepower version of Corvette’s V8. It was to have a 3,500 pound towing capacity with a 74 inch cargo bed designed for a small, select audience with projected sales of approximately 5,000 units per year.
John Harris, director of the National El Camino Owners Association, was quoted as saying that “You could not fit a sheet of plywood in the bed,” which is “sort of a litmus test for what was always supposed to be a working man’s vehicle.” Now with the end of the Pontiac line so too is the end of the plans for the production of the G8 Sport Truck.
Having problems with your vehicle or you think your vehicle may be a lemon. Call the Law Offices of Delsack and Associates in California with your California Lemon Law Questions at 888-Ex-Lemon (888-395-3666).
Fiat Enters into Joint Venture with Chinese Auto Manufacturer
Fiat, the Italian automaker which owns a 20% controlling interest in the new Chrysler, announced an equal partnership, joint venture with Chinese automaker Guangzhou Automobile Group. The companies announced that they would build a new 173 acre plant in Hunan province with production scheduled to begin at the end of 2011. The plant will cost more than $550 million and will have the ability to manufacture 140,000 cars and 220,000 engines per year after the first phase is completed. Upon completion of all phases production would eventually increase to 250,000 cars and 300,000 fuel-efficient, low emission engines per year. Guangzhou Automobile Group which already has similar joint ventures with Honda and Toyota, stated that it had delivered more than 530,000 vehicles last year.
Automotive Sales For June 2009
While sales in June fell by 33% for General Motors, and 42% for Chrysler, Ford Motor Company announced that its sales were only down 11% from June, 2008. Ford also outsold Toyota and is regaining market share for the third consecutive month, and is discounting its vehicles less than General Motors and Chrysler. Ford also stated that slow demand in the West and Southwest where the housing market has taken the worst beating, has dragged down the company’s overall sales, while sales in more than half of the remaining states were on a par or slightly greater than last year’s. Further adding to General Motors and Chrysler’s woes were that plant closings sharply reduced sales to car rental companies and other business customers. On the bright side, however, their bankruptcies have not deterred sales to consumers as much as was expected
Asian automakers have also felt the impact of the economic slowdown with declines in sales of 32% for Toyota and 23% for Nissan. Overall automotive sales in the United States fell by 28% compared to June 2008, which though still a decline is the smallest decline since September of last year. Average annual sales throughout the United States for the last decade were about 17 million units but took a nosedive starting the second half of 2008. Thus far in 2009 slightly under 5 million vehicles have been sold, a decrease of approximately 37%.
Questions about your vehicle or the California Lemon Law. Call the Law Offices of Delsack & Assoc. at 888-Ex-Lemon (888-395-3666) for a free consultation.
GM Ends Joint Venture with Toyota
After 25 years General Motors has ended its joint with Toyota at its plant in Fremont, California. The project, known as the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., or Nummi, has manufactured more than 6 million vehicles, including the Corolla sedan and Tacoma pickup truck for Toyota, and the Pontiac Vibe for GM. GM will no longer be producing Pontiacs next year and intends to discontinue the Vibe in August. GM also announced that it did not intend to continue utilizing the Fremont facility after it emerges from bankruptcy, which is expected to occur in late summer, 2009. The venture allowed Toyota to apply its system in the United States and enabled GM to learn from the Toyota manufacturing process. The plant, which has over 4,700 employees, and has more than 5,000,000 square feet of assembly space is the last auto plant operating in California. Toyota has not yet decided whether it will continue to operate in the Fremont facility, and has rejected reports that it was considering building the Prius in Fremont. Both the Corolla and the Tacoma are being assembled and other facilities, the Corolla in Canada and the Tacoma in Mexico.
Think you may be driving a lemon? In California call the California Lemon Law Firm, Delsack & Assoc. at 888-Ex-Lemon (888-395-3666) for a free review.
GM to Accept Legal Responsibility for Future Liability Claims
Under a plan proposed by General Motors and the federal government GM will assume responsibility for future product liability claims filed after the new GM company emerges from bankruptcy. More than a dozen state attorneys general have voiced objections to GM’s plan to sell off its desirable assets to a new corporate entity. These could have upset GM’s plan for rapid completion of the bankruptcy process.
This decision will resolve the potential problem of whether customers who have claims regarding their existing GM products, but who have not yet filed lawsuits, can sue GM in state courts. Bankruptcy case law is unclear on this issue, therefore GM and the government’s auto task force chose to assume the liability rather than risk a possible delay in emerging as a new company.
Previously filed product liability lawsuits may be left behind to be handled by the old GM thereby allowing the new GM to emerge with a clean legal slate. Because of its large size, however, GM has instead chosen to assume the legal liability. Last year GM had budgeted more than $900 million for product lawsuits. A committee representing numerous consumer plaintiffs claims to represent $1.25 billion in potential personal injury claims and has objected to GM’s plan to leave such cases with the old GM.
In the meantime, GM has continued to process lemon law claims from California consumers, and presumably those of other states, and honor its obligations to such consumers under existing state lemon law statutes.
