News: Big 3 execs fly private JETS to DC to bag for cash

I like the list, Raytheon, Embraer, Cessna, piece of crap... :D
Who makes the crap?

The crap isn't made any more: Eclipse Aviation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_500


As for my notes above - I was going off the base list price, not fly-away cost, of the aircraft. I got my operating cost figures from a friend of mine who is a recently retired commercial pilot (former American Airlines).

Also, Honda says that those are the competition on their brag sheets. <shrug>
 
Wikipedia said:
Founder and former Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn was one of the first business executives at Microsoft. Subsequently, Bill Gates became a major stake-holder in the Eclipse project.

HaaahaahAAAAAHAHHHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA :roflmao:
 
On the other hand, I can understand why you wouldn't want to put your life in danger by going to the Detroit airport. Detroit is a shithole, Somalia or Chechnya is safer than parts of Detroit.


I find this a really poor argument since GM's headquaters is in downtown Detroit and the airport is several miles outside of Detroit.
 
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afrKemH3i.2Y&refer=home

Flight data show that the leased Gulfstream Aerospace G-IV jet flew Nov. 18 from Detroit to Washington, where Chief Executive Officer Richard Wagoner Jr. spoke to a Senate committee that day and a House panel the next day on behalf of a $25 billion auto-industry rescue plan.

///

After the plane?s latest flight to Washington on Nov. 25, and from there to Dallas, its movements could no longer be tracked.

They don't get it. It isn't so much that they flew, but how they flew. The one question that the crongressional comittee forgot to ask was: "other than the crew, how many people were on the plane"? The video I got to see on Wednesday showed 3 people, although it could of been edited.
 
Why don't you ask the congresscritters how *they* get to and from Washington? Most of them fly, surprise, PRIVATE JETS.

The only difference is that Congress flies either at taxpayer expense (which is bad) or at lobbyist expense (which is worse.)

Hypocrisy, thy name is Democrat Congress Member.
 
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Why don't you ask the congresscritters how *they* get to and from Washington? Most of them fly, surprise, PRIVATE JETS.

The only difference is that Congress flies either at taxpayer expense (which is bad) or at lobbyist expense (which is worse.)

Hypocrisy, thy name is Democrat Congress Member.

As if there is any less in the republican party... didn't they also vote towards this whole socialist idea that is the 700billion bail out for the financial industry?
 
Never said there wasn't... but it was the Dems on the committee that were oh-so-loudly deploring the corporate jets, when they're among the heaviest users of them.
 
I think they should let all Three fall so that the market can correct itself. The good brands get sold for a good price, the other brands for less. People will get fired, but theyll find new jobs if they want to have a living.

And whats this myth that a failed CEO wont get ever hired? Same way as the brands, his price will fall until somebody hires him.
 
I think they should let all Three fall so that the market can correct itself. The good brands get sold for a good price, the other brands for less. People will get fired, but theyll find new jobs if they want to have a living.

And whats this myth that a failed CEO wont get ever hired? Same way as the brands, his price will fall until somebody hires him.


If the three fall the economy will crash...not correct itself :rolleyes:

There are ONLY a couple million people that either work directly with the big three or are 'Suppliers' to the big three.

You're not very good with understanding how things work here. Nasser hasn't been heard from since he was given the Boot by Ford a few years ago.

You have a reputation that you ruined a company, everyone else sees you as a liability.
 
If the three fall the economy will crash...not correct itself :rolleyes:

There are ONLY a couple million people that either work directly with the big three or are 'Suppliers' to the big three.

Welll.. not so much. The suppliers have either switched over to supplying the import marques in the US as well or don't product high enough quality goods to be considered there and therefore need to die.

The Dying Three and the UAW like to plump up the numbers well over what they really are.

You're not very good with understanding how things work here. Nasser hasn't been heard from since he was given the Boot by Ford a few years ago.

You have a reputation that you ruined a company, everyone else sees you as a liability.

At least, that's how it's *supposed* to work, anyway. Unfortunately, the exceptions to that are very loud, very annoying, and make all the rest look bad. Carly Fiorina, diversity-CEO-at-large, I'm looking at you. (Stupid b***h has so far ruined three companies and helped ruin a presidential campaign.)
 
Welll.. not so much. The suppliers have either switched over to supplying the import marques in the US as well or don't product high enough quality goods to be considered there and therefore need to die.
That's not how the US is working anymore, unfortunately. Think of the jobs!





:rolleyes:
 
They and their jobs can go to hell if they can't straighten up and make parts that don't suck. :p
 
At least, that's how it's *supposed* to work, anyway. Unfortunately, the exceptions to that are very loud, very annoying, and make all the rest look bad. Carly Fiorina, diversity-CEO-at-large, I'm looking at you. (Stupid b***h has so far ruined three companies and helped ruin a presidential campaign.)

That's for sure. Don't think I've ever met a woman in a corporate position who wasn't a cut throat, unethical, short-thinking bitch.
 
http://www.thelocal.se/16042/20081201/
Ford and General Motors (GM) have asked the Swedish government for financial assistance in an attempt to improve the finances of Volvo and Saab ahead of the anticipated sale of the two brands.

The Financial Times (FT) newspaper reported on Monday that Stephen Odell, the head of Ford-owned Volvo Cars, and Jan-?ke Jonsson , managing director of GM-owned Saab Automobile, have both approached Sweden?s enterprise minister Maud Olofsson to discus the matter.

The Swedish government is mulling a support package totaling around 2 billion kronor ($248m) in loans and aid for the two car makers, the newspaper reports.

?The car industry in Sweden is of importance for the country as a whole, and they are open to the idea,? Matts Carlsson, an auto industry analyst with the Gothenburg Management Institute, told the FT.

Reached on Monday by the TT news agency, J?ran H?gglund, a state secretary in Sweden?s enterprise ministry, said he was unaware of plans for Volvo and Saab to be sold, but confirmed that the government is holding ongoing discussions with both Ford and GM.

According to H?gglund, no decision will be taken regarding possible state aid for Saab and Volvo before the details of the European Commission?s ?200 billion ($253 billion) stimulus package have been finalized.

Part of the package, roughly ?5 billion, is expected to go support the European auto industry.

Moreover, H?gglund believes that the futures of Ford and GM depend largely on a decision expected later this week by the US Congress regarding a request for $25 billion to help bailout the US auto industry.

?We have no reason to race ahead of the pack,? said H?gglund.

According to the FT, both Ford and GM are expected inform the US Congress of plans to offload the overseas brands to assuage concerns that any US aid might be used to support the companies? overseas operations.

Maud Olofsson said in another interview that the swedish goverment is ready to step in as a temporary owner of the two brands (Saab and Volvo) if it would come to that.
 
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That's for sure. Don't think I've ever met a woman in a corporate position who wasn't a cut throat, unethical, short-thinking bitch.

The irony of that is I read (the title of) an article claiming that women make better investors because men don't think in the long term :lol:
 
Here's a question: if you are going to give someone a few billion dollars to turn a company around, do you want him/her:

* paid not much more than the average worker?
* not really motivated to succeed?
* wasting his/her time dealing with commercial airlines?

I'd be willing to bet that more than just the CEO flew in each plane, and that the time was spent working and not watching a movie on a laptop.

Steve
 
Well, if travel time = work time, they probably should have had someone drive them there; maybe they could have come up with something actually concrete to present with the extra time it would take. :mrgreen:

When are they making this epic carpool of theirs, anyway?
 
When are they making this epic carpool of theirs, anyway?
Today, actually.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/02/gm-asks-congress-to-kickstart-its-heart-with-ambitious-plan/

GM unveiled their new plan to Congress today, they want to:
* Focus on "core brands": Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac
* Launch predominately high mileage, energy-efficient cars and crossovers
* Sell Saab, HUMMER
* Sell or kill Saturn
* Reduce Pontiac to a "niche" brand
* Trim dealerships from 6,450 to 4,700
* Reopen talks with UAW to cut manufacturing costs further
* Reduce total workforce from 96,000 to 65-75,000
* Negotiate with lenders, remove $35.6 billion in debt
Leave Buick and kill Saturn? FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF :wall:

To do all this, GM is asking for a total of $18 billion in loans, which is considerably more than the $10-12 billion that CEO Rick Wagoner requested in front of Congress a few weeks ago. It needs $12 billion in loans by the end of next March to make it through the rest of 2009 and another $6 billion in revolving credit if conditions don't begin to improve by then. The troubled automaker also states that it needs $4 billion by the end of this month to continue operating and intends to start repaying the loans by 2011.

In exchange for government loans, GM is also open to a government oversight board that would monitor how the money is used, as well as giving taxpayers a stake in the company. Also, not only would Rick Wagoner get his salary dropped to $1, a number of other unnamed senior execs would get pay cuts, too.
There's a GM press release after the link too.
 
* Focus on "core brands": Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac
* Launch predominately high mileage, energy-efficient cars and crossovers
* Sell Saab, HUMMER
* Sell or kill Saturn
* Reduce Pontiac to a "niche" brand
* Trim dealerships from 6,450 to 4,700
* Reopen talks with UAW to cut manufacturing costs further
* Reduce total workforce from 96,000 to 65-75,000
* Negotiate with lenders, remove $35.6 billion in debt

SOOOO MUCH FAIL....

Preserving BUICK??? At the expense of Saturn? Although if they switch over to the entire Euro lineup for Chevy, Saturn would be pointless. But GMC trucks???? Either take trucks away from Chevy or kill GMC pickups and SUVs. What morons.

Selling Saab is a good idea. It's been on life support for years.

"Only" 4700 dealers? No. They need to knock that down to 1500 or so.
 
Well it might work. ...

There is a problem in that you have a huge recession coinciding with cumulative managerial incompetence and Union greed. Very tricky to get out of - now we will see if these characters (3xCIOs) can really earn their pay.
 
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