Bailout for automakers?

[Blue]

Vehicles that aren't allowed to enter the Autobahn need the same inspections done anyway (such as e.g. farming tractors). Military vehicles also come under these regulations btw, even while deployed.

I find that ironic since the main reason it was built was for high speed troop movement, at least that's what I have read. But hey, with roadway that good and fast, sounds like its for the best.

[gunnut]

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
GMAC relaxes credit restrictions to boost sales
Robert Snell / The Detroit News

The auto and mortgage financing division of General Motors Corp. today relaxed credit restrictions for potential car buyers hours after receiving a $5 billion investment from the U.S. Treasury Department.

The move by GMAC LLC will broaden the pool of consumers who can qualify for auto financing and could boost U.S. car and truck sales, which are down 16.3 percent this year, and could particularly benefit sales of GM vehicles, which are down almost 22 percent.

GM reacted to the Treasury investment by launching a new campaign offering interest rates as low as 0 percent for up to 60 months on cars and trucks such as the Chevrolet TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy, and Saab 9-3, 9-5 and 9-7X.

The move by GMAC to lower the minimum credit score required for auto lending to 621 comes two months after the lending company raised the minimum to 700, which froze out about 40 percent of potential customers.

The number of GM cars and trucks the lender wrote loans for dropped by more than half after GMAC tightened underwriting standards amid the country's escalating financial crisis. GM sales dropped 41 percent in November, as U.S. auto sales plunged 37 percent to a 26-year low.

"The actions of the federal government to support GMAC are having an immediate and meaningful effect on our ability to provide credit to automotive customers," GMAC President Bill Muir said today in a prepared statement. "We will continue to employ responsible credit standards, but will be able to relax the constraints we put in place a few months ago due to the credit crisis. We will immediately put our renewed access to capital to use to facilitate the purchase of cars and trucks in the U.S."

GMAC, which finances about 75 percent of inventory at GM dealers, was a major source of loans to GM car buyers until it was frozen out of credit markets after losses totaling $7.9 billion.

The easing of credit restrictions comes hours after Treasury agreed to invest $6 billion in GMAC to provide the auto and mortgage finance company with badly needed liquidity and help more credit-strapped customers buy vehicles. Treasury bought $5 billion in equity from GMAC and also agreed to loan GM up to $1 billion to buy stock in the financing company.

You can reach Robert Snell at (313) 222-2028 or [email protected].

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...412/1148/rss25

Um...isn't this what got us into trouble in the first place?

[Ryan Bailey]

I detest the non- leadership of the corporatists who've destroyed the companies we love. I grieve with those who will lose because of it. But government expenditure is not the answer and would be a counter productive wasteage of our tax dollars.

In this new year I pray the crisis & its aftermath will lead to more consumer choice, superior products & the resurrection of the electric car.

Give the people what they want.