Posted by Horisly in
Auto News,
GM on 05 31st, 2009 |
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Ticking down to GM bankruptcy, announcement expected Monday
As the clock ticks down to an expected GM bankruptcy filing on Monday, the pieces for a potentially smooth restructuring process are falling into place. Monday, we will cover the announcements from GM and President Obama here, as well as at twitter.com/CReporter . The President is expected to address the nation at about 11:55, with GM hosting a press conference at 12:15. On Saturday, a majority of GM bondholders, holding a little more than 50 percent of GM’s debt, agreed to a plan to exchange their debt for an ownership stake in the company, according to the New York Times . The bondholders will initially get 10 percent, but will eventually be able to increase the stake to 25 percent. This is expected to streamline the bankruptcy process, with expectations that GM could emerge within about 60 to 90 days. (See: “ GM counts down to ‘B Day’ ” and “ Concerned about GM’s bankruptcy? ”) Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, an agreement was reached for GM to sell a majority stake of its European operations, including the German Opel and British Vauxhall brands, to a group led by the Canadian auto-parts manufacturer, Magna International. With this plan in place, Opel is expected to be placed under a trust, which will shield it from the U.S. auto bailout and, again, help make the restructuring process go more smoothly. According to Canada’s Globe and Mail , Magna will become Canada’s first major automaker since 1918 and has said that it wants to build Opel cars in Canada. While many Americans aren’t familiar with Opel, its cars have begun to trickle into our market in recent years as GM has been using them to develop new Saturn models. The current Saturn Astra and Vue , for example, are rebadged versions of the Opel Astra and Antara, respectively. (These links go to the model overview pages with ratings, road tests, and more, available to online subscribers.) How have they done? In our tests, we found the Astra agile to drive with good steering and a composed ride, but its acceleration is lackluster and fuel economy is so-so for its size. The Astra scored midpack in our hatchbacks ratings, but is not recommended because we don’t yet have reliability data on it. While the Opel-based Vue is a big improvement over the previous version,...