When sales get tough, the Big 3 throw money at it. The magic mantra seems to be "rebate." Whether it works or not is debatable.
GMAC has been a cash cow for GM for decades, sometimes outperforming any other arm in the GM octopus, but it's in big trouble according to Reuters newswire reports.
Seems the predatory lending and mortgage mess has seeped into the wonderful world of auto financing. A year ago GMAC turned in a whopping $305 million loss, nearly one third of a billion (with a big "B") dollar loss. Well, things got worse as time went by.
Now, GMAC's loss has jumped up to $589 million. Not a small chunk of change, folks. Somebody better get out the bandaids and stop the bleeding or they'll end up looking like Chrysler.
Much of the blame is being heaped on the huge mortgage division losses coming out of Residential Capital, now running 6 quarters of losses in a row. Seems like even they were trying to get in on the mortgage subprime mess to see just how quickly they could lose money.
GM's money mess is one of the reasons that GM sold off 51% of GMAC to private quity firm Cerberus Capital back in 2006, but apparently it was on a downhill slide way back then. We'd hate to think the smart guys at Cerberus were the ones who took that dive into the subprime disaster.
So how bad can it get? Well, we'll soon see. There's $17 billion of debt coming due this year and it'll probably shake GMAC up. Still GMAC has $18.6 billion of cash and claimed liquid assets so one would think that would look pretty healthy. Problem is, that number is down from $22.7 billion just a few months ago.
A $4 billion loss in just 3 months is kinda hard to make up no matter how long you take at it.
Could rebates be coming on the metal? Maybe they ought to be thinking about rebates on the mortgages too?
Meanwhile, if you've got a lemon GM car or truck, you might want to be thinking of trading it in on a Ford. At least they made a profit lately. If you can't or don't want to trade it it, email or call us 1-888-331-6422 Toll Free and we'll help you make GM take it back and give you back your money, for free. That's what we do. Everyday.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Known nationwide as a leading Lemon Law attorney, Ronald L. Burdge has represented literally thousands of consumers in "lemon" lawsuits and actively co-counsels and coaches other Consumer Law attorneys. From 2005 through 2018, attorney Ronald L. Burdge has been named as the only Lemon Law Ohio Super Lawyer by Law and Politics magazine and Thomson Reuters Corp., Professional Division. Burdge restricts his practice to Lemon Law and Consumer Law cases. The Ohio Super Lawyer results are published annually in the January issue of Cincinnati Magazine. Ronald L. Burdge was named Consumer Law Trial Lawyer of the Year 2004 by the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the nation's largest organization of consumer law private and government attorneys. "Your impact on the auto industry has been magnified many times over because of the trail you blazed for others," stated NACA's Executive Director, Will Ogburn. Burdge has represented thousands of consumers in Ohio, Kentucky and elsewhere since 1978 and is a frequent lecturer to national, state and local Bar Associations and Judicial organizations. Burdge is admitted to Ohio's state and federal courts, Kentucky's state courts, and Indiana's federal courts. Other court admissions are on a "pro hac" temporary, case by cases basis.