Here's a story via The Truth About Cars: an ad about the Chevy Volt has been banned in the United Kingdom because it's just making stuff up: "GM's alternate reality: UK calls Volt/Ampera ad misleading, bans it"
You can see this ad. Television viewers in the UK can’t. The Chevrolet Volt is sold in the UK as the Vauxhall Ampera, and its ad has been banned by the UK Advertising Standards Authority. It says the ad is misleading. The ad claims a 360-mile range. GM is a serial offender when it comes to alternate realities, and this ad is the latest installment.Of course this is coming from the company that is claiming "Detroit is back!" as it slowly slides back into bankruptcy.
7 comments:
Who in the UK would want a car with a tiny engine and giant battery? There you can buy a diesel engine in any car you want. Ford sells a 65mpg Fiesta, the Mazda 2 and VW Polo diesels both beat 70 mpg - without any of the weight and complexity of a hybrid.
"GM is a serial offender when it comes to alternate realities, and this ad is the latest installment. Of course this is coming from the company that is claiming "Detroit is back!" as it slowly slides back into bankruptcy."
Financials:
Sales: $150B
EBIT: $10B
Net Income: $9B
Low P/E.
GM is rated a 'moderate buy' to 'strong buy' by almost all analysts.
From a recent upgrade by Fitch:
"The upgrade of GM's ratings reflects the automaker's continued positive free cash flow generating capability, very low leverage, strong liquidity position, reduced pension obligations and improved product portfolio. Since exiting bankruptcy in 2009, GM has adhered to a strategy of maintaining a low level of automotive debt on its balance sheet, while also maintaining a high level of cash and credit facility availability. This has provided the company with substantial financial flexibility that would allow it to withstand a future auto industry downturn. GM is also the most global of the Detroit Three, with a particularly strong presence in China, which would help to shield the company from a downturn that is focused on a particular region. GM receives between $1 billion and $2 billion annually in cash dividends from its Chinese joint ventures."
With regard to ban, it was a sanction by the British government for the kind of marketing nonsense that goes on all the time in the US. GM produced an ad where you would likely draw the conclusion that the car had a 360-mile battery range unless you read the tiny print at the bottom of the screen. This hasn't stopped the Ampera from having the highest sales of its class (for what that's worth) in Europe.
There is a serious discussion to be had about the pros and cons of bailing out 'too big to fail' banks and other companies, as well as the merits of electric cars, or about myriad other subjects.
You should lead it. I am confident you can. The first step will be to step out of the echo chamber and into the light of day.
I concur with those six month old numbers (Q4 2011). Now look at the cash flow statement - a $5.6 billion decrease in cash and equivalents.
Nice try, Nigel - stick to Spinal Tap...
It would be difficult to get an annual report that wasn't 6 months old.
The decrease in cash and cash equivalents took them from $21B down to a paltry $15B.
Note commentary in the upgrade above regarding strong liquidity position positive free cash flow generating capability, as well as the opinions of analysts.
Take a look at the last 10Q.
Blog discussions have a tendency to get blown off into tangents, so before Rog comes back with a "gotcha!" from deep in the bowels of GM's SEC filings, against which I will plead the Lance Armstrong defense, let me say this:
Discussions about GM, the ACA, foreign policy, and just about everything else have become little more than proxy fights in the broader battle to portray Obama as a bad president.
Nigel was reflexively opposed to the bailouts of the banks and of GM when they were first proposed (by Bush), because this approach embraces the concept of 'too big to fail' rather than fixing the root problem, which is that there are companies that are considered too big to fail.
Analogies are the lifeblood of blogs, so I'll tie this into the travails of the Red Sox. They recently did a monster trade with LA to get rid of a bunch of the malcontents that are viewed as causing the downfall of the club.
On a local talk show an ex-football player commented that one of the differences between MLB and the NFL is that on a football team you are in a constant state of anxiety that you will lose your job if you don't perform, whereas in baseball the players are locked into guaranteed contracts which give them ability to engage in negative behaviors without fear of reprisal.
This sounds a lot like the situation with 'too big to fail' companies.
We should at the least enforce rational regulations, and perhaps consider forcing 'too big to fail' companies to be broken up in order to address the root problem.
I don't see the GOP supporting either of those things.
In the absence of addressing the root problem, bailouts were an option taken by both Bush and Obama.
It is factually incorrect to say that the GM bailout was a failure. It is rational to have a serious discussion about bailouts vs. other strategies.
Discussions about GM, the ACA, foreign policy, and just about everything else have become little more than proxy fights in the broader battle to portray Obama as a bad president.
By jove, he's cracked the code!!!
For my next trick I will explain that Obama doesn't have a secret agenda to wipe out all the old people by destroying Medicare, and that he actually thinks America is kind of cool.
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