Here is the article from Reuters:

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp on Monday unveiled an unusually frank advertisement acknowledging it had "disappointed" and sometimes even "betrayed" American consumers as it lobbies to clinch the federal aid it needs to stay afloat into next month.

The print advertisement marked a sharp break from GM's public stance of just several weeks ago when it sought to justify its bid for a U.S. government on the grounds that the credit crisis had undermined its business in ways executives could never have foreseen.

It also came as Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, who has led the automaker since 2000, faces new pressure to step aside as GM seeks up to $18 billion in federal funding.

"While we're still the U.S. sales leader, we acknowledge we have disappointed you," the ad said. "At times we violated your trust by letting our quality fall below industry standards and our designs became lackluster."

The unsigned open letter, entitled "GM's Commitment to the American People" ran in the trade journal Automotive News, which is widely read by industry executives, lobbyists and other insiders.

In the ad, GM admits to other strategic missteps analysts and critics have said hastened its recent decline.

"We have proliferated our brands and dealer network to the point where we lost adequate focus on the core U.S. market," the ad said. "We also biased our product mix toward pick-up trucks and SUVs."

But GM also says in the ad that it was hit by forces beyond its control as it tried to complete a restructuring earlier this year.

"Despite moving quickly to reduce our planned spending by over $20 billion, GM finds itself precariously and frighteningly close to running out of cash," the ad says.

A failure of GM would deepen the current recession and put "millions of job at risk," according to the ad, which also highlights the automaker's pledged restructuring and intention to begin repaying taxpayers in 2011.

GM spokesman Greg Martin said the ad was an attempt by the automaker to present "a pledge directly to the public."

"We believe we need to deliver this commitment unfiltered since quite a bit of media commentary has not kept pace with our actual progress to transform the company," Martin said.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut who is central to the effort to craft an auto bailout bill, on Sunday said GM should replace Wagoner.

GM says Wagoner has the support of the company's board.

(Reporting by Kevin Krolicki, editing by Dave Zimmerman)



LINK TO GM PRINT AD:

http://www.autonews.com/assets/PDF/CA59166128.PDF

 

Imagine that...GM actually sacking up and taking responsibility. Now THAT'S a concept.

 

i agree with the point that wagoner has to go ....if he worked in that position in any other fortune 500 company and there stock went to hell he would be gone also...

 

i say let 'em go under. if a mom & pop bakery can't make it, nobody bails them out...why should we bail out GM? i don't give a f*ck if i love their vehicles or not, i'm not paying them to re-learn how to run a business and appeal to the appropriate market segments.

 

great. theyve admitted something people have known for a long time. now WTF are they going to do about it?

 

if ma and pop employed nearly 2.5million people (like GM does with its companies and affiliates), the government would probably help them out from going under too. 1 in 10 american jobs revolves around the car business. Imagine what would happen to the unemployment rate if the big three went down...

 

yeah i know that would suck, and i'm sure i'd sing a different tune if i worked directly for GM, BUT i've been layed off, i know exactly how bad it sucks. i'm just saying, it's not John Q. Taxpayer's responsibility to keep GM afloat. it's THEIR responsibility to make a decent quality vehicle at an affordable price that meets the needs of a given demographic...and they failed. i LOVE their trucks, but i straight up can't afford one, at least not a decent one. a f*cking RCSB 4x4 stripped is still over $25K, at least around here. many other people are the same way.

toyota and honda have been making fuel-efficient, long-lasting vehicles for two decades while GM pushed it's gas-guzzling suburbans and extended cab pickups to soccer moms and ranchers...now they're wondering why they can't keep up with the tree-huggers' demands and why nobody's is buying a $55K Denali pickup to drive around the big city.

it's rediculous that ANY tax-paying american should have to foot the bill for the general's mistake(s). i don't want them to go out, i don't want all those people to lose their jobs, but i sure as hell am not going to help pay for it. i'm sure as hell not getting anything in return. i bet all the people that went out and financed 100% of their $40K+ cars/trucks aren't getting "thank you" cards in the mail either.

...and what does GM do? they replaced the failed GTO with the G8...nice car, but do you guys really think it should exist? i mean, REALLY? Pontiac, Saturn, GMC...all dead weight. they need to cut out the fat and build one, maybe two, brands and build what people buy. quit building one car for soccer moms, one car for yuppies with small peckers, one hybrid, 6 different 4-door sedans built off the same platform with the same engines, two identical truck brands (ond having a different grill and different emblems of course), etc etc etc....it's STUPID, straight up. they need to pull their heads out of their asses and completely re-think their business model because it's OBVIOUSLY no good.

it sucks all those people are going to lose their jobs, but this is and has been pulic information for a long time. you KNOW the people within the company knew this was coming before CNN found out. If they haven't been looking for jobs since this started, that's their fault. i always, ALWAYS, have a back-up job at all times. i want to know that if i lose my job i have somewhere to go the following monday. if my company were begging for help from unlce sam, i'd be hitting the streets ASAP.

 

+1

Just think of how many cars the General would have sold if they had spent just the advertising money from those worthless brands on Chevy, Buick, and Cadillac! Hummer ads at this point in time are wasted money.

GM needs to get their **** together, or I may just go back to being a Ford and Nissan fan....

 

i'll never drive anything but a GM product...as far as 4-wheeled vehicles go...(with the exception of the CIVIC i'm about to buy)...but beyond the sale price and taxes, i'm not giving GM any more of my money.

 

It's just GM jumping through hoops. They'll say whatever it takes for them to get their bailout/loan/whatever.

 

Damn straight they did. I would have probably an '05 Z/28 if they had kept making them.

W

 

The 5 recently unemployed bakers/cashiers at the bakery won't crowd the unemployment office all that much more nor drain too much unemployment insurances funds. Though it still sucks that the bakery had to close.
But the 3 million people currently employed by or employed by those who are currently employed by or are simply directly or indirectly connected with GM somehow certainly will.
That's why.

 

It kills me what that company has done. I have been a GM man all my life and have owned nothing but GM. I feel they turned their back on me years ago. I still want them around, I just want them to get their sh*t together.

 

A giant step - We're sorry we fXXXXX everyone in the past. Now, lets all hold hands and walk together.

Jakes Dad

 

I told my girlfriend the same thing after I fucked her sister.

Guess what I did after she took me back?

Fucked her sister.

If GM went out, got itself a new board that make moves to turn the company around I might buy this line. With Rick "The Stock Price Drops Every Year" Wagoner and Bob "I Fly a Helicopter To Work" Lutz still running the show I'm not buying change.

 

 

I agree with 2000_SS, Toyota and Honda were ridiculed for not jumping on the truck bandwagon sooner. But these foreign carmakers damn near perfected the way they run their business and make their cars not trucks. They stuck with their bread and butter and listened to what the general public was looking for, affordable transportation, quality and good resale value.
Now a part of business is forcasting and if the big 3 couldn't forsee the possibility of a slowdown in the economy, high gas prices etc. then I would say they failed in their business model and it shouldn't be up to the taxpayers to bail them out! The big 3 need a new infusion of ideas and they need to work harder on Toyota's model of lean manufacturing. A very good friend of mine that worked for Ford told me that they tried the lean manufacturing process and were warned that it wouldn't work by the foreign company that was teaching it to them. Why? Because and I quote "...you have to implement the whole program not pick and choose what you want to. You have to commit to the lean program all the way or it will not work..." Of course Ford chose to try and implement what they wanted to and it hasn't worked so far!
This is business plain and simple; if you don't sell a product or service that people want, then they will not buy it. I think that we are getting 'big brother' too involved in our life's and business! At the end of the day is this what capitalism is all about?

 

speaking of resale, check this out: my dad goes and buys a '08 Colorado ext cab 2x4, pretty well-optioned. i told him it was a piece of **** and he wasted his money (i hate coloradoes). it serves no purpose other than transportation; i.e. it's not 4x4, not a V8 (or big V6), can't tow, etc...

SO, when they have their big 'whatever' sale literally 2 weeks later, dad goes to trade his truck for one IDENTICAL to his, only 4x4 and totally loaded. His colorado literally had 930 miles on it, still had plastic on the carpet, and you absolutly could not tell it was ever owned by anybody. he payed over $22K for it new....anyway, he takes it back to the very same dealership he bought it from and they offer him $8,000 for it as a trade-in on another p.o.s. colorado.

needless to say he was furious and came home in a rage...when he calmed down he finally told me i was right - that's a first, a real milestone in our house, but nonetheless....talk about shitty resale (and a shitty dealership). you can get $8K for a '00 honda civic with under 100K miles as long as it runs, i know, i'm looking for one for a beater.

 

i just dont want them to go down...becasue i wanna see the new camaro prowling!

 

You don't want them to go under because it would bring the rest of America with them.

I can tell you this; if anyone wants to trade for a nice low mileage 06 Toyota RAV4 for their same year full size GM truck or Avalanche I have one waiting for them! It is by far the worse POS vehicle I have owned in years including other than GM vehicles. Yeh, Toyota is so superior my ***! I buy an low mileage import every so often and I'm still waiting to be impressed. In the mean time I drive my same 115k 02 GMC thet I bought new that drives just as it did when it was new!