If you think Walmart's bad...Check Ford Motors relief efforts

[cynatnite]

DETROIT -- The finance arms of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday they are allowing customers affected by Hurricane Katrina to defer their car payments.

GMAC spokeswoman Joanne Krell said customers should contact local GMAC offices for an extension of up to 90 days. The company also will waive late charges for people who have been affected by the hurricane.

"We take a very commonsense approach to this," Krell said. She added that GM and GMAC plan to donate at least $500,000 to the relief effort.

Ford's program is open to customers living in counties that have been declared disaster areas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The offer includes customers of Ford Motor Credit Co., Jaguar Credit, Land Rover Capital Group, Mazda American Credit, PRIMUS Financial Services and Volvo Car Finance.

Eligible Ford customers should receive a letter within a week and must register within 60 days to qualify. Customers also may contact the companies if they believe they're eligible but haven't been notified.

It wasn't immediately known whether Chrysler Group also would defer payments. Messages were left with DaimlerChrysler Services.

Ford shares fell 10 cents to $9.67 in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. GM shares were up 9 cents to $34.13.

http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0509/05/01-297876.htm

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

1. um, wonder where they'll receive this letter. n/t

[Mika]

2. "Eligible Ford customers should receive a letter within a week"

Huh. Their mailboxes are under water IF they are even there. How the f*&% will they get them?

[Fenris]

4. Their mailboxes which aren't there will contain an envelope

From the Ford/GM motor companies telling them they can have a 90-day deferment to pay for a car that is probably under several meters of water.

[liberaliraqvet26]

3. Ford is screwed financially...

theyre big trucks are not selling. do you know anyone who will buy an f250 or expedition right now?

[NNadir]

5. If their expeditions aren't selling, maybe they could be used as homes.

It probably would beat the shit out living on the floor of the Astrodome.

[Vinca]

6. Oooh . . . they're donating $500,000? How generous.

That won't even pay to tow their gas-guzzling, POS vehicles out of the city.

[xultar]

8. Ford is fuckin broke. To them 500k is like 500 mil

[Blue_Tires]

14. agreed

they got serious financial problems brewing below the surface...to be perfectly honest, i'm surprised they did anything at all

[TheCentepedeShoes]

7. What are they going to do

is someone is unable to pay within 90 days? Send a repo man in scuba gear?

[niallmac]

9. I am laughing amid this insanity sometimes.

I'm not evil please, just sometimes amidst all this someone says something and I have a short reprieve of laughter.

[htuttle]

16. That's why they gave them the 90 days grace period

Without it, Ford is stuck with hundreds of wet cars, since there really is little hope that most would be able to make their next few payments (and would be little motivated to do so on a submerged car), even if they could afford it (no address, no bank, no phone, among other things).

This way, I suppose, there's at least a chance that some of the people will have things together well enough within 90 days to make a car payment. Three months from now, at least some of the hurricane victims will have recuperated their lives to the point where they are worrying about their credit again. Because you know, when you don't have food, water or shelter, your credit is the last thing you worry about.

It's really a desperation play on Ford's part. If they really cared, they'd forgive a good share of the loans on cars that were totaled. Instead, they are trying to avoid having to take a huge hit on their books when all those loans would go red next month.

[Oeditpus Rex]

10. Cut 'em some slack, man

All U.S. automakers are hurtin' big time.

Not that I'm upset about this. :evilgrin: Just sayin'.

(Just remembered this slogan from the '50s: "What's good for GM is good for America.") :puke:

[iamahaingttta]

11. Fuck Corporatia!

This just might be the event that leads to Karl Marx being proven right.
Capitalism is about to be crushed under its own weight.

Good riddance!!!

[Mr_Spock]

12. Some stupid fuck is gonna be fired

:D

[Clark2008]

13. Whatever.

I own Fords. They're good cars. I'm looking at their hybrid. The ONLY hybrid that looks like a fucking car and not some neo-weird piece of shit (yes, I think the Toyota Pyrus is UGLY!)

Their profits stay in America.

The rest of you who buy Japanese are the problem.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

15. Ford's "American" cars are usually built in Mexico.

My Mitsubishi Eclipse, on the other hand, was built in Illinois. And the way corporate America spends that money on funding the Republican party, I think we're all better off sending that money overseas if the car itself is built by our unions here in the States.

[fujiyama]

17. That last line is really obnoxious

considering many of the Japanese companies like Toyota have plants here in the US.

That said, I drive a Saturn and while I'm happy, there aren't many cars out there by American automakers that I'm very fond of.

[NNadir]

18. I bought "American" and paid through the nose.

I had a 1994 Mercury Sable. The air conditioning broke three times. The seat motors broke. The fucking rear view mirror fell off. The alternator broke. The stereo stopped working. The engine blew after 80,000 miles. The clock broke. The computer chip for the exhaust system failed.

It was the worst car I ever owned.

This was in the era when Ford (Found on Road Dead) (Fix or Repair Daily) had the advertising slogan "Quality is job #1."

We know how they did jobs #2, #3, #4, etc, starting with "planning for the future." They took the money that they didn't spend on intelligent design and quality control and quality assurance and started making Expeditions. They bought Volvo and took the world's safest car manufacturer and turned it into a manufacturer of extremely stupid SUV's.

Fuck Ford.

Now I have a Honda Accord. I have 93,000 miles on it and have had zero problems with it. It actually gets better mileage than advertised.

And don't tell me its the workers, because my car was made in Tennessee.

The secret to success in business is under promising and over delivering. Ford knew that in 1920 but they sure as hell had no clue about that in the 1990's.

Ford sucks because Ford management sucks. Period. Honda succeeds because Honda management knows what the fuck they're doing.

[LeftyMom]

19. I have an American made, American badged car

made with union labor. I :loveya: my Saturn.

That said, Fords are unreliable and unsafe little crapboxes (they do decent big sedans, though) and you couldn't pay me to take one.