How would a bridge loan save the big three?

They aren't selling enough cars & as of today GM & Chrysler are technically bankrupt. I have seen statements that 18 billion will get them through the first quarter or first half of the year. What happens after that? How do the automakers propose to sell more cars with this bridge loan?

I need a new car, I always buy GM vehicles. I have excellent credit and could get a loan today but I have no confidence in my ability to repay the loan. The company I work for is laying off people and I might be among the next round of those who are let go. With 500,000 people a month losing their jobs the job market is not that great so a replacement job will be difficult to obtain.

I feel a majority of people are thinking along the same lines as I am. We will not buy anything major until their is some kind of hope that the economic troubles are behind us. Many people used rising home equity to finance the purchase of a new vehicle, that is no longer an option.

I do not believe we are even close to a turnaround in our economy. I believe we are headed for a depression even if we loaned the big three unlimited cash to survive. I think we should give the car companies help but will it just delay the inevitable?

and he will find a solution for them

Seriously, I voted for President Obama and have confidence he can mitigate the damage done by the Bush administration but there is little anyone can do to change the course we are on. The scope of this mess is huge. The second wave of mortgage defaults has yet to hit (alt A & option arms), the commercial real estate defaults will follow along with defaults on credit cards.
I do not see us turning it around without a depression. I do not see the demand for new vehicles to increase to the levels we had three years ago. People will lose their jobs at GM/Ford/Chrysler along with us common factory workers. No demand equals no sales. No sales equals no production. No production means excess workers. It is happening where I work right now. 150 laid off this week, a warning that another 500 to be let go in June. Our corporate office is laying off 100, other facilities in the company are laying off although not as heavily as ours is. NO new hiring planned/no vacant jobs filled. I doubt anyone in our company is going to buy a new car soon.

As much as I would like to believe President Obama will change things I believe it is beyond any one's ability. I hope I am pleasantly surprised but...............

If we don't have the factories and the people to make them, then forget about any modern public transportation system that we need.

more importantly, to give them life while SOMEBODY kicks the bankers a** to stop hoarding money! It was the bankers who got all that taxpayer bailout money, and now they're not willing to lend ANY OF IT because they're scared??????? BS!

If you can believe even part of what you hear, there are qualified buyers who were actually IN showrooms, but the chickensh*t bankers won't OK the loans.

Depends. I mean if you were an insane country your leader would speak out to the nation and tell you there is no hope these companies are doomed, this recession will destroy the country as you know it. Which of course will only worsen the economic down fall and very likely destroy the autoindustry. Lucky for us this loser of a leader will be leaving office soon.

I said almost the same thing in another thread last week and was immediately equated with hating the American worker. The difference was that I was saying more people were buying foreign cars because they were more durable, more affordable, and got better fuel economy...and that giving these companies a loan was just postponing the inevitable collapse. My question was why should we waste the money on more of the same. I haven't seen any contracts that say these companies will immediately stop production on the gas guzzling stupid cars that currently clog the car lots because nobody's buying them, and concentrate on increasing the quality and fuel economy of the sensible models. If we hand over money so that they can continue down the path that led to failure in the first place, we're sure to never get it back when they all go under...then it won't be a loan, just money wasted.

But X million people might lose their jobs, you say? If the companies don't change management and products, they will all be out of jobs soon anyway, no matter how much money gets tossed at their bosses.