Pontiac Aztek and General Motors
Pontiac Aztek and General Motors on trends Hot Topics --- Pontiac Aztek and General Motors. Potiac Aztek is a mid-size crossover produced by the General Motors marque Pontiac from the 2001 model year to the 2005 model year. The first one of crossover offering by general motors.
GM forecast sales of up to 75,000 Azteks per year, and needed to produce 30,000 annually to break even. Just 27,322 were sold in 2001 with more than 50% being sold to captive rental company fleets or used by General Motors executives.
The Aztek was heavily criticized on its exterior styling, with Time magazine in 2007 calling the Aztek one of the worst cars of all time, and a poll in The Daily Telegraph in August 2008 placing the Aztek at number one of “The 100 ugliest cars” of all time.
General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre has bragged in TV commercials and newspaper columns that GM has paid back its bailout "in full and ahead of schedule."
As with the Pontiac Aztek, an ugly exterior masks an ever darker problem: Whitacre is being fanciful to the point of deceit. GM received $50 billion in TARP funds (never mind that TARP was only supposed to cover financial institutions). About $7 billion of that came in the form of a straight-up, low-interest loan. And about $13 billion came in the form of an escrow account.
So how has GM, which lost $38 billion in 2007 even as it sold 9.4 million cars, paid back its debt? It took money from the escrow account to pay back the $6.7 billion loan.
Tags: General Motors, Pontiac Aztek, Toyota, Honda, Ferrari
GM forecast sales of up to 75,000 Azteks per year, and needed to produce 30,000 annually to break even. Just 27,322 were sold in 2001 with more than 50% being sold to captive rental company fleets or used by General Motors executives.
The Aztek was heavily criticized on its exterior styling, with Time magazine in 2007 calling the Aztek one of the worst cars of all time, and a poll in The Daily Telegraph in August 2008 placing the Aztek at number one of “The 100 ugliest cars” of all time.
General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre has bragged in TV commercials and newspaper columns that GM has paid back its bailout "in full and ahead of schedule."
As with the Pontiac Aztek, an ugly exterior masks an ever darker problem: Whitacre is being fanciful to the point of deceit. GM received $50 billion in TARP funds (never mind that TARP was only supposed to cover financial institutions). About $7 billion of that came in the form of a straight-up, low-interest loan. And about $13 billion came in the form of an escrow account.
So how has GM, which lost $38 billion in 2007 even as it sold 9.4 million cars, paid back its debt? It took money from the escrow account to pay back the $6.7 billion loan.
Tags: General Motors, Pontiac Aztek, Toyota, Honda, Ferrari
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