GM CEO To Continue Flying Private, Company Will Downsize Jet Fleet

From ABC News:

General Motors said today that it is putting two of its five corporate jets out of service because the planes are not being used enough. The top three executives at GM, however, will continue to use the private luxurious jets for all of their business and personal travel, despite a flurry of criticism over the perk following an ABC News report this week.

An ABC News investigation revealed that the top three automakers have together spent several hundred million dollars to buy, maintain, and operate a fleet of top-of-the-line private jets for their top executives.

Comments

[katlade]

Keep the plane and get rid of the CEO.

[Highwind]

I think they should sell them, not just put them out of service. I mean they do have assets that they could at least sell them.

[hapiday]

Chrysler is not a part of the big 3. It is an entity within itself. Chrysler is part of a hedge fund. I thought these hedge funds were part of the financial crisis. Where's the oversight committee? Let Chrysler fend for themselves. Congress should only agree to 12 billion to be divided between the big 2. These companies need to change their greedy ways. See good article.

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/02/cerberus-sold-big-gmac-and-chrysler-stakes-report-says/

[Voltage]

I once worked for a small, local company that went bankrupt. The owner immediately started another business. even though he had put a few dozen people out of jobs and owed suppliers all over town he drove around in an expensive red sports car. That fact that the car was already leased and would have been more expensive to dispose of then keep was irrelevant. He was sending out the wrong message and had trouble finding new employees or getting suppliers to extend credit. All anybody talked about was that bloody red sports car.

Perception is everything.

[dolphy]

It's a better idea to get rid of the CEO's. Period.

[RJII]

funny. keep the jets, get rid of the CEO's

[dolphy]

Sorry to digress a little bit.

The greenest car IS the compressed air powered car now being manufactured and sold in France for under 20K USD. It's made of almost 100% recyclable materials and does not have a big bank of batteries that need to be properly disposed of. The cars can go almost 200 miles for every fill-up and with the help of half a gallon of bio-diesel, can go for 800 miles. It gets the equivalent of 120 miles/gallon when we consider the electricity needed to produce the compressed air.

[dolphy]

BTW, it seats 5

[Truthosaurus]

Thanks for the post. I had not heard of this, and was just reading through some online articles. While I have some skepticism regarding the efficiency when factoring compressing the air into the storage tank, the combustion engine is not all that efficient either, witness all the heat it looses. At the least, this air car could be a niche car for local around town traffic. People get hung up about needing to drive hundreds of miles, when majority of trips are far less. And many people have two cars anyway. I plan to keep a petrol car for longer trips and a straight electric (when they are available) for most of the shorter trips.

[Highwind]

Yeah! I think this is so cool. There are so many ways to runs cars without gasoline and the American automobile makers refused to start restructuring. NOW!

[Snwbnny9]

ONE jet is ONE too many!

If I fell on hard times, I couldn't drive my mercedes to the welfare office to apply for foodstamps. They would (rightly) tell me to sell the expensive car and use that money first.

If a private citizen applies for financial assistance from a social welfare program, the program administrators go thru you finances with a fine tooth comb. Why is it these guys think they can just say "we need the money" and they should get it?

Traveling by personal jet IS NOT a necessity.

[OlderBudWeiser]

Since we already injected a lot of capital into the banks, let them go to the bank and borrow. Then they may have some accountability and incentive to improve. Or, then, there's always the oil companies to borrow from. They have been floating their boat on oil for a long time.

[Forester]

No Fair!!!
I'd be flying those badboy jets all over the place! These CEO's get handed big bucks, they don't steal it from anyone. They just flat out don't know any better. No different than Paris Hilton or any other no talent assclowns who make rediculous money.

[bluguy8]

get rid of the planes--get rid of the 3 CEO's----where's the business plan ? sorry guys no money

[blondecuban]

Sorry, but they should get rid of all the jets. There are no security issues -- just delusions of grandeur.

[MontereyDean]

I know! Besides, with the money they're making, and we, the taxpayers, are about to give them more, I betcha, they can afford to buy their own jets!

[filo]

They can put 'em on eBay !

[trollsbwild]

Why didn't these three CEO's take one plane for yesterday's meeting? Shouldn't they be giving the appearance they are concerned about costs and perceptions?
I suggest anyone rewatch Roger and Me. They were clueless then and seem to have not changed a bit. Any bailout should contain a provision to throw these three bums out, along with the respective boards.

[smarternu]

Like my Grandpappy used to say. You can try with all your might but you just can't shine S#-IT.

[Airforce-1]

LOL

[MCSqueak]

Actually, not to disparage your grandfather, but on an episode of Mythbusters last week they showed that yes, you can actually shine s--t. ;)

Go look it up on the Discovery channel website!

[Forester]

Jamie and Adam are really scraping the bottom now.

[SatinPanties]

Are you serious? Somebody actually went and tried this??

Just when you think you've seen/heard it all!

[Snowspot]

Well it makes sense to have one... call me crazy..

[Mainer36]

YEA THAT SHOULD SAVE THE COMPANY!