How You Can Help Hurricane Victims
By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman
As you know, we generally try to keep the conversation on this blog focused on GM products and services. But, given the extraordinarily tragic circumstances in the South following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, I feel compelled to urge you to please give what you can to help the victims of this horrific storm. A list of links providing opportunities to help is presented below.
To our GM employees, GM is matching your donations to the American Red Cross made through this page. And to others, here are some additional good relief organizations, (with thanks to The New York Times and Instapundit):
Episcopal Relief & Development
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Thanks for doing this. I’m proud to be a GM car owner when I see something like this. I hope other companies follow suit.
Katrina’s Aftermath: How to Help
GM is offering to match donations made to the Red Cross by GM employees. Info is in their blog of course. For the rest of us non-GM employees here are some handy links: Red Cross America’s Second Harvest HUmane Society…
GOOD JOB GM!!! Lets see how many company’s will follow they need all the help they can get.
A blog is a place for personal thoughts and I’m not sure there is a person in America who is not thinking about Katrina and the devastation she left in her wake. I felt kind of guilty surfing car sites, but we need a break and cars are my release valve.
Compassion and Corporate America does exist. Thanks, Bob.
There is also adra.org it is a relief agency from the Seventh Day Adventis Church and they do great work all over the world and are commited to helpimg with the aftermath of Katrina as well.
Bob
Your philanthropy is honerable, and it is great that some companies in the private sector are matching charitable donations. As a GM supporter, I’m glad to hear that GM is trying to help hurricane victims.
However, please keep in mind how much your company is losing per car. Can GM really afford to save the world this time ?
Jim
GM,
Thanks for the message and I am part of a fortune five hundred company that is also taking actions to assist. I am a GM ownwer and again thanks for stepping up to help.
John
I think the best way to help the hurricane victims would be to offer them a job.
Obviously, they need immediate short term assistance. But eventually they will need a long term solution and welfare is not it.
GM uses blog to match employee donations to hurricane victims
Following the hurricane disaster in the US, it’s great to see Bob Lutz, the Vice Chairman of GM, using his blog not only as a conduit to raise money but to tell the world that his company will match any
This may sound like a bad idea, but I’d like to see GM donate a few thousand SUVs and trucks to the poor people in New Orleans.
GM should extend employee pricing to all gulf coast residents who need to buy a car to replace destroyed vehicles indefinitly. Not only would this help people when they begin to rebuild, it would generate great goodwill and market share gains in this area.
People need to quit bellyaching about GM losing money on cars. It can be made back on the GMAC financing. Market share uber alles!, when people realize how good the cars are, pricing power will build over time. Forget Wall Street! Let the share price sink. Then buy up the shares and turn the company private, so you don’t have to listen to those wall street hacks anymore!:) Toyota doesn’t have to worry about wall street’s short term expectations and can plan for the long term- it shows. The myopic U.S. business model with its focus on short term is why the Japanese have been winning the car wars. Autos are not fashions or hamburgers It takes engineeering excellence and long term quality to win. GM has assembly quality down; engineering supremacy must be restored- even if its expensive. The company that builds the best cars without bean counter naysaying- er BMW, will have the greatest pricing power and ultimately the best business . Build great cars and market share. This will restore GM to the dominant position it held until the 1980’s. anything less- even if its profitable in the short term is failure.
GM Vice Chairman Raises Katrina Funds Through Blog
Bob Lutz, GM Vice Chairman, is using the GM blog at http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/ to raise money for Katrina relief efforts. He states that GM will match GM employee donations to the American Red Cross through the following site:
https://www.redcross...
I agree with Bill Van Koughnet, give the victims an excellent deal on a new GM vehicle.
But what about all the damaged vehicles? Chances are they will be fixed, half heartedly, and shipped around the county to unsuspecting used car dealers. It might be in GM’s best interest to work with the insurance companies to get all these GM brand vehicles off the market. If not, there will be thousands of used car buyers across the nation that will blame GM for the vehicles problems.
Think about it, this is good PR.
with uncertainty over constantly rising gasoline prices likely keeping many people from buying new cars, I have a suggestion which I hope you might be able to pass on to GM,
GM will, I hope, consider the following Gasoline Peace of Mind Program as a sales tool:
Thirty six gasoline fill ups, at the grade of the owner’s choice, regular, premium, etc. at any name brand gas station accepting the program, over thirty six months, at no cost to the owner of any new GM vehicle. May be passed on to subsequent owners. To be implemented via a debit card which
debits GM for the cost of the gasoline. Card would carry the vehicle’s VIN # and could be used at any name brand gas station accepting the program. Owner could turn in the card if it had any unused fill ups on it to the new owner or to the dealer if the dealer becomes the new owner on trade-in, which could then be passed on by the dealer to the subsequent owner, etc.
A similar program could be used for used vehicles bearing the GM brand and sold by GM dealers,
perhaps for 18 fill ups over 18 months.
With a program like that in effect a customer would not have to worry about the price of gas, because whatever the price of gas becomes, GM would pay for it, according to the program outlined above. That would overcome the objection that may be keeping consumers from buying now.
I’m proud to be a GM car owner when I see something like this. I hope other companies follow suit.
But what about all the damaged vehicles? Chances are they will be fixed, half heartedly, and shipped around the county to unsuspecting used car dealers. It might be in GM’s best interest to work with the insurance companies to get all these GM brand vehicles off the market. If not, there will be thousands of used car buyers across the nation that will blame GM for the vehicles problems
I hope all will be fine