General Motors’ quick and sudden move to give Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Gallaraga a Chevrolet Corvette convertible cost them $53,000. However, despite giving away the car for nary a penny, GM is still all smiles about the whole thing.
Proving that they’re also shrewd businessmen, General Motors made a calculated decision of giving Gallaraga the Corvette, not just because they wanted to reward the man who lost out on a perfect game because of an errant call by an umpire, but also because they thought that by doing so, the media mileage behind that story would’ve made everything worth it. Turns out, the gamble paid off. Big time.
According to Joyce Julis & Associates, a Michigan-based firm that deals with stuff involving sponsorships and their public reach, GM’s give-away of the Corvette to Gallaraga netted them a ton of media coverage, thanks in large part to how big the whole story became. JJ&A estimates that the media mileage GM received was equivalent to that of $9 million, which in case you’re wondering is a far cry from the $53,000 Corvette they gave away.
General Motors is in the process of beginning a global recall of GM cars and trucks over what is feared to be a glitch in the cars’ and trucks’ windshield wiper fluid heating system. According to GM, the malfunction could potentially lead to the system igniting a fire and, as such, the company is doing a pre-emptive strike on the dangerous issue by recalling over 1.53 million vehicles all over the world.
This isn’t the first time General Motors has diagnosed a potential problem in their vehicles’ fluid heating system. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, GM faced a similar problem two years ago when fires resulting from an electrical short cut in the system were reported.
And to make things worse for the company, their supplier, Micro-Heat, is already out of business after having filed for bankruptcy in 2008, which, incidentally was shortly after GM decided to drop them as a supplier after the first recall happened.
So what exactly happens to all of these 1.53 million vehicles (1.36 million of them are in the US)? GM will be permanently disabling and will be completely removing the heated-washer fluid module from all the affected vehicles. On top of that, they’re also giving each affected owner a $100 refund for taking out the module completely.
Sometimes, we often catch ourselves imagining what it must feel like to be Jay Leno. No, we’re not interested in how he gets all of these celebrities to appear on his show - okay, maybe a little - but more so because, as we all know, there’s not a lot of people in this world that can boast of having a similar car collection as the one the comedian has.
But out of all his cars - yeah, there’s a lot of ’em - the EcoJet is one of those that doesn’t fail to illicit drools from all of us. Powered by a Honeywell LT101 jet turbine engine that produces over 750 horsepower and 700 lb/ft of torque while churning out 48,000 rpm while using biodiesel as fuel.
Recently, Jay Leno brought his EcoJet to the All GM Show in Van Nuys, California where it was, as expected, one of the stars of the show. Check out this video of the EcoJet’s appearance at the show, courtesy of our buddies over at ConcoursBlog.
General Motors company Opel doesn’t appear to be getting the funding that they will need. Germany is seeking new sources of funding for the company, but the country will officially reject a state-aid request, according to Automotive News.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is opposed to granting Opel aid from the government rescue fund. The fund was set up to distribute loans and assistance to companies that are affected by the economic downturn. That being said, Germany is still seeking to help Opel. One option includes asking the European Investment Bank for funding.
A steering committee for aid assistance will reject the GM’s application for 1.1 billion euros in federal and regional loans. Part of the reason for this rejection is because GM has enough cash to restructure Opel and the downturn of the company was caused by model failures in the U.S, not by the financial crisis.
The committee will meet again later today.
In total, GM is looking for 1.92 billion euros in aid from European countries. The aid will help GM reorganize Opel, which will include shutting down a plant in Antwerp, Belguim. The closing of the factory would eliminate 8,300 jobs.
Europe was the only region where GM posted a loss in profit in the first quarter, as the company posted an $865 million net profit in total.
“The first responsibility for Opel very clearly rests with GM,” Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle told German public broadcaster ARD television, adding that GM has about 10 euros in free liquidity after fully paying back credits from U.S. and Canadian governments. “GM is able to reorganize itself through its own funds.”
Spain has already granted Opel the funds they will need.
By now, you’ve probably seen and heard all about the recent Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians baseball game where Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga’s perfect game was robbed from him after first-base umpire Jim Joyce missed an obscenely obvious call with two outs at the bottom of the ninth inning.
The resulting backlash from the controversial call has been a firestorm, to say the least, but to Galarraga’s credit, he was neither bitter nor resentful at Joyce for taking his perfect game from him. Now, as a sign of how much the perfect game meant to Galarraga and how he handled the fallout afterwards, General Motors is doing its part in lessening the devastating effect of the perfect-game-that-wasn’t by giving Galarraga his very own 2010 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport.
Mark Reuss, GM’s North American president and an acquaintance of Tigers owner Mike Ilitch, said the Corvette was given not only because of Galarraga’s amazing performance, but, more importantly, because of the gracious way he handled the fallout after getting robbed of a perfect game.
"It is only fitting we help give back for all the Ilitches have done for Detroit and to celebrate Armando’s pitching and sportsmanship during one of the most captivating evenings in Tigers history," Reuss said.
That’s pretty nice of GM to be give Galarraga a Corvette as somewhat of a consolation prize, but as life-long baseball fans, we can tell you how hard it is for a pitcher to get a perfect game in the big leagues so we’re pretty sure that it’s still stewing in the back of the minds of all those involved in that game, especially Galarraga and umpire Jim Joyce.
If you haven’t seen how the whole controversy went down, check out the video after the jump and prepare to get shocked.
