Detroit Free Press reports the U.S. Treasury lost $11.2 billion in taxpayer money from the rescue of General Motors back in 2008, up from the $10.3 billion estimated after the agency sold its remaining shares back in early December 2013. Part of the final figure came as a write-off of an $826 million “administrative claim,” which was found in a report by the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The overall figure pales in comparison to the $50.2 billion given by both Bush and Obama administrations between 2008 and 2009 to GM as the automaker struggled through its financial crisis at the onset of the Great Recession.
In other financial news, Automotive News reports the automaker’s new financial arm, GM Financial, has launched a pilot program for prime-risk consumers in preparation for an expansion into the market later this summer. In addition, the auto lender proclaimed last week that it began GM-backed lending in the near-prime market during Q1 2014 alongside its subvented subprime loans. Finally, GM Financial reported a net income of $145 million during the same period — acquiring the majority of former GM lender Ally Financial’s International Operations, as well — with loan and lease originations totally $2.1 billion in the United States and Canada, $4.2 globally.
Another former GM subsidiary is looking into “improper payments” made by employees in China. As Reuters reports, Delphi found a number of these payments by manufacturing facility employees, which could be in violation of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The supplier is working closely with both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as contacted outside counsel to assist. Delphi warned that if what they found was true, the violations “could result in criminal and/or civil liabilities and other forms of penalties or sanctions.”
The Detroit News says GM has begun construction on a new motorsport engine design and production facility set to open in 2016 within its Global Powerplant headquarters in Pontiac, Mich. One hundred engineers and technicians are expected to transfer from their posts in Wixom, Mich. to 138,000-square-foot Performance and Racing Center in Pontiac by the middle of 2015, where they will work alongside the production engine team in sharing technology gathered from the track. The center, part of a $200 million investment into GM’s Pontiac facility, will offer an electric motor lab and a gear center to aid in the development of advanced electric motors and transmissions.
Finally, Forbes posits that GM’s lack of thorough engagement with its customers could once again give some loyalists pause before giving their favorite brand the benefit of a doubt. In one example, the automaker — which already had fewer engaged consumers pre-recall than the likes of Ford, Hyundai and Toyota with their respective recalls — posted the largest post-recall decline while Toyota and Hyundai lost the least after their recalls. The low engagement figures for GM could be a sign of things to come as it works its way through its many issues beyond the original recall in February 2014.
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