GM’s Feeble Attempt to Raise Cash

General Motors has chosen the Arizona Barrett-Jackson event taking place in mid January to start auctioning off more than 250 new and old production models and concepts from the company’s Heritage Museum Collection in an attempt to raise much needed cash.

According to Tom Freiman, manager of the Heritage Center, GM is sorting through the more than 1,000 vehicles in its Special Vehicle Fleet Center in suburban Detroit, looking for duplicates and little used vehicles to sell but hasn't finalized the list of vehicles to be sold. “A list of sale vehicles posted on the Internet is not accurate. GM won't get rid of anything that is one of a kind or is a milestone for the company”, Freiman says.

Gee, we wouldn’t expect them to sell anything truly valuable in order to avoid bankruptcy!

We took a quick look through Barrett-Jackson’s current “lot list” for their January auction and found it tough to figure out which ones are from GM’s collection. Clearly lot number 15.3, a 2003 Chevrolet Aveo "X-Treme Custom" with a Fritz-the-Katt Lime Green tri-coat paint job, Sparco EVO ultra-suede seats, and a full length console with a Sony PlayStation 2, that is not street legal has to be a GM discard. But we don’t think this sale will make much of a dent in the company’s huge debt to American tax payers.

Maybe GM should think about selling the entire museum to collectors with contingencies for repurchase or lease back and maybe they just might have a heritage to save. How can this company lay off workers, close plants and still support a museum with 700+ cars?

As always your comments are always welcome and appreciated so we ask “What do you think about GM not selling all these valuable assets?”

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