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Technology Stocks : American Automobile Industry: Can it survive? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (245)	7/1/2009 7:42:54 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 431

U.S. Auto Sales Slide as GM & Toyota Miss Estimates (Update1) By Jeff Green and Keith Naughton July 1 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. auto sales in June again failed to reach a 10 million annual pace as General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. fell short of analyst estimates, suggesting that the industry hasn’t started to rebound yet. The annual rate fell to 9.69 million cars and light trucks last month, from 9.9 million in May and 13.7 million in June 2008, Autodata Corp. said. Total sales fell 28 percent, to 859,847 vehicles, the 20th straight monthly decline, the Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey-based company said. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had projected that the annual pace for June would climb above 10 million for the first time this year. GM blamed its worse-than-expected results on a new U.S. program to spur trade-ins of older vehicles, saying that kept some buyers on the sidelines. The company said its June 1 bankruptcy filing also scared off some customers. “We are somewhat disappointed that the SAAR came in around 9.9 million,” Mike DiGiovanni, sales analyst at Detroit-based GM, old reporters today on a conference call before the final figures were tallied. “We’ve got these strong headwinds.” Declines at GM, Toyota and Chrysler Group LLC that were wider than analysts had estimated offset better-than-expected results at Ford Motor Co., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. Sales dropped 42 percent from a year earlier at Chrysler, 34 percent at GM and 32 percent at Toyota. Chrysler, which exited bankruptcy during June, cited an end to most sales to fleet customers such as rental companies for its drop. Traffic ‘Fell Off’ “Traffic definitely fell off during the last 10 days of the month,” said David Fischer, owner of 30 auto franchises, mostly in Michigan and Florida. “In my opinion, it was because of consumers waiting to understand the cash-for-clunkers law.” Ford’s deliveries fell 11 percent last month, according to a statement today from the Dearborn, Michigan-based company. The declines were 23 percent for Nissan and 30 percent for Honda. “We expect to see a lot of volatility,” said George Pipas, Ford’s sales analyst. “Some of the things we’re seeing we’ve never seen before in the history of the industry.” Ford’s decline was 14 percent adjusted for one more sales day than in June 2008, compared with the average estimate of 17 percent from five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Tokyo-based Nissan’s adjusted decline was 26 percent, after three analysts estimated an average of 28 percent. Honda was down 32 percent on that basis, while the average estimate was 35 percent. Toyota, GM Declines Toyota’s adjusted decline was 35 percent, higher than the 32 percent average of three analysts. At GM, adjusted sales tumbled 36 percent, compared with a 30 percent average estimate. The sales decline for this year’s first six months was the worst since at least 1976, according to Bloomberg data. Tight credit is still holding down sales and may reduce the annual total by as many as 2 million vehicles, GM’s DiGiovanni said. “There’s no question credit is hurting our market.” The industry may get a boost in the second half from the new government program to offer as much as $4,500 in credits for new-vehicle buyers who turn in older, less fuel-efficient models to be scrapped,” Brian Johnson, a Barclays Capital analyst in Chicago, wrote in a June 29 report. A slowing of the rise in unemployment also may aid auto sales. Job-cut announcements in June fell 9 percent from a year earlier to 74,393, the fewest in more than a year, Chicago-based placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. reported today. It was the first such decrease since February 2008. ‘Turn the Corner’ Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen said yesterday that the U.S. economy may be about to “turn the corner” and repeated that she expects the recession, which began in December 2007, to end later this year. The analysts’ company estimates are adjusted for one more sales day last month than in June 2008, and some automakers report results on that basis. Bloomberg uses unadjusted figures, which for June would be about 4 percentage points better than the adjusted numbers. A 10 million annual sales pace would have helped GM and Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler, which have tried to adjust their costs to break even at that rate. U.S. deliveries totaled 13.2 million last year and averaged 16.8 million from 2000 through 2007. Chrysler’s government-backed reorganization ended after just 42 days, and GM is on a similar path. GM Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson said yesterday that President Barack Obama’s administration may withdraw support if the judge doesn’t approve the sale of some assets to a new GM by July 10. GM reported sales of 174,785 cars and light trucks in June, a drop from 262,329 a year earlier. The decline was 24 percent for cars and 40 percent for light trucks. Ford Tops Toyota Ford, passed by Toyota in annual U.S. sales in 2007, outsold the Toyota City-based company for the third month in a row and leads the Japanese automaker for this year’s first half. Ford’s total sales fell to 155,195 vehicles from 174,091 a year earlier. Sales of its cars declined 17 percent in June, while the Fusion mid-size sedan had a 26 percent gain. Mustang sales were down 30 percent and F-Series pickup trucks, Ford’s biggest seller, fell 7.4 percent. Chrysler said it sold 68,297 cars and trucks, down from 117,457 a year earlier, as sales to retail customers fell 16 percent and sales to business fleets tumbled 95 percent. Asian Automakers Toyota sold 131,654 new vehicles, dropping from 193,234 a year earlier, according to the company’s statement. Sales of cars tumbled 36 percent. Consumer confidence is still the biggest hurdle to auto sales, Toyota U.S. Vice President Bob Carter said on a conference call. Honda’s total dropped to 100,420 from 142,538, according to a statement on the Tokyo-based company’s Web site. Car sales were down 41 percent. Nissan’s U.S. sales for June totaled 58,298 cars and light trucks, compared with 75,847 a year earlier, Al Castignetti, U.S. vice president for the company, said in a telephone interview. “Sales still haven’t recovered in terms of sheer volume numbers, but things are stabilizing,” Castignetti said. Seoul-based Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s largest automaker, reported a 24 percent decline to 37,943 vehicles. To contact the reporters on this story: Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan at jgreen16@bloomberg.net; Keith Naughton in Southfield, Michigan at Knaughton3@bloomberg.net Last Updated: July 1, 2009 18:33 EDT

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (245)	7/7/2009 11:46:34 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 431

Chrysler plans to restart Belvidere plant _______________________________________________________________ July 07, 2009 (AP) — Chrysler plans to restart production at a northern Illinois plant and is recalling hundreds of workers. Spokesman Max Gates says employees have been asked to report for work at the automaker's Belvidere plant on Wednesday. He says the plant will operate through Friday, then go in to a two-week shutdown planned for all Chrysler factories. The Belvidere plant assembles Dodge Calibers, Jeep Patriots and Jeep Compasses. It's been idle since May 1, when Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In May, the company said it planned to lay off 992 of the factory's 2,600 workers on July 27. Gates says that decision is now being reassessed.

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (245)	7/9/2009 4:51:28 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 431

Automakers’ Swift Cases in Bankruptcy Shock Experts _______________________________________________________________ By MICHELINE MAYNARD THE NEW YORK TIMES July 7, 2009 DETROIT — That didn’t take long. In fewer than 45 days each, General Motors and Chrysler swept through government-sponsored sales in bankruptcy court — quick tours that most people in the legal community thought impossible not long ago. The swift action has riveted bankruptcy lawyers and law professors, who say the cases will be widely studied this fall when law students return. “It is remarkable,” said James J. White, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor, who is planning a three-day seminar on the cases in his bankruptcy class. Judge Robert E. Gerber of United States Bankruptcy Court in New York approved the G.M. sale late Sunday, although he issued a four-day stay that blocks final action until Thursday. The sales, handled under Section 363 of the federal bankruptcy code, raised the profile of a tactic once used primarily to shed failing plants or unneeded equipment, and was not considered until a few years ago as a substitute for a complete restructuring. “Twenty years ago, you would not have been able to do a 363 sale of an entire company,” said Mary Joanne Dowd, a partner in the financial and bankruptcy restructuring practice at Arent Fox in Washington. While the cases are not likely to bring about the end of old-style restructurings, the sheer scope of G.M. and Chrysler show a Section 363 sale can apply to companies of any size, lawyers say. For businesses that follow similar legal strategies, the G.M. and Chrysler cases could pave the way for a faster trip through court. For creditors, it could mean less time to reach a deal, especially in situations where companies face strict deadlines from lenders, as the two carmakers did with the government. In such cases where the government plays a major role, lawyers are likely to feel they have less control than in traditional bankruptcies. “I don’t think the government pressures judges as much as it pressures everybody,” said Professor White. In fact, a government-imposed deadline for concluding the G.M. case by the end of this week helped the court work through 850 objections in three days of hearings last week. Normally, such issues could take weeks. The haste drew skepticism from Michael P. Richman, a lawyer who represents three dissident G.M. bondholders. At last week’s hearings, he urged Judge Gerber to “call the bluff” of the government deadline and take a more deliberate pace. (On Monday, Mr. Richman said his clients would likely not challenge the sale approval, citing the “enormous costs” that an appeal would incur.) Obama administration officials say the legal community need not expect a wholesale shift in bankruptcy law. The G.M. and Chrysler cases were unique situations, they note, in which the president wanted to make sure that a crucial American industry survived. Under the terms of the deal, G.M. would sell its most desirable assets, including the Chevrolet and Cadillac brands, to a new company owned largely by the American and Canadian governments and a health care trust for the United Automobile Workers union. Over the last decade, Professor White said, companies already have been shifting toward a broader use of Section 363 sales as a quicker approach for restructuring than the usual Chapter 11 process. In his order approving the G.M. sale late Sunday night, Judge Gerber cited instances involving Lionel, the maker of toy trains, which emerged from bankruptcy last year; Trans World Airlines, which was absorbed by American Airlines in 2001, and other similar cases as justification for his decision. But none involved government financing, and thus moved far less quickly. The most recent Lionel case took three and half years; a case involving United Airlines took just over three years, and the case of the Delphi Corporation, G.M.’s former parts supplier, has been in court since 2005. By contrast, G.M. and Chrysler sales beat even the government’s aggressive timetable. The Treasury Department initially said it expected the Chrysler sale, which required 42 days, including an appeal to the Supreme Court, to be approved in 60 days. It said the G.M. sale would require 60 to 90 days of deliberations; as of Monday, the case has been in court for 36 days. The speed is even more remarkable given that as recently as mid-March, when the Treasury’s auto task force retained bankruptcy counsel, it was not clear the cases would wind up in bankruptcy court, a senior administration official said Monday. At that time, G.M. was still resisting a bankruptcy filing and a case did not seem likely at Chrysler, which had Fiat standing by, prepared to assume management control. Fiat officials eventually signed on to the need for a quick bankruptcy filing, which helped Chrysler shed plants, dealers and suppliers. By mid-April, G.M. came around to the idea of a conventional prepackaged bankruptcy case, which still could have taken months, the official said. Treasury officials pointedly told G.M. executives that the government, which was financing the company’s stay in bankruptcy, did not have the patience or resources for a long case, and would only provide financing under a Section 363 sale. The administration official also said that G.M.’s case moved so quickly in part because it had the benefit of an “icebreaker” from Chrysler’s quick tour through bankruptcy. In his 95-page opinion Sunday, for example, Judge Gerber repeatedly cited the discussion of issues from the opinion by Judge Arthur J. Gonzalez, who approved the Chrysler sale last month. Professor White said the Supreme Court’s ruling against pensioners from Indiana, who sought to block the Chrysler sale, also was likely to deter similar actions in the G.M. case. In fact, so far only one lawyer has challenged Judge Gerber’s approval of the sale: Steve Jakubowski, who represents five accident victims. And even he will not ask to delay the closing of the G.M. sale, unlike the Indiana state funds that objected to Chrysler’s turnaround plan. “I personally didn’t have any problem with the speed of it,” he said of the two cases. “The fact is, the companies were dead.” -Michael J. de la Merced contributed reporting from New York. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (245)	7/10/2009 10:38:33 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 431

New GM Emerges From Remains of Bankrupt Automaker (Update2) By Jeff Green July 10 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co., a new company majority-owned by the U.S. government, emerged from the remains of bankrupt General Motors Corp. by taking over the best assets of the biggest U.S. automaker. GM now consists of four U.S. brands, has about $11 billion in U.S. debt, and will be run by a smaller corps of executives, the Detroit-based company said today. It finished restructuring in 39 days, three days faster than Chrysler Group LLC. The asset handover frees the new GM from most of the obligations of the old entity, which was pushed into Chapter 11 on June 1 by the Obama administration. Joining the U.S. as shareholders are a union retiree trust, the Canadian and Ontario governments, and the old GM. “There’s a lot of PR and marketing that needs to take place,” said Erich Merkle, an independent auto analyst based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “Once you go into bankruptcy, it doesn’t necessarily help change the perception of the company in the minds of the consumer.” Salaried employment will fall by 20 percent, GM said, and the number of U.S. executives will drop by 35 percent to help meet Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson’s goal of shedding management layers to speed decision making. Among the positions being eliminated is that of North American president, now held by Troy Clarke, a group vice president. GM didn’t say whether Clarke would remain with the new company. Lutz’s Role Bob Lutz, GM’s former vehicle czar, returns as vice chairman, responsible for “all creative elements of products and customer relationships,” the company said. Lutz, 77, will report to Henderson and be part of a new executive committee. He had been scheduled to retire at the end of this year. New Chairman Ed Whitacre, the retired CEO of AT&T Inc., took over today. He will preside over a board that is being reconstituted at the direction of President Barack Obama’s auto task force. “We all want to win, we are going to win,” Whitacre, 67, said at a press conference in Detroit. The dealer ranks will shrink to 3,600 as the new company operates only its Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC brands in the U.S. GM is dropping Pontiac, selling Hummer and Saturn and is working to dispose of Sweden’s Saab. Sale Proceeds General Motors Co., not the old GM, will keep the proceeds from the Saturn and Hummer sales, Henderson said at the news conference. The old GM will wind up with 16 abandoned plants, including contaminated factory sites, and a 9-hole golf course in New Jersey. Those will be disposed of by the bankruptcy estate, which is to be run by Albert Koch, and funded with $1.175 billion from the U.S. Treasury. U.S. taxpayers own 60.8 percent of the new company. A trust for United Auto Workers’ retiree medical bills has 17.5 percent of the new GM; the Canadian and Ontario governments have 11.7 percent; and the old GM has 10 percent. GM said its $11 billion in U.S. debt excludes $9 billion in preferred stock, and added that the figure “could change under fresh-start accounting.” Total obligations were cut by more than $40 billion, mostly in unsecured debt and liabilities for the UAW health-care fund, GM said. Going Public “We expect to take the company public again as soon as practical, starting next year, and to repay our government loans as soon as possible,” said Henderson, 50, who got the job in March when the government asked CEO Rick Wagoner to step aside. GM’s manufacturing footprint will shrink in the U.S. to 34 assembly, powertrain and stamping plants by the end of 2010, a decrease from 47 in 2008, according to the company. By the end of this year, U.S. employment will shrink to 64,000, 30 percent fewer jobs than on Dec. 31. GM joins Chrysler in rushing through government-backed restructurings forced on the companies by Obama’s task force as their cash evaporated amid the worst U.S. auto market since the early 1980s. Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 on April 30 and left court protection on June 10 under an alliance with Italy’s Fiat SpA. To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Green in Detroit at jgreen16@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: July 10, 2009 10:09 EDT

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (245)	7/11/2009 11:02:55 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 431

With Bankruptcy Behind It, GM Focuses on a Culture Change By Peter Whoriskey Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 11, 2009 General Motors emerged from bankruptcy yesterday, with chief executive Fritz Henderson promising that the fallen corporate giant will be revived and that "business as usual is over." The announcement signaled the substantial completion of one of the largest bankruptcies in U.S. history and the next step in what has become a landmark government bailout. The new GM will have fewer brands, fewer plants and fewer workers. The number of U.S. executives will be cut by 35 percent. But as important as this shrinking, Henderson said, is the need to transform the automaker's culture, long criticized as insular and sluggish. Once the world's largest automaker, GM has been losing market share for decades. "It is a new era, and everyone associated with the company must realize this and be prepared to change, and fast," Henderson said. Formed by the sale of most of the old company's assets, the new GM is an anomaly among American businesses because most of it is owned by the U.S. and Canadian governments. The U.S. Treasury owns 60.8 percent of the new company's common stock, the UAW retiree health trust has 17.5 percent and the governments of Canada and Ontario own 11.7 percent. Henderson said the company would seek to repay the U.S. investment, but he stopped short of promising that taxpayers would recover all of the $50 billion they put into the company. The company's stock value would have to rise to unprecedented levels for the United States to break even on its investment. Company officials yesterday seized on the company's emergence from 40 days in bankruptcy to advertise efforts to restart the failed automaker. GM will limit its key executive committee to eight people to speed decision-making. It has lured former executive Bob Lutz, a well-regarded industry veteran, out of retirement to lead design, brands and advertising. It hopes to experiment with auctioning cars on eBay. And it is launching a Web site, "Tell Fritz," that will allow consumers to send their comments to company executives. Moreover, Henderson said he would seek to shake the company free of its complacency, vowing to aim for being more than just competitive with rivals. "Going forward, our objective . . . is to create products that consumers can judge as best in class," he said. Even so, the business challenges facing GM are vast. To turn the company around, Henderson and his team must reverse the momentum of a decades-long slide. GM once had a dominant share in the U.S. auto market of more than 50 percent, but that eroded over the years to below 20 percent as the company's reputation for quality declined. Today, many people, particularly on the nation's coasts, are reluctant to buy a GM or any American car. For the most part, the executives creating the "new" GM were also at helm of its failed predecessor, and skeptics have argued that, as a result, the company is unlikely to undergo the radical reform it needs. President Obama's autos team forced former chief executive G. Richard Wagoner Jr. to resign, but he was replaced by Henderson, who is steeped in GM culture. Henderson's father was a GM sales executive, his first car was a 1969 Buick Skylark, and like many GM executives, he has spent nearly his entire career at the company. In response to concerns about the makeup of the executive roster, Henderson said he's pointed out to his leadership team that one definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. "In the end, we simply have to prove ourselves," he said. He said the company is open to hiring outsiders into its senior ranks. To do so, however, it must wait until the Obama administration's "compensation czar" sets standards for their pay packages. After the government chose Henderson as the company's chief executive this spring, it was not clear how long he would remain at the helm. But yesterday Edward E. Whitacre Jr., the former AT&T executive who was chosen by the government's auto task force to be the company's new chairman, showed his support. "I'm a big believer in strong leadership," Whitacre said. "We have that in Fritz and in this top management team." The new GM will have only four core brands: Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC. By the end of 2011, the company plans to operate 34 plants, down from 47 in 2008. Its U.S. employment is slated to shrink from about 91,000 to about 64,000 by the end of this year. The number of dealers will shrink from 6,000 to 3,600 by the end of the year as well. "I know most Americans want this company to succeed," Whitacre said. Critics of the bailout and some of GM's creditors have said that the company should have been allowed to fail. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.) dismissed the company's boasts that it had completed the bankruptcy sale in far less time than many experts had predicted. It is "amazing how fast a company can emerge from Chapter 11 when you inject $40 billion of involuntary taxpayer capital into the process," Hensarling said in a statement yesterday. But U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert E. Gerber, who approved the sale, wrote in a July 7 ruling that a liquidation would be "staggering." The case "raises the specter of systemic failure throughout the North American auto industry," the judge wrote. "I find it hardly surprising that the U.S., Canadian and Ontario governments would not stand idly by and allow those consequences to happen."

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (245)	7/14/2009 6:40:32 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 431

Rattner Departs as Head of U.S. Panel Overseeing GM & Chrysler By John Hughes July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Steven Rattner stepped down as head of the U.S. panel that forced General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC into bankruptcy, signaling the government was easing into a new role as a passive investor in the automakers. His departure leaves Ron Bloom, a former union adviser and Lazard Ltd. vice president, to oversee remaining Obama administration carmaker decisions, including when to sell stakes in the two companies it bailed out with more than $75 billion in taxpayer money. Rattner, the Wall Street investor named by President Barack Obama to lead the task force in February, pushed through the reorganizations by demanding concessions from the union, the carmakers and bondholders, and firing GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner. With both companies having emerged from bankruptcy, the government wants to turn operations over to management as soon as possible, analysts said. “The administration definitely wants the perception to be out there that they’re not going to have their fingerprints in every decision,” said Clint Currie, an analyst with Concept Capital’s Washington Research Group. Rattner, 57, is leaving “with GM’s restructuring complete” and the government entering a new phase of “unprecedented and temporary involvement in the automotive industry,” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in a statement yesterday. The department, which formed the task force, didn’t say when the resignation would be effective. Quadrangle Probe Rattner has no plans to return to Quadrangle Group LLC, the New York City private equity firm he co-founded, according to a person familiar with his plans. Adam Miller, a spokesman for Quadrangle, declined to comment, and Rattner couldn’t be reached. Quadrangle in April was linked to federal and state probes of millions of dollars in pension fund kickbacks in New York. Obama expressed confidence in Rattner at the time, and a Treasury spokesman said Rattner had told the department about the investigation. Robert Gibbs, Obama’s press secretary, told reporters on April 17 that Rattner wasn’t accused of any wrongdoing. New York’s attorney general has stepped up its probe of Quadrangle, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday, while declining to provide any details. Rattner’s departure was announced three days after the new GM was formed, with 60.8 percent ownership by the federal government, and about a month after Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy with a 9.85 percent stake owned by the government. Bondholder Protests The Treasury helped bankroll the automakers’ reorganizations, with $65 billion for GM and $12 billion for Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler. “Steve’s expertise was a key contributor toward a new GM emerging in record time,” GM Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson said in a statement yesterday. Rattner fired Wagoner after rejecting a recovery plan filed by GM in February. Some creditors and lawmakers objected to the handling of the bankruptcy. Bondholders protested the asset sales of the companies as unfair, and a House panel voted last week to require GM and Chrysler to restore agreements with auto dealerships shed during bankruptcy proceedings. Detroit-based GM has said it’s closing about 1,350 dealers to save costs. Chrysler Group didn’t keep 789 of 3,188 dealerships when it bought assets from bankrupt Chrysler LLC. Rattner, in a conference call with reporters on July 6, said people on the task force were “eager to resume their previous lives once we have truly completed our work.” “The task force will inevitably get smaller as this becomes more of a monitoring function,” he said. Passive Role Obama administration officials have said that their role overseeing the car companies going forward would be limited to decisions such as picking board members. “We are not going to micromanage or get involved in day- to-day decisions,” Rattner said on July 6. “We’re not picking colors of cars.” The leadership role falls to Bloom, a former United Steelworkers union adviser. Bloom helped negotiate the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. health-care fund and counseled airline pilots in the $4.9 billion employee buyout of UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, in 1994. “Job one for Ron Bloom is to get the government out of these equity positions in GM and Chrysler, preferably before the next election,” said auto analyst Michael Robinet of CSM Worldwide, a Northville, Michigan, consulting firm that did research for the task force. “The American public does not want to be long term owners of car companies.” Close Hand Craig Wiggins, president of Tooling & Equipment Capital Solutions Inc., said he met with Bloom in March to lobby for better payment terms for tool and die makers. “I’d hate to play Texas hold ‘em against him, he doesn’t show his hand,” he said. In the session that lasted about an hour, Bloom pushed Wiggins and representatives of the industry on why they deserved to get paid on a faster timetable, Wiggins said. Tool and die makers often aren’t paid for a year or more. “He wanted to touch the nerves,” Wiggins said. “He likes to get real responses, not rehearsed pitches.” Last month, a group led by Fiat SpA completed its purchase of most Chrysler LLC assets. The new company, Chrysler Group LLC, is owned 20 percent by Turin, Italy-based Fiat, 9.85 percent by the U.S., 2.46 percent by Canada and 67.69 percent by a United Auto Workers union retiree health care trust fund. To contact the reporter on this story: John Hughes in Washington at jhughes5@bloomberg.net Last Updated: July 14, 2009 00:00 EDT