The year is coming to a close, and for US automakers General Motors and Chrysler, it’s been one heck of a ride. After paying a heavy toll to the recession, they were forced to seek out a whopping sum of $82 billion in bailout money from the US government so that they won’t be forced to close the doors of their factories.
According to a recent report by the Detroit News, it seems that the government will get back around $52 billion from the original money it spent on the two automakers. Now I’m sure most of our US readers aren’t too happy, but it seems that at least according to Gene Sperling, the senior counsel to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, a $30 billion loss is much better than the estimated $44 billion the Obama administration estimated it would lose, and considering the fact that things are looking up, the loss might get even smaller.
Don’t forget that GM is doing everything it can, including selling portions of its Asian subsidiaries, in order to pay out the bailout money as soon as possible. Chrysler is taking it slow and steady under Fiat’s plan, but will also scramble the money as soon as possible. Until then, US taxpayers still need to wait for their hard earned money to come back.
Source: DetroitNews via Autoblog
