Classic Interview from 2009 on The G Gordon Liddy Show

This is the G. Gordon Liddy Show. Hi ladies and gentlemen, General Motors Chief Executive Rick Wagoner is now saying that the automaker would be liquidated if it were to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This is a very drastic statement considering many companies choose Chapter 11. Chapter 11 bankruptcy for protection from creditors and the ability to reorganize.

Thus this landmark statement raises the question of whether General Motors could be solvent even with additional bailout funds. Now to discuss this with me, I have a second generation car guy as my guest. His father, Bob Dilmore, worked for Buick Motor Division for 17 years and is now CEO of an automotive consulting firm. Robby Dilmore, my guest, spent 35 years in the retail automobile business going all the way from car washer, lot boy, up to service manager. And then he switched to selling cars and he became the finance and insurance manager for new and used cars sales. Robby has been with the Jeep dealership for 10 years, right up until 2008. And he now has a radio show of his own. It's called the Christian Car Guy, which was started when he was still running his dealership in 2006.

And Robby, welcome to the show. Wow, it's great to be on with you. This is a pretty exciting time for the car business. Yeah, it is an exciting time, interesting time.

As an old Chinese curse say, may you live in interesting times. Why do you think Wagoner would say that Chapter 11, which is specifically designed for protection from creditors while you reorganize, it would give him the ability to break these legacy contracts and all the rest of it that are strangling GM. Why would he say that it's, which is what he's saying, it's the functional equivalent of Chapter 7?

I don't understand that. Because, see General Motors, it takes a lot of money to operate a company through Chapter 11 in that they don't feel like they have the debtor in possession financing, which would be 12 to 13 billion dollars in order to get them through that. So the only option as they go in there would be to start to liquidate because, you know, it's so hard for them to get financing right now if the government doesn't provide something for them on the backside. Well, the talk now is that the government will be imposing various schemes and things that would be the functional equivalent of Chapter 11.

But I don't see that happening. Because the last thing UAW wants is for the, you know, the company to be able to get out of these horrendous legacy costs that they've got. Well, the UAW's in a sort of a survival mode themselves trying to figure out. And like I say, that's why it's sort of an exciting time for the car business because what comes out of this will be sort of a phoenix after the ashes into, you know, where we're headed from here. But nobody tends to want to talk about the real problem because what General Motors is facing, what all the carmakers are facing right now, is an American public that is not in a position to buy cars like they have been in the past. There's a tremendous debt problem that nobody seems to be in all the plans I've seen laid out and all the things that General Motors is doing. Nobody's saying, what are we going to do about the fact that the average American right now has $5,000 in negative equity and they're not in a position to trade and how are we going to address that with a vehicle that will sell in this current market? And so, you know, there's big, huge issues that have got to be addressed in order for them to go back and seek the financing to where somebody said, okay, that's a viable business plan.

We think this can work. You know, what's it going to take to convince the business world to give them that kind of financing? Well, now, Robbie, you were a dealer and my understanding is that General Motors and Chrysler and Ford have far more dealers than they need, but they're involved in contracts, franchise agreements that are in accordance to the laws of the several states.

And that would also require probably a Chapter 11 to straighten that out. What's the dealer situation? Well, the dealer situation is very, very difficult right now because everybody's geared up to sell the, you know, 17, 18 million cars that the American auto industry represented the last few years. But now, with the current average being more around 9 million cars, it's not just the manufacturers that are suffering big time. You know, all the dealers are. In fact, I saw on these books in the day that Sonic, one of the largest chains, is considering whether or not they're going to be solvent, you know, moving forward.

So it's a very, very difficult time to figure out where is all the cash going to come because one thing that car businesses require is gobs and gobs of cash and who, right this minute, realizing the potential for sales isn't what it has been, is willing to loan that money. Yeah. Now, they have to floor plan their inventory, don't they? Absolutely.

And the bigger stores, you know, that's 20, 25 million dollars that they've got sitting out there. Wow. Now, how much of a drag on sales is it, the fact that people have to consider, let's say I'm going to go buy a Chrysler or something or I haven't been thinking of it. But these people may be out of business and I'll have an orphan. Yeah.

Tell me about that. There's even closer problems that they may run into, which is dealers that have financial issues. You know, they trade in a car, there's supposed to be a payoff. And they need to be really careful to make sure that in that transaction they actually get the check for the payoff or they know for certain that the dealer that they've traded with is going to pay off their trade because what's happening with some of these dealers, some of these dealers go bankrupt, is that there's people that traded in cars that their trade-ins were never paid off and they're left holding a bag on the new car that they now have finance as well as the car that they traded in.

So that's a real right. The second issue, then you've got the long-term issue, who's going to handle the warranty and how am I going to get parts if the car goes out. And all these things are part of what's pushing car sales down right this minute.

But the nice thing is we know God will make a way where there seems to be no way and there's got to be a way to drive sales because any expert in the field will tell you the answer to this problem is we've got to sell our way out of it. Okay. Robbie, we need to take a quick break for the benefit of our sponsors. Folks, if you'd like to get in on this conversation, it's 1-800-GG-LITTY, 1-800-445-4339. My guest is Robbie Dilmore. He's a real car guy.

He knows the business and now's your chance to find out from an expert. And I've got a few more questions for you, Robbie. If you just be kind enough to stand by, we'll be right back after these words. This is the Jean Gordon Liddy Show.

It's time to Duck and Cover. This is the Jean Gordon Liddy Show. Hi, ladies and gentlemen.

I'm back with my guest, Robbie Dilmore. And Mr. Dilmore, I noticed from your bio that you work for Truth Broadcasting and you have three radio shows, Christian Car Guy, Robbie's Hobbies, and ChristianSwapShop.com. Now, I understand the enterprises, but I don't quite understand the Christian connection. Well, obviously, the Lord has a huge part in what we all do, and I was really excited to be able to take my passion for the automobile business and other things into the Christian network. Truth Broadcasting is a Christian teaching and talk network, and we reach out to Christians throughout the Southeast. And again, I'm on Sirius Channel 161 Family, that radio as well, with a message of, you know, how can we find out what God's doing and sort of get in on it, even in the car business? I see.

Okay. Well, what is God doing in the car business? I mean, if there was ever a business that needs God right now, it's the car business.

We do, and certainly I'm hoping that people be praying for them. What we need is, and the Bible tells us not to be doing it, we don't need all this debt. And it's all of us that made cars idols, so to speak, that went out and bought more cars than we could afford, a lot more houses than we could afford. The situation is that debt's a real huge issue in the American economy, and people can't trade when the banks won't continue to just keep allowing them to have no liquidity. Now, you know, speaking of who's at fault here and what have you with respect to the near demise of the car industry, in the first place, the ones that are in trouble is not so much the American car industry, it's the Detroit car industry, because there are American auto workers who are not in the union who are putting together very fine cars here in America. Well, I think actually Toyota and Honda are suffering along these lines, and some of the European auto makers as well are asking their governments for money, because when you go from an 18 million market to a 9 million market, it causes a lot of problems for all the auto makers.

Well, I certainly agree, but none of them are on the verge of collapse. Well, Ford, General Motors, Ford hasn't asked for any money, and their problem is they've got some really fine products that they've developed over in Europe, especially with diesel engines, and they won't let them bring them here to the United States because they're not manufactured by UAW people. If I can speak to what that problem is a minute in my view, is that back when Henry Ford, Lee Iacocca, some of those people in the past, their heart was to build a car that was a great car that Americans could afford, and those were what I would call real car guys, and we had those in the car industry. Ed Cole was with General Motors, people that loved to build great cars that Americans could afford. What happened, unfortunately, is a lot of accountants took over these companies, and rather the heart of the company being to build a great car Americans could afford, was to keep raising the price of these cars because you could make more profit on a more expensive car, and it became more of a great thing, not unlike AIG and a lot of things that are going on right now, is if we could get them to buy a Cadillac Escalade rather than the Chevy Tahoe version, we can make a whole lot more money. Well, as that thing started to back up on them, then we had a lot more American debt, and this has gone on from the 60s.

Having sold cars clear back since the 70s myself, I can tell you it used to be common to have 36-month financing and need 10% down, and today you might get 84-month financing and you could get a negative 10% down. Yeah. Well, we just got this email in.

Robbie says, Dear G-Man, I have heard Robbie's show, and it's pretty neat. Question, do you think there is a moral necessity for me as a Christian to buy American-made cars? My husband thinks that if it isn't a Ford or a Chevy, it's just not right. I love my Camry and would like another one. What does your guest think?

Annette Fowler sends this from Las Cruces, New Mexico. Wonderful. I appreciate him listening very much. I think that that is kind of between him and God.

No, my personal opinion is you need to buy a car that's best for your family, certainly from a financial standpoint right now in what you can afford, and if you can buy it without going into debt, then you're really going to be in a position to take care of your family through whatever else we're facing. Well, I don't know. I think God is probably neutral on the subject of what car you buy. Now, Franklin is concerned because he was talking to Mrs. Franklin the other day about a car, and there appeared writing on the wall that said, Mene, mene, fiddle a parson. I like that.

Yeah, yeah, you've been weighed and found wanting. So if there's writing on the wall, then I would buy that car. That would be the one that certainly, you know, that would be obvious, especially if you live anywhere close to Babylonia.

Yeah. I have a question, if you don't mind, just because I'm fascinated by the subject of your show, sir, Franklin Raffia, producer. Now, people call you for advice on car repair as well, and then you have sort of a Christ-centered approach to repairing automobiles as well. I ask because I guess I'm an amateur diesel mechanic.

I work on a lot of marine engines. And I'm just fascinated at how you incorporate worshipful existence with a field of trade or a stock and trade which involves often a lot of cussing. Yeah, I mean, when you're… Well, I can assure you, having grown up in the car business, as you know, my father was a car dealer, that I was back in that shop and I heard a few words back there. And certainly, the good news is that there are a great, wonderful bunch of Christians out there that are working on cars, and I have some of those guys as experts on my show regularly.

Of course, having been around it all my life, I have a lot of those answers as well. But it's amazing to me, and if you want to listen to a great podcast of his show, I did a show called Share Your Prayer Repair. Share Your Prayer Repair.

Right. And I had all these listeners call in that their repairs were made through prayer. You know, they were on their way to this situation, and all of a sudden that happened, and story after story. So God's definitely… I think he really… he loves us, and he loves to hear from us whether we're tinkering with a car or whether we're fixing to make a big purchase. Well, I tell you, my car dealer is Weingartner Chevrolet.

That's where I got my Duramax diesel. And I heard a guy in there working on it, and he skinned his knuckles. That wasn't pretty. You know, he said, Kishmere, him took us. And I don't… I understand, yeah. So your relationship with your Lord and Savior guides your work. While you're doing it as well, are you thinking prayerfully of him and his life and his commandments and his relationship with you as you execute? Well, my hope would be to someday be able to do that constantly.

I heard a wonderful article one time about people use prayer sort of like a phone line, you call up God. But it'd be wonderful at some point in time to never hang up. And honestly, you know, that's my joy is to develop that relationship to where, yeah, I could get to that point. Am I there? No.

Not right this minute. And every once in a while somebody gets me to hang up, and I go another direction. But I think that part of being all that we can be, part of seeking everybody's good is to seek the Savior. Well, that was certainly Saul of Tarsus' view. But he didn't know nothing about diesel engines.

He could make a mean tent. I said, Saul, stay away from those injectors. That's what you're doing. Don't touch the injectors.

Don't touch the timing. That's awesome. That's awesome. I want to thank you, Robbie. My guest is Robbie Dilmore, and he's a great guy.

He's got a great sense of humor, and he certainly knows the car business. Thank you so much. Thank you, G. Gordon. God bless. God bless you. God bless America.

I'll certainly second that. All right, folks, that's it for this hour of the G. Gordon Liddy Show. Many, many peckled up hearts.

Liddy Liddy. Say, what would you do if you were a new Christian and you didn't have a Bible? It's Michael Woolworth, by the way, from Bible League International. And you'd probably say, well, I'd hop in my car. I'd go to a Christian bookstore or have one shipped to me.

What if those weren't options? You'd say, well, I'm new to the faith. I mean, I need to know what it means to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.

You know, you would pray that someone, anyone would bring you a Bible. And that's exactly the way it is for literally millions of Christians around the world. They're part of our spiritual family. They're new to the faith.

They want to know what it means to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. But God has them planning where it's very difficult to access a Bible. And that's why the Truth Network and Bible League have teamed up to send God's word to 3,500 Bible-less believers around the globe.

Our campaign is called The World Needs the Word. Five dollar sends a Bible. One hundred dollar sends twenty. Every gift matched. Make your most generous gift by calling 800 YES WORD. 800 Y-E-S-W-O-R-D. Call 800 YES WORD or give at truthnetwork.com