Job 1: Truth About Cars notes that GM made its second quarter profits look better (though still not good) by the old trick of delaying spending until the third quarter. Wall Street was not fooled–the company’s stock fell. But when GM cooks the books these days, is it about fooling Wall Street–or the voters?
Update: When You’re Hot, You’re Hot! 1) GM also admitted it may have overpaid last February when it bought a stake in French carmaker Peugeot for $400 million … 2) The company’s cartoonish ponycar, the Camaro, looks like it is losing its sales race with the resurgent Ford Mustang … 3) Edward Niedermeyer notes how GM CEO Akerson’s unrealistic sales projections for the Volt in 2010 helped President Obama by making the Obama’s declared goal of a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 look maybe not completely insane for another few months. Niedermeyer suggests this was a purely political favor Akerson did for Obama (in exchange for … what?) that had no non-corporatist business rationale. Indeed, it made Akerson look like a fool and the Volt look like a flop. …