After seeing a short news listing on "CNN Headline News"
regarding Ford and
GM's contributions to the relief and recovery efforts in
New York City and
Washington, DC, I was prompted to see what the other
automotive companies
were contributing. It is important to know which
companies are there for us
in a crisis.

I went to (the news, press release and philanthropic
areas of) each of the
companies' web sites. If the company had several sites,
I tried to visit
them all. Additionally, I visited the leading news and
automotive sites.
This is what I have found:


Aston Martin - Nothing.

Audi - Nothing. Audi's web site states "Audi News:
Always up to the minute."

BMW - Nothing despite other press releases/postings
since 09/11/01.
Last updated 09/13/01.

Daewoo International - Nothing.

Daimler Chrysler (includes Dodge, Jeep, Mercedes-Benz
and Plymouth) $10
million to support the children and victims in addition
to other donations
from their employees, dealers and suppliers.

Fiat - Nothing.

Ford Motor Company (includes Jaguar, Lincoln, Mazda,
Mercury and Volvo)
$1 million to the American Red Cross, matching employee
contributions to the
American Red Cross and 10 Excursions to the New York
Fire Department. The
company has also offered emergency response team
services and office space to
displaced government employees.

General Motors (includes Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet,
Oldsmobile, Pontiac,
Saab and Saturn) -- $1 million to the American Red
Cross, matching employee
contributions and a fleet of vans, trucks and SUVs.

Harley-Davidson Motor Cycles - Donated one million
dollars and 30 new
motorcycles to the NYPD to assist in relief efforts and
replace motor cycles
lost in the attack. Harley-Davidson's own employees
drove the cycles to NY
in a day and a half and turned over the keys personally
to the NYC Motor
Division. Check out their website at
www.harleydavidson.com for info and
pictures of their generosity.

Honda (includes Acura) - Nothing.
"The latest news on Honda can always be found right
here?" No press
releases/postings since 9/04/01 when the release
boasted "American Honda
Motor Co., Inc. recorded its second best sales month
ever in August." My
search included:
hondamotorcycle.com [other press releases posted on this
site since
9/11/01), honda.com, honda2001.com, world.honda.com,
acura.com and
honda.co.jp.

Hyundai Motors Group (includes Kia) -- $300,000 to the
American Red Cross.

Isuzu - Nothing.

Mitsubishi Motors - Nothing.

Mitsubishi-motors.co.jp site states, "The latest news
about Mitsubishi
Motors." I also searched mitsubishimotors.com.

Nissan - Nothing despite other press releases/postings
since 09/11/01.

Porsche - Nothing. Press release with condolences
posted on the Porsche web
site on 09/12/01, but no contribution.

Subaru - Nothing. Despite other press releases/postings
since 09/11/01.

Suzuki - Nothing.

Toyota (includes Lexus) -Nothing. Press release with
condolences posted on
the Toyota web site on 09/14/01, but no contribution,
despite earlier press
releases boasting that Toyota had high sales in July and
August.

Volkswagen - The employees and management created a
Foundation, funded
initially with $2 million, to assist the children and
victims with
humanitarian help including medical and psychological
assistance,
rehabilitation and scholarships.

We have the freedom to choose which companies we make
purchases from and I,
for one, will make my purchases from and give my money
to the companies that
are giving their money to America at this time of need.
I hope that you
will, too. We can only hope that it is an oversight by
the companies that
have not made a contribution and that they will join the
relief efforts.

Please forward this e-mail -- especially to anyone you
know who is thinking
of purchasing a vehicle. Remember this the next time
you make that move to
buy your next car...New or Used..... Who gave what to
help OUR Beautiful
United States of America.........

 

Have you heard about the contribution maddness going on?

160 Charities helping 6000 distressed families. Thats 38 families per charity. I believe something like $1B has been donated to those charaties. Thats roughly $166000 per family.

Have you been watching the O'Rielly Factor? BIll O'Rielly has been covering this. A lady wrote to him and her husband was killed in the WTC explosion. She has gone to 10 different charaties seeking aid, and out of those 10 she's only received $1500. Where the hell is all the donations going to? Some fat cats are driving out in new Lexus's right now and the aid isn't getting to the people that need it.

Last night he covered it more, and you know how all the stars did that telethon/tribute to the victims and raised $300M? That money has been so misused its sickening. And Bill tried to get ove ra dozen stars to comment, and not one of them would comment on it. They only did the telethon to look good and could care less about how the money is used.

I am very piturbed at this.

I don't think any of the car companies or any companies in general should donate to the WTC. The money is obviously not going to those who need it. The money is being very mishandled.

 

Squeezer - although I think O'Reilly is a clown, I have seen those reports and you are right. That money is not going to get where it was supposed to.

 

Moving to OT.

 

The information contained in the original post is completely inaccurate. It has been floating around the internet ... details can be found at:

http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/cars.htm

See the following page for Honda's contributions (approx $1.5 million):
http://www.honda.com/hondaresponds.html

As a side note ... anytime you get one of these 'can you believe this' emails or 'friend-of-a-friend' type posts, check out http://www.snopes.com to see if they've done some investigation into it ...

Have fun,
Derek

 

Thanks Nova! Rumors and inuendoes, please take the time to check before you spread them. They do way more harm then good!!

 

I just wish that Honda would join in on lowering the interest rate.
The new CRV is coming out soon.

 

I really think that the media should GTF off the American Red Crosses back. This is simply a case of trying to find something to report about where little else exists.

[rant]
The American Red Cross is not a Sept 11th firefighters fund. If that's where you wanted your money to go then you should have sent it to one of the organizations who's mission is that. The media is really pissing me off. I can't turn on the news without anthrax being the first F***ing word mentioned. I am just so damn fed up with the stupid ass "experts" they bring on telling us all how it is; they don't know shit. Did you know these guys get like $5000 for going on the air to give their opinion? The media just eats this stuff up and nobody holds them accountable when they are wrong or just plain daft. Y2K anyone? I don't see the media being dragged up on the Capitol to answer to about why they made such a big deal about a non-event.

To the media: Get off the ARC's back and let them get on with their work. The media's attempt to raise suspicion about misappropriate use of fund simply to have something to fill the air time with is a detriment and disservice to those that have made it their life's work to provide for the needs of others. For all the boasting about how much they are doing for us I wonder how much the media has donated and to whom.
[/rant]

The ARC has set aside $100 million+ to respond to the WTC and Pentagon events, that's about $16K for each of the 6000 or so families affected. Many of the professionals who worked at the WTC have life insurance and death benefits and are generally looked after that way but the ARC is providing bridge funding for them. The people that need the most help are those who died and didn't have such benefits packages. The ARC's job is to hand out money on an as needed basis, not provide equitable disbursement. If it bothers you that money collected in time of one disaster may be used to help in another then don't send your money to the ARC.

I'd recommend that those that want to contribute to a charity understand who they are giving the money to and what the money will be used for. It's a bit stupid to write a check to someone when you don't know who they are nor how the money will be used. If you thought the ARC would simply take all this money and equally divide it up amongst all the victim's families then you didn't do you research and have no one to blame but yourself.

 

i'm sure most companies have contributed something esp in fear of bad press

also they have to figure out how much money there is total and how distribute it amongst each family...i work for a company who does outsources human resources and it takes a long time setting up an actuarial equivalent for company benefits so it's probably just as long for this situation

 

amen!