Ford says it opposes German aid for GM's Opel unit

Ford Motor Co., the only major U.S. automaker to avoid a government-assisted bankruptcy last year, said it opposes Germany providing aid to help General Motors Co.'s Opel unit restructure.

"Restructuring your business is your own job and you should pay for it yourself and you should not use taxpayer money," Wolfgang Schneider, Ford of Europe's vice president of government affairs, told reporters on a conference call today. "We are definitely against any support for Opel."

German assistance for Opel would give GM an unfair advantage and might prevent the Detroit-based automaker from eliminating excess capacity in Europe, Schneider said.

Opel asked for as much as 1.3 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in loan guarantees from Germany as part of a total request of almost 2 billion euros from several European governments, said Stefan Weinmann, a spokesman for the GM unit. The U.K. has granted loan guarantees valued at 300 million euros, he said.

"The European Union has specifically set up a framework whereby individual countries are able to support companies that have gotten into economic distress," Weinmann said. "We're not asking for special treatment. We're asking for the guarantees made available for this very purpose."

European governments provided 9 billion euros in loan guarantees to automakers last year, with none of that going to Opel, Weinmann said.

'Face the Facts'

Western Europe hasn't addressed overcapacity to build autos as fast as other regions have, said Michael Robinet, an analyst at research firm CSM Worldwide in Northville, Michigan.