B4

Tom Krisher
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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DETROIT - Eager to avoid another scathing lecture about corporate excess from members of Congress, the CEOs of the two biggest U.S. automakers will travel to Washington this week in hybrid vehicles made by their companies.

Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally left for Washington Tuesday afternoon, driving in a Ford Escape small sport utility vehicle that runs on gas and electricity.

General Motors Corp. CEO Rick Wagoner will travel in a hybrid Chevrolet Malibu.

Both men, along with Chrysler LLC CEO Robert Nardelli and United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger, will appear before congressional committees on Thursday and Friday to justify why the automakers should get US$25 billion in federal loans to help them through a terrible economic slump.

The automakers' sales continue to plunge as consumers halt big-ticket spending amid the credit crunch, with GM posting a 41 per cent drop in November sales on Tuesday and Ford reporting a 31 per cent monthly decline.

Chrysler won't say how Nardelli will travel, but said it won't be by corporate jet. Gettelfinger will travel by commercial airline, the union said.

The move to travel like regular folks comes after the CEOs' last visit for hearings in November turned into a public relations disaster. Legislators found out that all three had flown in separate corporate jets to ask for the bailout dollars, and many harangued the CEOs for their excess.

In an effort to stem bad publicity, Ford and GM announced that Wagoner and Mulally would drive, with both CEOs taking the wheel for at least part of the roughly nine-hour, 835-kilometre trip.

Ford also announced Tuesday that it will sell its five corporate jets, while GM said it would close its corporate jet operations on Jan. 1 and try to sell the remainder of the lease time on its seven aircraft.

Chrysler spokeswoman Lori McTavish said the company rents two corporate aircraft on an as-needed basis from an aircraft company and does not own any jets.

But the symbolism of seeking help from the taxpayers while flying corporate will take a long time to live down.

Representative Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from New York and a member of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, told the auto executives last month they were having a hard time justifying to their constituents bailing out companies whose chiefs fly around in expensive private jets.

Ackerman said there was "a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C., and people coming off them with tin cups in their hands. ... It's almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high hat and tuxedo."

GM spokesman Tony Cervone would not say if Wagoner would stop along the way or even when he would depart, in part for security reasons and also to avoid being followed by reporters.

"There's a lot of security concerns. There's also the idea of a circus that we're trying to avoid," Cervone said.

Wagoner will alternate between the Malibu, the Chevrolet Cobalt XFE, the company's highest-mileage vehicle, and a Buick Lucerne sedan which runs on fuel that's 85 per cent ethanol.

Mulally also will drive part of the time in the Escape. Both men will do business along the way.

The hybrid vehicles are among the companies' most thrifty, but not the tops in mileage.

Ford said it hopes to restructure the company without accessing government loans, but promised CEO Mulally would work for $1 per year if the automaker did access funds.

The company said it will sell its corporate aircraft, and is requesting access to up to $9 billion worth of bridge financing as part of its transformation plan.