DETROIT – General Motors Corp. plan blitzed auto industry insiders Monday with an full-page advertisement spelling out its need for a bailout and disclosing candid list of mistakes it has made in the past that has helped lead the auto maker to the edge of collapse.

The ad is an 867-word letter, and that ran Monday in Automotive News, The Wall Street Journal reported. The headline read, GM’s Commitment to the American People. It dominates the inside cover page of the weekly trade publication. GM recently posted it on certain websites and blogs it controls.

The auto maker is requesting $18 billion in federal loans and wants to “be sure the American people know why we need it, what we’ll do with it, and how it will make GM viable for the long term.” The 100-year-old auto maker warns readers it is “precariously and frighteningly close” to running short of cash.

GM’s letter does not simply sound more alarm bells. It is anchored by a long paragraph admitting to several costly mistakes.

“While we’re still the U.S. sales leader, we acknowledge we have disappointed you,” the ad says. “At times we violated your trust by letting our quality fall below industry standards and our designs become lackluster. We have proliferated our brands and dealer network to the point where we lost adequate focus on our core U.S. market.”

GM also says it “biased” its product to too heavily favor trucks and SUVs, and “we made commitments to compensations plans” that are unsustainable in today’s auto industry. “We have paid dearly for these decisions, learned from them and are working to correct them.”

The letter comes amidst a marketing and lobbying blitz by Detroit’s three auto makers aimed at convincing Americans and lawmakers that the industry needs a federal “bridge” loan in order to survive the current downturn in the U.S. market. Last week, CEOs at GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC made a pitch for $34 billion in loans, the Congress and the White House are expected to hammer out a solution this week.

In addition to full-page advertisements, GM has bombarded the Internet with videos and custom web sites that state the auto maker’s case for survival. A recent video, featuring GM Chief Financial Officer Ray Young and emphasizing actions GM is taking to fix itself, also included tones of contrition

To read the letter, click on Guest Columns

a>>