General Motors Topics

• Car
• Chevrolet
• Cadillac
• Pontiac
• Cars
• Auto
• Michigan
• Detroit

Related Images

Source

del.icio.us Tags

• multinational
• cars
• gm
• corporate
• globalization
• transnational
• unsustainable
• wiki
• name.general-motors
• autod
• wikipedia
• usa
• korporatsioonid
• wikipedia.general-motors
• carro
• dr_cain

General Motors, General Motors

GM is the world's largest automaker as measured by global industry sales and has been the global sales leader for the last 77 years. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18368577 . As of 2008, General Motors employs about 266,000 people around the world. It manufactures its cars and trucks in 35 different countries and sells them under the brands of Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GM Daewoo, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall, and Wuling.

The GM Sequel was a hydrogen fuel cell concept vehicle introduced in 2005, however the name was later changed to Chevrolet Sequel. Along with various concept vehicles, the Holden Statesman luxury sedan (1971 - 1985) was originally marketed as the General Motors Statesman.

Durant, and acquired Oldsmobile later that year. The next year, Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland (later known as Pontiac) and several others. In 1909, General Motors acquired the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan, and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan, the predecessors of GMC Truck. Durant lost control of GM in 1910 to a bankers' trust, because of the large amount of debt taken on in its acquisitions coupled with a collapse in new vehicle sales. A few years later, Durant would start the Chevrolet Motor car company and through this he secretly purchased a controlling interest in GM. Durant took back control of the company after one of the most dramatic proxy wars in American business history. Shortly after, he again lost control for good after the new vehicle market collapsed. Alfred Sloan was picked to take charge of the corporation and led it to its post war global dominance. This unprecedented growth of GM would last through the late 70's and into the early 80's.

The U.S. automakers saw sales increase to leverage costs as gross margins deteriorated. Although retiree health care costs remain a significant issue, General Motors' investment strategy has generated a $17.1 billion surplus in 2007 in its $101 billion U.S. pension fund portfolio, a $35 billion reversal from its $17.8 billion of underfunding. Sloan, Allan (April 10, 2007).

Cadillac initiated sales in China in 2004, starting with imports from the United States. GM pushed the marketing of the Chevrolet brand in China in 2005 as well, moving the former Buick Sail to that marque. The company manufactures most of its China-market vehicles locally, through its Shanghai GM joint venture. Shanghai GM, a joint venture between the Chinese company SAIC and General Motors, was created on March 25, 1997. The Shanghai GM plant was opened December 15, 1998 when the first Chinese-built Buick came off the assembly line. The SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile joint-venture is also successful selling trucks and vans under the Wuling marque (34% belongs to GM).

The vehicle could not be purchased outright. Instead, General Motors offered a closed-end lease for three years, with no renewal or residual purchase options.

Many were donated to research institutions and facilities, along with museums. Some are still owned by General Motors themselves, and are kept at their technical design center in Warren, Michigan, and can occasionally be seen on the road within a close area of the tech center.

Then, following a $10.6 billion loss in 2005, GM acted quickly to implement its restructuring plan. For the first quarter of 2006 GM earned $400 million, signaling a turnaround had already begun even though many aspects of the restructuring plan had not yet taken effect. Although retiree health care costs remain a significant issue, General Motors' investment strategy has generated a $17.1 billion surplus in 2007 in its $101 billion U.S. pension fund portfolio, a $35 billion reversal from its $17.8 billion of underfunding.

Source: Wikipedia > General Motors