The world’s biggest car manufacturer has announced that it will close 12 plants across the US and sack over 30,000 people in an attempt to move back into the black.
Sales of new cars and trucks fell this year to the point where the company lost more in the first nine months of this year than it earned in the whole of 2004. While GM likes to suggest that it’s economic woes are due to the costs or running a pension plan for its retirees there are several other major factors involved as well.
In recent years the company has focused on marketing its light trucks and SUVs and, as fuel prices have increased, those vehicles have become less popular.
Previous marketing ploys have also brought the company to the point where it is today. Immediately after the attacks on the World Trade Centre General Motors announced that it would support the sale of its vehicles with interest free loans and that certainly worked in the short term.
Now however the US car buyer expects that sort of deal all the time and sales only rise when great deals are offered.