CSpec

What? Do you have any idea what you're talking about? Of course the higher priced stock will have higher absolute fluctuation with a percentage change--look at daily movements of Google or Berkshire Hathaway. And Toyota's market capitalization is $143 billion, compared to under $6 billion for GM.

The power grid is powered by whatever powers it--it's not locked into one fuel, like ICEs are. That's the advantage--it's much more diversified, no more monopolies. In the long run the power grid will be much cleaner.

I disagree about Pontiac. IF GM were bigger and economic times were better, they could surely put out great performing and fuel efficient products. However, GM is in a fight for its life right now, and currently Pontiac has nothing that Chevy can't offer. Even though they have some small potatoes bespoke products, they could easily be given to Chevy and it would not be out of the brand's character. I would guess that in the current marketplace, Chevy is Pontiac's biggest competitor, and GM cannot afford to be competing with itself right now. GMC is similar, but not as big of a drain on resources.

Reports are that if theres a hill or some wind, you can forget 40 miles on a charge. Also it seems it will be pretty expensive. But it is the future, no doubt about that. This current oil squeeze is showing the world they need to break oil's monopoly on us all, and the Volt is the automotive contribution to that.

Looks like a better-looking Lancer. Not bad.

Those look more like the Insignia/Lacrosse no?

GM eventually fixed reliability problems, but that doesn't make the cars desirable. Coarse engines that still run are still coarse, nasty interiors that don't fall apart are still nasty.

The Sebring was also down 50%? Good job on that one, Chrysler. Even high gas can't help it.

Tell that to seasonal fruit farmers in California and Florida, or many of the other awful jobs that are mainly immigrant-staffed in this country.

Malibu numbers are strange. They should be selling like gangbusters.

A smaller diesel would be an excellent addition!

Oh please. Plenty of American companies treat their workers terribly. Walmart comes immediately to mind. Even trendy companies like Apple have been exposed to be running horrid plants in China but no one cares.

Looks better than the desperate Impreza, but still not a beauty queen.

Summer shutdown?

Exactly. Whatever needs to go for GM to be profitable, so be it. "Ruining" brands heritage or killing "storied" brands is better than having the whole company go under based because of "honor". People need to stop rooting for individual brands and just worry about GM's very survival.

Well, the Acadia was supposed to go to Pontiac to replace the Aztek, but they changed it to GMC reasonably late in the program. That's why it has such a "sporty" interior for an SUV with the red lighting.

OK those are fine, those didn't take much devlopment dollars, except maybe the Solstice. They don't sell in big numbers nor do they make much money. This is the proper course for Pontiac--don't waste money on cars that compete with other divisions. But long run Pontiac could easily disappear--the "character" could easily be absorbed by Chevy, which has its own line of high performance products.

A misnomer, IMO. New York State has unbelievable taxes.

This won't go over well but... GM is in such a serious crisis right now that I think Pontiac needs to go ASAP, or at least don't give it any individual products. Rebadged Holdens or something would be fine, and small numbers are fine. Pontiac has nothing that Chevy doesn't have, and in many instances Chevy has better performance models. For the current situation, Pontiac is a money pit and GM is right to ignore it. Pontiac is a wonderful brand in theory, but right now GM simply can't afford to waste time and energy on a small margin "performance" brand, at a time when their very survival is at stake. If they had more resources and market share, I would support remaking Pontiac into a real sporty brand. But the money could be spent much better elsewhere.

GM has far too much brand overlap. I was recently watching a program about British Leyland, and many of their problems were based on the fact that many of their divisions competed directly with each other, much as many of GM's brands do. They waste development dollars trying to give many brands essentially the same car, and they don't have anywhere near the needed market share to pull that off. G6, Malibu, Aura, all are in the exact same segment. All are on the same platform. If there were only one, GM could have spent twice as much on just one of them to make a fantastic product and still saved money. Sure they are tuned for slightly different tastes, but it's not anything substantial. The G6 is just a FWD family sedan in the same way that the Malibu or Camry are, and it sure is no Altima. GM needs to stop wasting money on completely redundant product and stop competing with itself.

Cheers to bobo for another year!

I would wait until this is actually backed up by a real source before worrying about it. It's just a rebadged Opel--why would the fuel economy be so horrendous?

DETROIT (Reuters) - Shares of General Motors Corp hit their lowest level since 1955 and dragged down the auto sector on Thursday after Goldman Sachs cut the struggling U.S. industry's largest manufacturer to a "sell" rating and warned it would have to raise capital. The panicky slide in GM shares capped a period of growing concern about liquidity risks to U.S. automakers and suppliers from a domestic auto market reeling from record gas prices and the impact of a housing slump and tighter credit. The Goldman Sachs warning, including the unusual "sell" call on the U.S. auto industry's largest player after a period of sharp stock price declines just ahead of the close of the second quarter, prompted selling across the sector. GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said the embattled automaker had enough liquidity to carry it through the year and had financial flexibility beyond that. "We've got a very good, solid funding base under any scenario we see, solid through the end of this year," Wagoner told reporters after an economic event hosted by U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama. "We have a lot of options to fund beyond that." Chrysler LLC, for its part, denied rumors it was facing a cash crunch or that it had been driven to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Those rumors had driven down loan prices for the privately held automaker, according to Reuters LPC. "The rumor is without merit," Chrysler spokesman Dave Elshoff said. "There is no basis for the rumor." Debt and equity markets were affected by growing concern for the deepening risks for the auto sector. The cost to insure the debt of GM and Ford Motor Co hit records. GM shares were down nearly 11 percent in early afternoon trade and touched a low of $11.21. Major GM suppliers were also hammered. Shares in American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, which supplies axles for GM trucks, dropped 12 percent. Lear Corp, downgraded to a "sell" rating by Goldman, tumbled 18 percent. Shares in Ford, which had its price target cut by Goldman, dropped almost 5 percent. With the Thursday price fall, GM's market cap fell to less than $6.5 billion. The company has the smallest market capitalization in the Dow Jones industrial average of which it has been a component since 1925. Next above GM in terms of market value in the Dow is Alcoa Inc, with a market cap of about $30 billion. Walt Disney Co's cap is 10 times GM's at about $60 billion and Exxon Mobil Corp is the leader at about $460 billion. GM shares have lost 38 percent over the last month as more evidence has piled up that U.S. auto sales weakened further in June, raising doubts about the prospect for the second-half recovery that GM and other major automakers had anticipated. Fitch Ratings on Wednesday cut debt ratings on GM and Chrysler ratings deeper into the "junk" category," citing the fallout from weaker sales and high gas prices. Fitch also said it would review Ford ratings over the next six weeks, which could also result in a downgrade. CASH BURN RAISES CONCERNS All three U.S. automakers, which have been hardest hit by the collapse in demand for pickup trucks and SUVs, have faced scrutiny in recent days over whether they have sufficient liquidity to ride out the current downturn. Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who has invested about $1 billion in a contrarian bet on Ford, has offered to provide more capital to support the automaker's turnaround. Kerkorian's chief auto adviser, Jerry York, told Reuters on Wednesday that he did not expect the U.S. auto market to bounce back in the second half of this year with an only limited rebound in 2009. Earlier this week, Chrysler drew down a $2 billion credit line from Cerberus and Daimler AG, the German car maker that sold off a roughly 80 percent stake in Chrysler to Cerberus last year. Under terms of the sale, Chrysler had until August to draw on the credit line, which included $1.5 billion from Daimler. The credit line pays interest fixed at 7 percentage points above the London interbank rate, Daimler has said. Chrysler, which lost $1.6 billion in 2007, has said it ended the year with $9 billion in cash. Its U.S. sales are down 23 percent so far this year. Analysts have also fixed their sights on GM, which ended the first quarter with $31 billion in cash and undrawn credit. Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan both warned last week that GM would be forced to borrow heavily to shore up its liquidity position. Goldman Sachs analyst Patrick Archambault, who also cut his ratings on Tenneco Inc, said he expected GM shares to continue to underperform as market fundamentals deteriorate. He cut his six-month price target on GM stock by $8 to $11. "We think GM's automotive cash flow burn this year and next is likely to lead it to look to raise capital, which we believe could lead to significant shareholder dilution and/or a cut to the company's dividend," Archambault said.

Isn't it 4? Astra, Aura, Vue, Sky.

Hey Chris, is this story true? I would guess GMC and Saturn don't have replacements on Lambda.