Shit

From an article by Eric Bryant on AutoBlog.

GM reported its results from the fourth quarter of 2005, and things are not pretty. Including one-time charges, the company lost $4.8 billion ($8.45/share) on revenue of $51.2B.

The one-time charges included $2.3B for the company's health-care deal with the UAW and issues relating to the Delphi bankruptcy, as well as $1.3B for the restructuring that was announced back in November. Normal operating losses were $1.2B, which far exceeded analysts' expectations of $100M. GM's overseas units just missed breaking even, so the numbers basically represent the issues here in the US.

This brings GM's full-year loss for 2005 to a stunning $8.6B.

I don't know what to say. This sucks. Maybe its a good thing that I don't want to live in Michigan after graduation. If Ford & GM continue to get shitty, the local economy is going to go to shit.

This all sucks but GM isn't going anywhere. It reminds me of Chrysler in the 80s and they never went under. Of course, I can't mention Chrysler without mentioning the government bailout that Iacocca got from Reagan, but I'm not worried. Ok, I'm worried but not that worried. It won't stop me from buying Chevrolets.

As for bankruptcy, it may happen but don't confuse bankruptcy with going out of business. GM isn't going to go out of business anytime soon. They could run at a loss for a decade and survive. Of course, Buick, Saturn, Saab, and Pontiac might have been killed off by then, but they'd survive. They could simply just build trucks, Corvettes, and Cadillacs and have a very sustainable business.

One of the comments on the AutoBlog article had a great point. I'm paraphrasing but "GM could sell 4 cars for every 10 cars they sell today and still have larger sales than Nissan and Honda." Definitely true and could happen.