It is now clear that General Motors going bankrupt and dropping Pontiac is only one of many companies that will have to cut its loose ends during this recession. It seems that despite the auto industry’s sales picking up a bit in the first and second quarters of 2009, the cuts are not yet done.

American car manufacturers like General Motors will continue to suffer due to poor products, management and awful marketing but others are doing fairly well and taking this recession as an opportunity to grow into a better and smarter company.

Lets look at some examples:

Ford has done a great job in adapting to this economy and making changes to its line gradually since 2005, so that it would be ready to attack strong in 2010. It has redesigned it Focus, teamed up with Microsoft for its technology and made more hybrid vehicles available, without mentioning that their designs and levels of quality are increasing.

Following Ford has been Korean auto maker Hyundai who recently introduced its “Genesis” sedan and coupe and has changed its commitment to quality as well. Hyundai was known for making affordable cheap cars but it has taken this recession seriously and decided to re brand itself as the alternative to luxury at a great saving. Their latest is reviewed and compared to the top of the line Lexus or Mercedes but costs a fraction of the competition.

These two companies Ford and Hyundai are some of the big shakers and movers to watch, they offer great products, at attractive prices and continue to remain innovative. they make big leaps while others simply try to catch up.

Times are still tough for the American automaker and despite cuts to its worker line, assembly line, its budget and expenses, the new CEO is still having some tough decisions in front of him.

It is clear that more cuts and reorganization will be necessary in order to survive this economic downturn in full. The new CEO has proposed some interesting moves to help combat the recession and make GM profitable.

We know that one of GM’ s largest issue was focused around the quality of its products and that it’s been hard for them to turn around such a long history of poor quality, and so there have been rumors that despite slight improvements in sales, General Motors might close off the Pontiac branch of its  empire.

Pontiac has been know for making poor quality autos for generations now and continues to behave poorly in term of branding and innovations and despite the recent pump from the G6 and G8 releases, they continue to sink the back bone of GM.

If the rumors are true, GM could close Pontiac down prior to the end of the year and lay off its assembly line workers as well. This plan would save General Motors some great money and help the brand come to life through less channels and a more focused message on quality and reliability.

Fritz Henderson, the new CEO of GM speaks up. He has plans for GM and is doing his best to reinvent the company. He says changes will be made and he will not wait around for Obama to dictate what those changes are. He wants to make the right budget cuts, reorganize the company’s priority and and make people work harder to prevent further cuts down the road. The company was given a June 1st deadline to change its high debt balance sheet to a profitable company.

General Motors had originally planned to cut 47,000 or so jobs by the end of 2009 and has now announced that they might be doing so earlier than expected in order to cut debt and increase profits. It is a fact that General Motors houses over 244,000 employees and that bankruptcy would impact our economy drastically but GM must remain conscious that keeping its Union Workers on payroll will probably mean it will fall.

General Motors has to somehow find a way to negotiate with union workers and their respective unions a plan to help the company remain afloat without having to pay those awfully large wages simply due to people’s seniority. Henderson also made a note that GM must get rid of its $49 billion in bond debt and secured loans, this money also covers almost 400,000 GM employee’s health care that are now retired and collect retirement benefits.

Henderson finally concluded by saying that GM would most likely have to close 5 of its factories by the end of the year and might claim a small bankruptcy to  wipe its debt and try to start fresh. Obama’s administration did said it would help out General Motors with loans and warranty commitments but changes need to be made quickly to ensure GM survives on the long run.

Once again another large company that is willing to claim bankrupcy and dump its debt on tax payers simply due to its poor business model.

As General Motors continues to survive on taxpayer’s bailout money, it must be very careful on how and where it spends cash. That includes how the automaker spends money on future products already in the pipeline.

According to Motor Trend, the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 is already done; however, General Motors has put the Z/28 on hold since it ran out of money to launch the car. General Motors has to be very careful where it spends its taxpayer bailout money since a car like the Camaro Z/28, which is expected to return a fuel economy of 13/19 mpg, will most probably be looked down upon during the company’s current financial situation.

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9% is the magic number this week.

If you haven’t heard why yet, let me explain. The market saw a 9% jump this week alone, which is phenomenal. This came shortly after the three major events that occurred this week. The first being General Motors saying they will not need another injection by the government. The second being four banks giving back bailout money. The third is because Bernard Maddoff is behind bars.

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