In the first two quarters of the year, G.M. lost more than $18 billion. Last year, the company lost $38.7 billion. In 2006, the loss was almost $2 billion. 2005: $8.6 billion. In other words, in the last three and a half years, General Motors has lost over $67 billion. Surely, this must be a world record for the most money ever lost under one chief executive. In April 2000, two months before Wagoner took over, G.M.’s stock price was around $88 a share. Today, it hovers just above $10 a share. I could be wrong here, but this strikes me as likely to be another record-setting performance.

http://executivesuite.blogs.nytimes..../index.html?hp

I wonder how much of that loss went into his own salary and benefits. What some auto CEO's make today is nothing short of obscene.

While there are some factors that GM cannot control or has only limited control of, like oil prices, car-loan rates, consumer confidence in the economy/willingness to spend, the weakness of the dollar, union-negotiated employee benefits, etc....... much of its current troubles are of its own making. While therea re some nice new products like the Malibu and CTS, The company, IMO, took far too long to address the interior and quality problems of many of its products, and screwed the Saturn Division up to no end with the replacement of its nice, small, S-Series plastic-bodied cars with the Ion (which was an abomination) and Americanized, Euro-design Opels. Cadillac has also driven off a large number of its older, traditional luxo-car customers, who liked big, living-room-plush, soft-riding cars, with the conversion of much of its fleet into imitation BMW-type sport sedans. Lincoln, unfortunately, seems to be taking the same path now.....simply ignoring the traditional Town-Car crowd. So then, where are these traditional luxo-car people going to go for their next car? Are they going to buy a new Caddy or Lincoln? Not likely. In many cases (and some, of course, are doing this now) they will look for a good USED DeVille, Fleetwood, or Town Car. GM, for sure, isn't going to make money selling used cars.

Truly prophetic words How do you punish these guys?... Won't happen, and an entire workforce and industry suffers for it...

Regardless, Wagoner does appear to truly understand GM's problems and has worked hard to solve them. I'd say the losses in the last couple of years are largely attributable to a couple of things - the run up in gas prices, and a couple of strikes that crippled delivery of some vehicles that were in demand.

They're 'punished' because their stock options are not worth anything like (or anything at all maybe) what they hoped.

If GM can figure out how to make cars that look good, drive well, have quality interiors, and meet or exceed the expectations of the target audience that they are aimed at, they will become great again. Imagine if every car they made was as amazingly stylish as a Z06, or a CTS. We would all be proud to own an American made car. Will it ever happen?? I don't know.

I'll agree that oil prices were a factor (see my first post), but I'm not sure about the strikes. While it's true that a company can't make any money on cars that aren't produced, neither is the company paying out money, either, to those who are out on strike. Essentially, workers on strike either make money elsewhere or live off of union strike funds.

For the most part, GM is doing that now. The turn-a-round will come, but it will take time.

GM should get rid of Wagoner and hire Steve Jobs.

I don't know if GM could possibly do any worse. So there are 3 good cars in their entire lineup? The Corvette, Malibu, and CTS.

Hasn't Wagoner been with GM since 2000? I think that is enough time to make some type of turnaround. I would love to see something happen soon, because how much more bleeding does the company have left to do?

if you want to understand where a significant portion of the losses are coming from, google : GM unions

Exactly. My buddy and I were talking about GM today at lunch. Purchasing a GM car is not worth it at all. For example if GM had the same quality as Honda or Toyota each dollar that is spent on a GM car it basically goes to the pensions of the employees that are tied to the unions. Remember GM loses money on every sale of every GM car. Well, GM's aren't as reliable as Honda or Toyota so it really makes no sense to purchase a GM car at all. Basically if you buy a GM car your supporting GM employees' pensions. GM is basically a pension provider now not an auto manufacturer...