Record losses for carmaker GM, record profits for oil company Exxon...

Question

Something's gotta give - the oil companies need gas-guzzling cars for their profits, and high gas prices are killing traditional car companies as consumers go for alternate transportation...

I think I'll just sit back and watch the chaos...

Answer 1

something about this picture is not right, and exxon better take notice, today it is GM, tomorrow toyota.

Answer 2

So what do you think we should do? Take some money from oil and give it to GM?  So what is considered making to much money? Should we take Googles money and give it to Yahoo, and where does this process end.

Gm has lost money, but honda and Toyotas sales numbers also declined. Its unfair to compare Gm and oil companies, as its apples and oranges.

Answer 3

GM has been digging it's own grave for at least 15 years. It had a big chunk of the domestic market and got lazy, just bending the sheet metal and changing the paint jobs whilst the likes of Toyota actually listened to what the public wanted and produced it.

When even baseline products like Kia and Hyundai are preferred to any of the GM range it's a sign that they have lost the plot.

Now GM claim they are moving production from trucks and SUV's to regular sedans, but even to manage this they are having to use technology from their foreign (mainly European) subsiduaries, at the same time despite robotic automation on many of their lines their wage bill is killing them, they have been so pliant in negotiations with the unions, and have been forced to payout big bucks to dump staff with early retirement packages so that their overheads are out of control.