General Motors Corporation, also known as GM, is the world's largest automaker and has been the global industry sales leader for 75 years. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 327,000 people around the world. With global headquarters in Detroit, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 33 countries. In 2005, 9. 17 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall. GM operates one of the world's leading finance companies, GMAC Financial Services, which offers automotive, residential and commercial financing and insurance. GM's OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services. Is a hybrid car really good for your wallet Consumers who buy a hybrid car may buy less gas and have lower maintenance costs, but insurance costs can offset those.
GM is the majority shareholder in GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co. of South Korea, and has product, powertrain and purchasing collaborations with Suzuki Motor Corp. and Isuzu Motors Ltd. of Japan. GM also has advanced technology collaborations with DaimlerChrysler AG and BMW AG of Germany and Toyota Motor Corp. of Japan, and vehicle manufacturing ventures with several automakers around the world, including Toyota, Suzuki, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. of China, AVTOVAZ of Russia and Renault SA of France. Shopping.
Genuine GM Parts and accessories are sold under the GM, GM Performance Parts, GM Goodwrench and ACDelco brands through GM Service and Parts Operations, which supplies GM dealerships and distributors worldwide. GM engines and transmissions are marketed through GM Powertrain.
GM's largest national market is the United States, followed by China, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany.
General Motors (GM) was founded in 1908 in Flint, Michigan as a holding company for Buick, then controlled by William C. Durant, and acquired Oldsmobile later that year. The next year, Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, and Oakland. Buy a hybrid because it’s the most fuel-efficient car on the road, because the
tailpipe emissions are very low, because it’s great technology,. In 1909, General Motors acquired the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan, the predecessor of GMC Truck. A Rapid became the first truck to conquer Pikes Peak in 1909.
GM surpassed Ford Motor Company in the 1920s thanks to the brilliant leadership of Alfred Sloan. While Ford kept inventing new ways to cut manufacturing costs, Sloan was inventing new ways of managing a complex worldwide organization, while paying special attention to consumer demands. Car buyers no longer wanted the cheapest and most basic model—they wanted style, power and prestige, which GM offered them. Thanks to consumer financing, easy monthly payments allowed far more people to buy GM cars—while Ford was moralistically opposed to credit. During the 1920s and 1930s, General Motors bought out the bus company Yellow Coach, helped create Greyhound bus lines, replaced intercity train transport with buses, and established subsidiary companies to buy out streetcar companies and replace the rail-based services with buses. Find exactly what you want today!. GM formed United Cities Motor Transit in 1932 (see General Motors streetcar conspiracy for additional details).
General Motors bought the internal combustion engined railcar builder Electro-Motive Corporation and its engine supplier Winton Engine in 1930, renaming both as the General Motors Electro-Motive Division. Over the next twenty years, diesel-powered locomotives and trains — the majority built by GM — largely replaced other forms of traction on American railroads. (During World War II, these engines were also important in American submarines and destroyer escorts. ) Electro-Motive was sold in early 2005.
At one point GM was the largest corporation ever in the United States, in terms of its revenues as a percent of GDP. In 1953 Charles Erwin Wilson, then GM president, was named by Eisenhower as Secretary of Defense. Buy a hybrid because it’s the. When he was asked during the hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee if as secretary of defense he could make a decision adverse to the interests of General Motors, Wilson answered affirmatively but added that he could not conceive of such a situation "because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa". Later this statement was often garbled when quoted, suggesting that Wilson had said simply, "What's good for General Motors is good for the country. " At the time, GM was one of the largest employers in the world – only Soviet state industries employed more people.
On December 31, 1955, General Motors became the first American corporation to make over one billion dollars in a year.
After GM's massive lay-offs hit Flint, Michigan a strike began at the General Motors parts factory in Flint on June 5, 1998, which quickly spread to five other assembly plants and lasted seven weeks.
GM's status as both an automotive and corporate juggernaut is in jeopardy. Its financial difficulties have dragged stock value down (see below); as of March 23, 2006, GM's market capitalization is roughly $12. Now here are 7 reasons to buy a hybrid car. 5 billion.
GM Hughes Electronics was formed in 1985 when Hughes Aircraft was sold by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to GM for $5 billion. GM merged Hughes Aircraft with its Delco Electronics unit to form GM Hughes Electronics (GMHE). This division was a major defense contractor, civilian space systems manufacturer and communications company. The defense business was sold to Raytheon in 1997 and the space and communications division was sold to Boeing in 2000.
In 2000 GM sold a 6% stake to Fiat in return for a 20% share in the Italian automaker. As part of the deal Fiat was granted a put option which, if exercised between January 2004 and July 2009, would force GM to buy the company. Ideally I would love to move. GM agreed to the put option as it feared Fiat may be acquired by DaimlerChrysler and seriously challenge GM's Opel and Vauxhall marques.
The relationship suffered due to Fiat's failure to improve its finances or market share. The relationship worsened in 2003 when Fiat recapitalised, reducing GM's stake to 10%. In February 2005 GM paid $2 billion USD (€1. 55 billion) to buy itself out of the put option.
Current members of the board of directors of General Motors are: Percy Barnevik, Erskine Bowles, John Bryan, Armando Codina, George Fisher, Karen Katen, Kent Kresa, Ellen Kullman, Philip Laskawy, Jerome York, Eckhard Pfeiffer, and Rick Wagoner (chairman). York was elected to the board on February 6, 2006 to represent Kirk Kerkorian, as E. 04 seconds) Avoid dealer profit traps. Stanley O'Neal stepped down.
Rick Wagoner is also the chief executive officer of the company (since June 1, 2000), succeeding John F. Smith, Jr.
General Motors was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine.
Due to its highly compensated workforce GM has the highest health care and labor costs in the industry, and some analysts have criticized the company for this.
In March 2005, the Government of Canada "gave C$200 million to General Motors for its Ontario plants, and last fall it awarded C$100 million to Ford Motor Co. to expand their Canadian auto production, provide jobs and contribute to the economy," according to Jim Harris. Includes personalized action plan & consultation with car buying expert. With additional subsidies promised to non-North American auto companies like Toyota, Premier Dalton McGuinty said the money the province and Ottawa are pledging for the project is well-spent. His government has committed C$400 million, including the latest Toyota package of C$125 million, to the province's automobile sector, which helped finance $5 billion worth of industry projects.
Each of GM's automotive divisions were once each targeted to specific market segments and, despite some shared components, each distinguished itself from its stablemates with unique styling and (to some extent) technology. The shared components and common corporate management created substantial economies of scale, while the distinctions between the divisions created an orderly upgrade path, with an entry-level buyer starting out with a practical and economical Chevrolet and, (assuming progressive prosperity of the buyer), moving through offerings of the several divisions until the purchase of a Cadillac. The divisions were not competing with each other as much as passing along the same customer, who would thus always be buying a GM product, with the profits flowing to this single corporation.
The postwar industry became enamored with the concept of "planned obsolescence", implemented by both technical and styling innovations, with a three year product cycle typical within the industry. In this cycle, a new basic body shell is introduced and then modified for the next two years by minor styling changes. Save 1,000's. GM, Ford, and Chrysler competed vigorously in this new environment.
By 1958, the divisional distinctions began to blur, with the availability of high-performance engines in Chevrolets and Pontiacs, and the introduction of higher trim models such as the Chevrolet Impala and Pontiac Bonneville that were priced in line with some of Oldsmobile and Buick's offerings. By the time that Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick introduced similarly styled and priced compact models for 1961, the old "step-up" structure between the divisions was nearly over.
By the mid 1960s, most of GM's vehicles were built on a few common platforms and in the 1970s, began to use nearly identical body panel stampings, differing only in internal and external trim items. This was seen especially in the compact passenger vehicles offered by the divisions.
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