[Slowrider5]

From Jim Jubak of MSN Money (about the only financial analyst I really listen to):

The auto industry is in chaos -- fortunately for General Motors.

* Gasoline above $4 a gallon in the U.S. has sent sales of trucks and SUVs plunging as drivers look for more mileage for their dollars.

* Higher steel prices have savaged profit margins.

* New competitors from India and China are about to emerge in the global market.

* And nobody knows what the future will bring -- electric cars, more hybrids, even cleaner diesels.

It's likely that the auto industry will look radically different in 2010 than it does today.

And that's what's likely to save GM. The company is bleeding market share in its home market because fewer motorists want to buy its North American product line of trucks and SUVs. And its losses are so huge that in the past couple of months the company has burned through cash at a rate of more than $1 billion a month. In the quarter ending in March, the burn rate was about $500 million a month.

But whatever its current troubles, the company isn't shut out of the future of the global auto industry. So much change is sweeping across the global marketplace, nobody -- not even Toyota Motor - - will be able to lock up the market and turn GM into a permanent also-ran. There's so much uncertainty about demand trends and developing technology that even a player as currently challenged as General Motors could grab the brass ring if it makes the right decisions on what cars to produce and what technologies to back.


And amazingly, given all the talk about the death of General Motors, the company has a better chance of grabbing that prize than almost any car company in world except for Toyota. If GM can get to 2010 with a few dollars left in its gas tank, that is.

More at link: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...sComeBack.aspx