[nadepalma]

No doubt tough times are ahead for all of the American car manufacturers.

GM really needs to signal that they are going to make the tough choices. They can talk all they want about merging or partnering with Chrysler, but they need to get their own operations in order as well. They should start by culling the brands they don't need, paying off the dealers, and driving their sales channel strategy down from four to three.

That would be a good start.

Then instead of looking to "buy" Chrysler or "merge" with FoMoCo, they should seek to cooperate more on technology. The 6speed auto-box between Ford and GM was a good start. But what about cooperating on hybrids, electric cars, CVTs or dual-clutch boxes, engines or platforms? They could compete just as fiercely with each other to market their own brands, but still cooperate on much of this.

Pooling their resources between the three brands might make better sense at this point than any equity swaps.