General Motors
Our question this week comes from China. Li Zhiwei wants to know more about the American automobile company General Motors.
General Motors sold more than eight million cars and trucks last year. The company does business in one hundred forty countries. It sells most of its cars in the United States. Other large markets are China, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia and Germany. General Motors was the world's largest automaker from nineteen thirty-one until two thousand eight. William Durant established the company in nineteen hundred eight in Flint, Michigan. Mister Durant had a new idea for a car company that produced many different kinds of cars. He wanted to offer different kinds of cars for rich people as well as middle-income people.
He used his stock in General Motors to buy other automobile companies. Within a few years he had brought together more than twenty different automobile and parts companies under the General Motors name. Many of the companies were small, weak and in debt.
By nineteen hundred ten General Motors had fallen into financial trouble. Bankers were forced to step in to save the company from financial ruin and Mister Durant was removed from control.
Over the years, General Motors grew and expanded. The company developed new and better production methods. And, it continued to improve its designs, offering customers many kinds of cars.
General Motors became the first automaker to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. And it was the first company to make more than a billion dollars in a year.
But last year, increasing gas prices and decreasing sales forced the company to seek billions of dollars in government aid in an attempt to avoid failure. In June, General Motors filed for chapter eleven bankruptcy. It sought protection from its creditors while continuing operations. GM was one hundred seventy-two billion dollars in debt.
The company is currently reorganizing. It has sold off its less profitable kinds of cars, closed factories, cut jobs and closed sales centers.
GM is continuing to produce its four main brands - Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC. The company is mostly owned by the United States government which has invested billions of dollars. And Toyota Motors now is the world's largest automaker.
