It is now clear that General Motors going bankrupt and dropping Pontiac is only one of many companies that will have to cut its loose ends during this recession. It seems that despite the auto industry’s sales picking up a bit in the first and second quarters of 2009, the cuts are not yet done.

American car manufacturers like General Motors will continue to suffer due to poor products, management and awful marketing but others are doing fairly well and taking this recession as an opportunity to grow into a better and smarter company.

Lets look at some examples:

Ford has done a great job in adapting to this economy and making changes to its line gradually since 2005, so that it would be ready to attack strong in 2010. It has redesigned it Focus, teamed up with Microsoft for its technology and made more hybrid vehicles available, without mentioning that their designs and levels of quality are increasing.

Following Ford has been Korean auto maker Hyundai who recently introduced its “Genesis” sedan and coupe and has changed its commitment to quality as well. Hyundai was known for making affordable cheap cars but it has taken this recession seriously and decided to re brand itself as the alternative to luxury at a great saving. Their latest is reviewed and compared to the top of the line Lexus or Mercedes but costs a fraction of the competition.

These two companies Ford and Hyundai are some of the big shakers and movers to watch, they offer great products, at attractive prices and continue to remain innovative. they make big leaps while others simply try to catch up.

It is clear that more cuts and reorganization will be necessary in order to survive this economic downturn in full. The new CEO has proposed some interesting moves to help combat the recession and make GM profitable.

We know that one of GM’ s largest issue was focused around the quality of its products and that it’s been hard for them to turn around such a long history of poor quality, and so there have been rumors that despite slight improvements in sales, General Motors might close off the Pontiac branch of its  empire.

Pontiac has been know for making poor quality autos for generations now and continues to behave poorly in term of branding and innovations and despite the recent pump from the G6 and G8 releases, they continue to sink the back bone of GM.

If the rumors are true, GM could close Pontiac down prior to the end of the year and lay off its assembly line workers as well. This plan would save General Motors some great money and help the brand come to life through less channels and a more focused message on quality and reliability.

General Motors had originally planned to cut 47,000 or so jobs by the end of 2009 and has now announced that they might be doing so earlier than expected in order to cut debt and increase profits. It is a fact that General Motors houses over 244,000 employees and that bankruptcy would impact our economy drastically but GM must remain conscious that keeping its Union Workers on payroll will probably mean it will fall.

General Motors has to somehow find a way to negotiate with union workers and their respective unions a plan to help the company remain afloat without having to pay those awfully large wages simply due to people’s seniority. Henderson also made a note that GM must get rid of its $49 billion in bond debt and secured loans, this money also covers almost 400,000 GM employee’s health care that are now retired and collect retirement benefits.

Henderson finally concluded by saying that GM would most likely have to close 5 of its factories by the end of the year and might claim a small bankruptcy to  wipe its debt and try to start fresh. Obama’s administration did said it would help out General Motors with loans and warranty commitments but changes need to be made quickly to ensure GM survives on the long run.

Once again another large company that is willing to claim bankrupcy and dump its debt on tax payers simply due to its poor business model.

As General Motors continues to survive on taxpayer’s bailout money, it must be very careful on how and where it spends cash. That includes how the automaker spends money on future products already in the pipeline.

According to Motor Trend, the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 is already done; however, General Motors has put the Z/28 on hold since it ran out of money to launch the car. General Motors has to be very careful where it spends its taxpayer bailout money since a car like the Camaro Z/28, which is expected to return a fuel economy of 13/19 mpg, will most probably be looked down upon during the company’s current financial situation.

Under the hood of the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 will be the same 6.2L LSA V8 supercharged engine from the Cadillac CTS-V. It will produce a neck-snapping 556-hp with a peak torque of 551 lb-ft. The Z/28 will also share the 6-speed manual and automatic transmission with the Cadillac CTS-V. 0 to 60 mph is expected come in at 3.9 seconds with a top speed of 193 mph for the manual version. While all that makes us muscle car fans drool, General Motors will have to stick to building fuel-sippers like the Chevrolet Cruze and the Chevrolet Volt for now. However,with the recent announcement that GM will no longer need money from the government there is hope that this could come true by 2010. keep your fingers crossed

9% is the magic number this week.

If you haven’t heard why yet, let me explain. The market saw a 9% jump this week alone, which is phenomenal. This came shortly after the three major events that occurred this week. The first being General Motors saying they will not need another injection by the government. The second being four banks giving back bailout money. The third is because Bernard Maddoff is behind bars.

General Motors not needing money comes as a surprise as they had earlier in the month declared they would be facing challenging times. Car sales have been cut from 18 million to 9 million and have been beating the industry down to near dead. Earlier in the year General Motors did lay off large numbers of employees who were still under the old union contract which was a great move. Union workers took major profit sharing pay during the times General Motors was doing good but kept getting paid despite hard times for the car giant. These cuts along with a reallocation of assets and resources seem to have helped General Motors stay the course in 2010.

Four banks giving back money with many more to follow? That’s right Citi bank, the worlds largest bank gave back bailout money, along with three other banks, who said they are capable of sustaining their own and will not need further injections. Many banks are following their examples and will return money shortly. WHY? Well, its simple banks need capital investors from the private sector to remain afloat and so for those investors to gain confidence, they must be able to demonstrate they can survive and need to move away from the idea of nationalization which seems more and more mass media and was causing fear amongst most investors.

And last but not least, Bernard Maddoff is finally behind bars for the rest of his life and most of his assets were seized, his assets were worth about $823 million, most of which will be used to repay his debt once the investigation is entirely over. This comes at a necessary time to help rebuild confidence in the justice system and its ability to deal with those that cheated the economy and the people.

So what does it all mean? Increased consumer spending for the month of February, making it now two months of increased consumer confidence. It also means that a 9% increase is a great sign, as it is usually what the market gains in a year. It also means that it is the time for  Obama’s administration to get the media involved because consumer confidence is the reason we are not getting out of this recession. Everyone is afraid and a little too much at that.

We need everyone to stay positive and live their normal lives, spend normal money, have confidence they will keep their jobs and continue on their normal lives, and as long as we dont and continue to live in fear, we will not get out of this.  So stay positive.