GM Falls Behind Toyota in Sales

Now, it's not the headline that is interesting to me, it's the loss of production right now.

With American Axle's strike affecting more than 30 GM plants in at least 3 countries and countless other manufacturing jobs elsewhere (think about the nearly 2% rise in unemployment for Fort Wayne), well, I think you get the picture.

From the MSNBC article:

“We obviously want to win, and we’d like to be No. 1 in sales at the end of the year,” he said. “But really our focus right now is on profitable, sustainable growth across the world.”

GM said it posted record sales in three of its four regions, but a 10 percent drop in North America pulled down the overall numbers. Sales were up 8 percent outside of North America, the Detroit automaker said.

A record 64 percent of GM’s sales in the latest quarter came from outside the United States, with the company reporting nearly 20 percent growth in the Latin America, Africa and Middle East region, 6 percent growth for Asia Pacific operations and 3 percent growth in Europe.

GM sold roughly 2.27 million vehicles worldwide in the first quarter of 2007.

I like the profitable sustainable growth quote, but I'm not sure that GM can sustain such a thing if their most popular cars and trucks are simply not being manufactured as is increasingly becoming the case now. So, when is it going to be the right time for GM to put PUBLIC pressure on Dick Dauch so that he starts negotiating in Good Faith, once and for all?