About General Motors Company

General Motors is one of the top car selling manufacturers in America. It is second only to Toyota annual sales. The company headquarters are now in Detroit. Over the past few years General Motors has gone through some major changes.

History

General Motors was founded in Flint, Michigan in 1908. They remained there until the mid-20s at which time they relocated their headquarters to Detroit. Ford was the major competitor to General Motors at this time, but once they began offering vehicle financing, which Ford was opposed to at the time, General Motors soon surpassed the Ford Motor Company in sales.

Vehicle Expansion

General Motors began to expand once they secured the financing with GMAC. This made cars more affordable, so more people were buying. GM made more cars in with more variety to fill those needs. They created the additional brands of Pontiac, Buick, GMC and the luxury Cadillac. Over the years they would add several more brands including Saturn, Hummer and Saab.

Financial Crisis

Due to the waning economy and slow sales, GM began losing money. They began to cut jobs, salary and benefits for workers. In 2008 they got loans from the government to help with their debt crisis and phased out the Pontiac brand. They had plans to sell Saturn and Saab but those deals fell through so those brands were phased out as well as Hummer and Oldsmobile. They kept Chevy, GMC, Cadillac and Buick.

Rebirth

By 2010 General Motors announced that they had paid back their government loans ahead of schedule and are in the process of focusing on new technology to build better brands and once again reach the top in the auto manufacturing industry.