Toyota to Eat GM

GM announced that what was once a special employee benefit will now be open to anyone…anyone who wants to buy a GM instead of a Toyota. Here is AOL’s account.

Things are not looking good for the world’s largest automaker. Inventories of vehicles are piling up on dealer lots, sales of high-profit large SUVs have fallen off as gas prices have gone up — and several GM divisions (notably Pontiac and Buick) are close to being on life support .

In response, GM has cut production by 12 percent (with future cuts and plant closings in store) and resorted to extraordinary incentive programs that amount to fire sale prices, while competitors — most notably Toyota, the world’s Number Two automaker — are selling cars at full mark-up and are awash in profit.

Toyota reportedly has enough cash on hand to buy GM’s entire automotive operations outright — and is gunning to replace GM as the world’s Number One automaker within five years.

So what will happen to GM?