
It must be pretty hard to unload an unwanted truck business these days. Just ask General Motors, which has attempted to sell its medium-duty truck operations first to Navistar and then Isuzu. Both heavy-duty diesel makers have passed on the offer. Isuzu had been rumored as a possible buyer for the unit after Navistar let the non-binding agreement pass by unsigned. Now, Isuzu President Susumu Hosoi tells Reuters, "There will be no such acquisition happening" from his company either, suggesting that the market for heavy-duty trucks has not yet hit the bottom.
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It is no secret that the automotive industry is hurting for sales to close out 2008. Over the past few months incentives have been thrown out left and right to draw in more buyers. The deals have not done enough to bring folks into the showroom, though. With all the media talk of bleeding Detroit, consumers know that the domestic manufacturers have been holding out on their best offers. Perhaps the memory of 2005's employee pricing incentives has kept many waiting on the fence. With 2009 models heading to dealerships as we speak, General Motors is hoping to end the stalemate. It will be testing the waters of employee pricing yet again beginning Wednesday, August 20th and running through September 2nd.
General Motor's car czar, Bob Lutz, sat down with the little people of the blogosphere after GM's announcement that it would be reducing white collar expenditures by 20-percent, cutting truck production and eliminating retired health care for salaried workers over 65, all in an effort to boost its liquidity by $15 billion by the end of 2009.
Maximum Bob addressed questions about GM's entire brand portfolio, saying, "Pontiac will be nourished with products" and confirming that GM is in talks with financial institutions about HUMMER, and that, "If we could sell the brand, we'd be interested in doing that."
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This has been a big year for GM's organization alignment, with President Fritz Henderson opening up about the brand issue snafu and the appointment of four brand czars. HUMMER was meant to join forces with Cadillac and Saab in a premium channel, but while HUMMER is still in the family, it's apparently been put out on the lawn.

Click above for a ghres gallery from The All GM Car Show
On sunny 90-degree day that felt like a lot more than 90 degrees, Autoblog made the trek to a park in Van Nuys, California for The All GM Car Show. Old mingled with new, with a 1911 Buick sitting across the aisle from a Cadillac Allante, and a 1950 Oldsmobile next to a Shelby Series 1 supercar. And age didn't stop anyone from winning prizes: in fact, a 2008 Pontiac G8 GT took home one of the day's awards.
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