GM to Kill Nine Plants while DaimlerChrysler Announces Big Spending in Canada

The following year, in 2007, GM will also shut the doors on its parts processing center in Ypsilanti, Michigan, plus a yet to be

The plant closures are needed for GM to turn its business around, butdon't worry about Corvette as Bowling Green will remain open. (Photo:Trevor Hofmann, American Auto Press)

determined parts processing center will also be closed that year.

While drastic, the plant closures are needed for GM to turn its business around.

"A lot of work went into this," Wagoner added. "It's comprehensive and it's going to address what we need to address."

It's easy to point the critical finger at some of GM's products for not being as competitive in the marketplace as many offered by its rivals, especially on the day

Today was also the day that DaimlerChrysler announced a new Dodge Challenger sports coupe would soon go head to head with Ford's hot-selling Mustang. (Photo: DaimlerChrysler)

when DaimlerChrysler announced a new sports coupe, dubbed Dodge Challenger, is to go head to head with Ford's hot-selling Mustang. Rubbing more salt into the would is the fact that GM has not been able to counter the Mustang with a Chevy Camaro of its own, despite a desire expressed by some executives to do so, but while GM has less competitive products in some cases, the automaker's problems run deeper than this. Rather, GM has been weakened by pension, health care, labor, and materials costs, plus the lack of demand for its high-profit sport utility vehicles, and also by plant overcapacity.

This action will remove 1 million units from production, and being that its plants are currently only producing at 85 percent capacity allows GM to be more competitive to Asian rivals that achieve greater efficiencies.