Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington — GM emerged from its warp-speed bankruptcy Friday delivering the following message: This won't be your father's General Motors.
Smaller, less debt-ridden and mindful of the $50-billion bet that taxpayers have made on the automaker's survival, company executives pledged a new era of innovation and a steely focus on customers.
Chief Executive Fritz Henderson announced a streamlined top-level management structure and promised that senior executives would respond to customer suggestions on a new website. He also unveiled plans to experiment with selling cars on EBay in California starting next month.
"Business as usual is over at GM," Henderson said at a news conference at the company's Detroit headquarters. "We know we have to change."
The challenges are enormous. The U.S. auto industry is mired in a devastating slump. GM must reverse decades of declining sales and a tarnished image further stained by a government bailout and a trip through Bankruptcy Court.
Still, the company has recently given even skeptics some cause for optimism.
The automaker has a few highly praised models already in showrooms, including the Buick Lacrosse and Chevy Camaro. Its gas-electric hybrid Chevy Volt, set to launch next year, is generating buzz.
What's more, the quick turnaround of the bankruptcy case -- a remarkable 39 days from its June 1 filing to Friday's closing of the sale of GM's best assets into a new company -- means company executives can get started sooner than they expected in putting the past behind them.
The smooth exit offers GM a unique marketing platform to demonstrate that it really is changing, said Brad Coulter, a corporate-turnaround consultant at restructuring firm O'Keefe & Associates in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
"They've done a fairly radical restructuring in a short period of time," Coulter said, noting the large reductions in employees, dealers and brands. "I think they're positioned for success. . . . It depends on how long it takes the economy to recover and whether the advertising push can rebuild their image and stem the loss of market share."
A key will be winning new customers and keeping the ones it has.
On Friday, Tammy and Frank Ward were shopping at Community Chevrolet in Burbank, looking for a replacement for their 2002 Chevy Tahoe.
