Keeping Lutz will help continue GM's innovation, said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. The company has changed significantly in recent years with the help of executives such as Lutz, but the public hasn't realized it, Cole said.
"They have a sales job in terms of creating an image of GM," he said. "They did not have a lot to do from the standpoint of product development and advanced technology."
Henderson said he expected the company to break even next year, turn a profit in 2011, and to repay $6.7 billion in loans from the U.S. government before the 2015 deadline.
The rest of the federal money used to help keep GM afloat for the last seven months was turned into equity. The U.S. government now owns 60.8% of the company.
"While this restructuring required difficult and painful sacrifices from all of the company's stakeholders -- and the American taxpayer -- it has saved tens of thousands of American jobs and positioned GM to reclaim its position as a competitive and sustainable global company," said a spokesman for the Treasury Department.
With GM and Chrysler now out of bankruptcy, the Obama administration said Friday that it was ending its program to back up warranties on their vehicles. The $650-million program began in March as a backstop so the automakers' financial troubles wouldn't discourage consumers from buying cars.
But the GM bankruptcy didn't dissuade Steve Dunn, 69, a mail clerk and Teamsters union member. He was at Community Chevrolet on Friday buying a 2009 Chevy Colorado truck to replace his 2007 Colorado. The deals were good -- through negotiation and with points from his GM credit card, Dunn said, he was getting the $23,000 truck for $17,000.
"It didn't bother me that they went bankrupt," he said. "In fact, I think it was the right thing to do. They needed to restructure to stay viable."
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