After the news from General Motors yesterday that they will be laying off 30,000 workers and close nine plants there is some good articles doing the rounds on the net.

Autoblog has a nice roundup on what the losses will mean to the people and the industry.

Personally I really think it was bound to happen sooner rather than later as GM have been resting on there laurels for far too long now.  Ford has bucked up its ideas with its new (European at least) range of models all getting better in build, dynamics and ride comfort.

That cannot be said for Vauxhall / Opel though, there cars are still in the dark ages in comparison to the equivalent Japanese / European manufacturers (and even now Ford). If the GM of America is anything like the European cousins then I can see where the problem lies. GM need to get there act together and build good high quality cars that people WANT to own, not have because the car lease plan says that is there only option.

After all I’m English so know all about the problems of car manufacturers struggling (all of the English marks are now owned by other countries), Take Rover for example, and I have witnessed first hand the problems that a manufacturer as big as GM laying off large numbers of people can cause.  However the only real solution is to go back to the drawing board and build a GOOD car that sparks peoples imaginations and desires. Fiat have done this recently with the brilliant but cheap Panda, so it proves it does not have to be a 30-50 thousand pound car.

Please GM get your act together, and make us all want to own a Vauxhall / Opel / Monaro / GM.