General Motors (or Government Motors, if you prefer) has seen sales [article link] worldwide drop 22% in the first half of 2009. GM emerged from bankruptcy protection on July 10th. The fall in sales also reflected a continued downward spiral of models that GM intends to trim from its overall line of automobiles.

I have talked to people who have stated they would never under any circumstances buy another car from GM. Why? A lot of people are still incensed over GM taking government money from the so-called "government bailout." Most people do not believe they will ever see any profit from the taxpayer money used to prevent a complete collapse by GM. GM has no one but themselves to blame for this. Up until the late 70s and early 80s, GM did not really take an interest in quality. To GM, it was not about customer satisfaction. It was all about making the sale. Now, they are paying the price for it just as I told the salesman who sold me my '88 Pontiac GrandAm about twenty years ago. That GrandAm was a piece of junk with a quad-4 engine that caused vibration throughout the car if you went over 55MPH. His suggestion was to use the car just for trips inside the city. I'm not sure I have ever been more disgusted and angry in my life as I was at that moment. I won't repeat what I said to him since I intend to keep this a family friendly blog. But, I will say I told him he and his company would pay for their lack of interest in putting a quality product on the market some day. Turns out I was more right than I could have ever imagined.