The company says it will also phase out its iconic 83-year-old Pontiac brand.

Fritz Henderson, Chief Executive, General Motors, said, "We needed to basically discontinue the work we were doing and announce today that we were going to discontinue production of the Pontiac brand by no later than 2010."

GM says it will speed up its factory closings. That will leave 34 factories operating at the end of next year down from 47.

Henderson says he expects the company to emerge from the financial crisis as a leaner, customer oriented business. But he says the restructured company will be "much more focused on getting results" than "being big."

(CCTV April 29, 2009)