17 Years Ago, America Watched Its Automotive Giant Collapse
- Published on 25/11/2025 14:57
- Modified on 26/11/2025 10:38
On November 25, 2008, General Motors experienced one of the darkest days in its modern history.
On that day, amid a global financial storm, the Detroit giant General Motors (GM) unveiled an emergency plan that would precipitate an unprecedented shift for an American automaker. On that day, GM officially acknowledged that it could no longer meet its commitments without massive federal assistance. A sequence that would leave a lasting mark on the global automotive industry.
At that time, GM was still the world’s largest automaker, but its power had become nothing more than a veneer. The group was racking up losses, weighed down by a sprawling structure, numerous and costly brands, and an American market in decline. The 2008 financial crisis acted as an accelerator: sales plummeted, liquidity evaporated, and investors pulled back. On November 25, the plan presented to Congress detailed the extent of the shipwreck. It highlighted a colossal debt, a treasury on the brink of drying up, and an immediate need for several tens of billions of dollars to avoid collapse.
America was no longer untouchable
The announcement had the effect of an earthquake. GM, emblematic of the American industrial dream, acknowledged that it could no longer navigate alone. The federal government would have to intervene. This would take place a few months later, when the automaker would seek protection under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code, initiating the most spectacular restructuring ever seen in modern automotive history. Brands would be eliminated, factories closed, and thousands of jobs sacrificed. A forced but vital reinvention.
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In retrospect, this day of November 25 appears as the moment when General Motors ceased to be untouchable. It symbolizes the end of an industrial model inherited from the post-war era, too heavy, too slow, and too vulnerable to crises. Paradoxically, it was from this near-bankruptcy that the new generation GM was born, more compact, more rational, and ready to tackle the market transformations. It was in this downfall that its rebirth took shape.
READ ALSO: 114 years ago, Louis Chevrolet wrote his American dream
This page is translated from the original post "Il y a 17 ans, l’Amérique voyait s’effondrer son géant automobile" in French.
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