As part of its effort to survive and achieve sustainability, GM announced that it would not renew contracts with 1,100 of its U.S. dealerships after October 2010. By June 1 GM must present to government officials a plan to restructure that will move the troubled automaker onto a path toward financial stability, otherwise undergo bankruptcy proceedings.

These closures do not include the dealerships that will be excised when GM sells SAAB, Saturn and Hummer toward the end of 2009, leaving models such as the Saturn Sky up for grabs. Mark LaNeve, GM Vice President of Sales Service and Marketing released a statement from the carmaker which explains that "almost all parts of GM, including the dealer body, must get smaller and more efficient."

Those dealers which will be cut first will be the ones which have garnered poor performance numbers, not accounting for a significant number of sales. This announcement comes shortly after Chrysler LLC made its plans known to cut nearly 800 dealers from its sales force. The initial downsizing of GM's sales fleet represents just part of a scheduled 2,600 dealers it plans to delete to become solvent again.