Personally, gas prices will have no effect on me at all.
However, I do agree with the people who say that GM put all it's eggs in one basket. Because of this, GM builds excellent SUV's that excel in almost (if not every) category....
That being said, GM builds small cars that DON'T excel in many categories... The Cobalt is not bad, but not good either when compared to the Mazda3, Honda Civic and even the Korean cars.
GM should have seen the writing on the wall... an emerging China and India that would require plenty of energy, study after study that increasingly confirms that we are at least partly to blame for Global Warming, an increasingly fractured Middle East (even before Sept 11th) and the fact that small cars began to think big in terms of luxury and appointments.
Had GM done some brainstorming, they could have debuted a few small cars that would be class meeting or even class leading. Either taking a gamble or out of ignorance, GM chose to stick with big SUV's and Trucks. No problem with Trucks, I drive one myself, but lets face it, you gotta have diversity if you are to succeed in the corporate world.
Is GM the scourge of the America's? No way. And this author will have some explaining to do to his readership, I know it. But even if they put more money into small diesels or more efficient engines, they'd be miles ahead of where they are now.
But that's the past. All GM can do now is play catch up, and hopefully beat out the rivals.