The big structural problem with GM (and the rest of the american auto industry) is the ongoing issue with pensions and the like. I seem to recall a Malcolm Gladwell column in which he pointed out that, with the stream of early-retirements and buyout packages over the last 30 years, plus the declining size of GM in general, every GM worker supports the pension and/or health care obligations of 8 former GM workers. Most of GMs profits, as a result, come from finance and other subsidiary operations; actually making cars is close to revenue neutral.
The irony of this situation is that the UAW offered to take care of health care and pension management in-house, but GM (quickly copied by Ford and Chrysler) declined. (In the 1980's, this decision probably seemed like genius, given that the big automakers raided surpluses in their own pension funds to add to the corporate bottom line; today, now that the pension funds are still underfunded despite 5 years of trying, not so much.)
This isn't to say that GM and other big auto should be freed of pension and health obligations (ie, a metaphorical get out of jail free card), which it made in good faith, but to point out that long-ago decisions had consequences which today's GM is paying for. Like the current negative savings rate, it represented a massive transfer of wealth from the future to the present.
As for GM right now .. they're currently in a negative cash flow situation. They're not bankrupt, and probably couldn't have filed for chapter 11 years ago (in that they did not default on debt, violate debt covenants, or come to the table with negative owner's equity, a precondition for bankruptcy filing), but they're eating their reserves, eating their owner's equity, and this will eventually come to an end. There will be a GM in 50 years, but it's going to be a much smaller GM. And the existing shareholders will probably get shafted, since they come last (in case of common stock, next to last in case of preferred) in the order of claims on assets.
In the short term, they will probably acquire Chrysler in a swap for GMAC, although I'm not sure if it's a big win for them. On the other hand, GMAC (since it depends on the free flow of corporate paper) is probably an albatross around their necks, at least for the next little while. They may also be able to renegotiate dependent obligations with UAW as part of the purchase, which could conceivably be a major win and major change to their economic situation.
Last but not least, what car do I drive? My first major purchase with my wife was a new 2006 Hyundai Elantra. The second was a couch. Usually this happens in reverse, but we've always been a little bit different.
