With the price of oil being so high, you would think car companies like General Motors (GM) might be heading for bankruptcy, or at least rethinking traditional strategies. However, car companies are doing very well right now, and General Motors’ new sales strategy might be a little shocking to people who pictured it playing out differently.

General Motors made the headlines this week, but not in a good way at all – GM cut its pension scheme by a few billion dollars to reduce liabilities at its own end. As you can plainly tell, people had a whole lot of feathers ruffled by the announcement. Investors are not happy about this action, because while this may look like a smart move on GM’s part, effectively cutting out $26 billion from pensions, it will need $4.5 billion more to pay for its new program. Investors are antsy about these things, as who knows how effective this might be; you already have retirees complaining about it, and it could potentially blow up in GM’s face if handled incorrectly.

Moreover, it is not as if this $26 billion reduction in liabilities is going to make it any more attractive as an investment option because of that huge cash payout it is going to have to make to pull off this move. Moody’s still deems the company below investment grade and remarked that GM’s “obligation would still be larger than any company within the S&P 500″. To continue reading, click here.