Could you imagine a world without General Motors? No more Chevy’s, Cadillac’s, or Pontiac’s on the road anymore? It seems like a doomsday prophecy, but at the rate that things are going inside GM, it’s only a matter of time. You see, the fact is that at the end of the day, GM is flat-broke.

The largest car maker in the world is literally on the verge of implosion. GM was relying heavily on the U.S. goverment to bail them out, until Washington basically said, um, no fricken’ way. Now GM is in a real pickle cause it needed that money desperately not only to be profitable, but to survive as a company, period.

To get an idea of just how bad things are, GM recently said that “estimated liquidity during the remainder of 2008 will approach the minimum amount necessary to operate its business.” In other words, they’re going broke. GM is running out of money and that’s the bottom line.

Most analysts are estimating that a company of GM’s size needs to keep at least $10 billion on hand to meet its daily operating expenses. With a recent posting of $6.9 billion spent during this last quarter and only about $16.2 Billion left in its cash reserves, GM is running out of options. The company’s talks with Chrysler LLC were officially called off after they got the answer from the government that they would not be helping. Though a possible merger of the two car makers was up in the air, it all fell apart quite quickly. It’s obvious that GM needs to take care of itself first, especially since Chrysler is a sinking ship already.

Still, the future of the world’s largest automaker is still anyone’s guess. I would have thought that GM could have easily gotten some help from Washington, but it’s clear that if they aren’t willing to help. It seems General Motors has dug itself into a mighty big hole, and that it might eventually become their grave.

-Source: Inside Line and Automotive News