How can a company that sells as few cars as lancia does,stay in business when GM looses a billion a month?

Lancia was bought by the FIAT group, So the lancia employees are just a small part of FIAT, that has a payroll, smaller than the money GM spends on toilet paper. They only need to sell a few cars to make a profit

Because Lancia is a luxury brand of the Fiat group, and shares many hidden parts with more mundane Fiat cars. This keeps the development cost of new models very low, and therefore only low sales volumes are needed to break even. Fiat group can even afford to sell Lancia cars at a loss, as the Lancia brand adds prestige to the Fiat group. Also, Lancia have won the rally world championship more often than any other car make.

Simple really.

Lancia is small, but has always been small. They can sell enough cars to pay their workforce and their bills and their pensions, because their not that big, they don't have alot of expense to deal with in comparison to GM.

GM has a union which has demanded more and more from the company. People who sweep floors make 45 an hour. When your paying 45 an hour for a $10/hour job, your expenses go up in a hurry. Not to mention GM has to hand out huge pensions packages as well, again thanks to the union.

Long and short is that people got greedy, and demanded too much from their employeer and now they wonder why they are going to be out of a job. In order to cover all their costs they would need to sell their cars for alot more than they are worth. So as a result, they are taking a loss.

And for those that don't think it's because of the union, i guess it's just coincidence that ALL domestic manufacturers (which deal with the autoworkers union) are struggling despite coming out with some great products!

Lancia also doesn't produce millions of cars every year. They have a much smaller market, but also produce much less.

It's supply and demand. GM makes far more cars than they sell. So each year is pretty much a loss.

Lancia makes a few cars per year,sells them at a high price...

And only builds cars per order, so every car is sold before it is built.....

gm builds for inventory, has cars it can't sell....

more than a bil per month. Theyre projected to lose 20 billion in 2008.

overhead