How not to succeed

The freeze-up in the credit market has hit GMAC, GM and Cerberus Capital Management's financial arm, hard. According to Jalopnik, GMAC will only finance car loans at dealer invoice or below for buyers with a FICO score of 700 or above. That means excellent credit; no subprime borrowers, please. Also, restrictions are being placed on loans for longer than 60 months, so buyers won't be able to get lower payments by opting for a longer term. Earlier, Chrysler Finance (also controlled by Cerberus) pulled the plug on lease financing for anyone, including highly-qualified customers.

With all the problems that GM has right now, pulling the plug on financing to all but the most qualified customers won't make things any better.