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"   Sacrificing a few points of market share in the U.S., believes, will go a long way to fattening up its bottom line, GM Vice Chairman Robert Lutz told reporters at the Detroit auto show, according to The Wall Street Journal.   &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s better to sell four million [vehicles] at $5,000 profit [each] than five million at no profit,&amp;quot; Lutz said.   GM will avoid &amp;quot;junk&amp;quot; business practices such as big cash rebates, heavily subsidized leases and excessive sales to rental car companies that it has employed in the past to juice sales, he said.   &amp;quot;We are no longer doing the things that used to get us two to three extra points of market share,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ve got to discipline ourselves.&amp;quot;   In the future, GM plans to limit sales to rental companies and avoid sales promotions that would push out more cars than the market is willing to buy, he said.   &amp;quot;Within reason, it would be better to sell slightly fewer [vehicles] at higher margins,&amp;quot; Mr. Lutz said. &amp;quot;We tried to sell more at lower margins and it&amp;#039;s what got General Motors into trouble.&amp;quot;   GM, which once had 50% market share in the U.S., finished 2006 with 24.6%, down from 26.2% in 2005. Lutz says that &amp;quot;Somewhere between 20% to 25% seems to be what the formerly dominant manufacturer can aspire to once the market opens to every brand in the world.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a12842/top-exec-sees-a-smaller-healthier-gm/>