General Motors is effectively under new ownership. The mega-corporation has gone through dramatic changes this past year, and the GM that emerges from Chapter 11 will be much different than the domestic titan that dominated the global automotive industry for many years. It will divest itself of Hummer, Pontiac, Saab, and Saturn, along with far more employees than my heart and mind can calculate. Through its restructuring GM has found funding from you and me, managed by the federal government, along with a significant underwriting from our Canadian neighbors.

For now, government is the majority stakeholder. While president Obama’s Autos Task Force insists it will allow GM management to run the company, there is potential for influence. We know that the U.S. government wants GM to return to profitability, and we also know that fuel economy is a major priority, with increasingly stringent mileage targets recently put in place.

It makes me wonder: What would the government do with GM were it free to run the day-to-day operations? (For one, they may realize the challenge in chasing profit and fuel economy at the same time…)

The big question is, what kind of cars would Government Motors produce?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

—Jeff Bartlett