There’s an article printed late today in the NYTimes that talks about GM possibly buying up Chrysler.  I find this to be an unlikely event, given the current state of the auto industry.  No automaker has any cash to buy up another one.  From the article:

General Motors is in preliminary talks about a possible merger with Chrysler, a deal that could drastically remake the landscape of the auto industry by reducing the Big Three of Detroit automakers to the Big Two.

The talks between G.M. and Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity firm that owns Chrysler, began more than a month ago, and the negotiations are not certain to produce a deal. Two people close to the process said the chances of a merger were “50-50” as of Friday and would most likely still take weeks to work out.

GM would have over 10 viable car lines then and without Chrysler many of them overlap.  With Chrysler and you now add another 3 that compete with one another.  Dodge with Chevy, Jeep with Hummer, Chrysler with Buick.  Toyota succeeded because they only have 3 car lines and focus on just making those the best they can be.  More is less in this case, and GM is already trying to sell of different lines - the last thing they need to do right now is add three more.

UPDATE:

Chrysler has officially responded to the merger talks by saying they won’t comment.  I guess we now know why Cerberus is keen to buy the remaining 19.9% of Chrysler from Daimler.  I still don’t see it being sold to GM, GM isn’t financially healthy enough to spend that much money.  And they won’t enjoy any economies of scale or shared platforms for half a decade, by which time they’ll probably be healthy on their own.