Chevy Equinox, an example of GM's promise

If General Motors Co. is going to climb out of the hole, repay taxpayers and get on the move again, it needs more cars like the 2010 Chevy Equinox.

This compact SUV looks a little like a Lexus, but at $28,000 for the top-of-the-line LTZ model, it has a much lower base price. The style is American all the way, with plenty of chrome, a spacious leather interior, a six-speed automatic and a peppy-yet-gas-friendly four-cylinder engine.

"The bottom line is to give the customer astonishing amounts of value," said GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. "This looks and feels like a way more expensive car."

After one of the worst years in a century of domestic automotive manufacturing, GM is desperate for a win. Its biggest financial problems have been solved, courtesy of bankruptcy court and $53 billion in federal aid. Now America's No. 1 automaker has to perform.

Its financial results this week showed progress. The company -- your company, because it is after all 61 percent owned by U.S. taxpayers -- generated a surprising $3.3 billion in cash during a truncated third quarter. It floated plans to begin repaying its loans early, and raise billions through an initial public offering next year.

But even as it's hitting the gas pedal, it's leaving a trail of parts behind. Employment fell 17 percent in the previous 12 months, to 209,000 worldwide. The U.S. hourly work force took a brutal 25 percent whack. Between June and the end of next year, GM expects to shrink its dealer network by 1,900 -- a scary thought given the nation's rising jobless rate.

GM is trying to speed along the things that traditionally take it forever. "Things like sales programs, changes in direction in advertising or modifying the product plan," Lutz said. "Things that used to be put on a monthly schedule are now on a twice-weekly schedule. We don't drown ourselves in a sea of numbers. We don't need in-depth studies if we all agree this is what we're going to do."

And now that the government has invested so much, it wants results -- and not only financial results. Bailing out GM was supposed to save U.S. jobs by preserving a bedrock U.S. industry.

Yet GM's latest numbers suggest that it will be selling a lot more Wuling microvans through a joint venture in China than SUVs at home. Even the definition of an American car has gotten squishy: GM made its test model of the Equinox in a Canadian assembly plant, sourcing 30 percent of the parts from outside North America, including a South Korean transmission.

Further, the government vision of a small-car fleet with triple-digit fuel economy runs up against long-standing American preferences. The Equinox may be a "compact" SUV, but it's not compact in the same way a jumbo shrimp is still a shrimp.

It feels big, and though it advertises combined fuel economy of 26 miles per gallon -- outstanding for its class -- a cold-weather drive around the city unmasks its SUV heart.

GM says the Equinox can more than make it from Chicago to Kansas City, Mo., or roughly 600 miles, on a tank of gas, and do it in style. For GM, that alone represents a step toward survival.

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