GM's trouble isn't so much their products--those have improved significantly in recent years. Their real trouble is the experiment in socialism that the unions dragged them into. According to a newspaper article today, the average GM worker gets $28/hour, which is totally insane. And that's before benefits. Remember, most of those jobs are unskilled or semi-skilled. I would be surprised if any of us Rinkies get anywhere near that much.
The layoffs that were announced seem like a lot, but the US auto industry has cut more than 575,000 jobs since 1999. Admittedly, it's painful for the affected people, but that's a vital part of the mechanism by which a free economy advances. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, since 1999, the economy has created a net gain of 3.5 million jobs, in spite of the recession.