GM marques such as Cadillac are losing ground to foreign rivals [Phot]

　　Flagging sales and the rising cost of employee healthcare pushed General Motors to a net loss of $1.1bn (￡576m) in the first three months of 2005.

　　The world’s biggest carmaker warned in March it would drive deep into the red, but the loss - the worst since 1992 - is at the top end of its prediction.

　　In the same period last year, GM made a profit of $1.2bn.

　　The headline figure includes several one-off costs such as 12,000 layoffs in GM’s operations in Europe.

　　Its Opel and Saab units are having trouble turning a profit, while extricating itself from a deal which could have forced it to buy Fiat is also hurting the company.

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