A fall in car profits overall, from $2.5 billion to $1.1 billion, was not offset by a $923m rise in profits from the group's financial businesses.
Certainly, bolstering car profits, long flat, is viewed by analysts as vital to the health of the Big Three.
"Used car volumes and margins have been maintained at high levels, which have offset the weaker performance in new car profits during the nine month period".
Some analysts see car profits doubling to $2 billion, and this week John Devine, GM's chief financial officer, forecast that the group's net earnings per share would rise by 24% (to $1.75) in the first quarter.
Rather a snub, don't you think, to the medical and computer systems, scientific and management-consulting communities, to name just some marginalised, top 1% professions – don't they, too, deserve an opportunity to maximise luxury car profits?
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Measured against U.S. makers, the comparisons look worse: Ford Motor's per-car profit (in this sense) is $974, GM's, $721.
They probably don't make large per-car profits, but they aren't among their companies' loss-leaders.
GM made a profit of $178 per vehicle, a measly total compared with per-car profits of $1,488 at Honda Motor, $1,742 at Toyota Motor and $2,402 at Nissan Motor.
That can't have been good for the car companies' profit margins.
Unlike BMW or Mercedes, Tesla owns its dealerships, allowing it to retain much more of the used car's profit than a traditional auto maker.
