New turf for the General.

By Gunnar Heinrich

GM appears to be doing well everywhere else in the world outside its American home market. According to the Detroit News, General Motors reported a healthy 4% increase in foreign sales during this year's third fiscal quarter. In total, the Detroit giant sold about 2.4 million cars and trucks overseas.

Despite this growth, it seems that General has up until recently reverted to his old penny-pinching tricks.

"GM has worked to grow in emerging markets without pouring money into new factories, which can be a risky venture fraught with uncertainty," the Detroit News reported.

The notable exception is a $300 million factory to be built outside of Tsarist St. Petersburg. The Russian assembly plant will construct the Chevrolet Captiva, a cross-over SUV for the European market. Incidentally, GM sales in Russia are up by 75% to 65,700 units.

[Source: Detroit News]