General Motors has announced that it may phase out its weaker brands if sales fail to hit targets.

Announced after last week’s profit warning, GM vice chairman, Bob Lutz did not say which brand might be discontinued, but described Buick and Pontiac as "damaged".

"Over time if one of the troubled brands ... that's been undernourished for many years, if it fails to turn around, then we'd have to look at a phase-out," Lutz said in a speech before Morgan Stanley's Global Automotive Conference in New York.

Lutz said GM did not want to “squander resources” on overcoming “negative momentum” and would rather inject cash into its more successful brands like, Cadillac, Hummer and GMC.

Despite debts of $300bn (£160.4bn) across the GM group, Lutz says the threat of bankruptcy was "absolutely out of the question - totally out of the question", adding that the company was "taking the necessary steps to right this ship."