DETROIT - The new General Motors will be far faster and more responsive to customers than the old one, and it will make money and repay government loans faster than required, CEO Fritz Henderson said Friday as the company emerged from bankruptcy protection.

Henderson said the automaker completed its 40-day stay under court supervision far faster than anyone thought it could, saying it would repay about $50 billion in government loans ahead of a 2015 deadline.

He told reporters the company now will focus more on customers, including a partnership with the online auctioneer eBay for people to buy vehicles by auction online.

The new GM will build more cars and trucks that consumers want and launch them faster than in the past, the CEO said.

We recognize that weve been given a rare second chance at GM, and we are very grateful for that. And we appreciate the fact that we now have the tools to get the job done, he said.

He announced that the companys management ranks will be cut by 35 percent, or 450 executives, including the elimination of its North American president position. Henderson said he will take responsibility for North American operations.

Henderson also said the automaker was launching a Tell Fritz Web site to allow owners and the public to share their concerns with senior management and he planned to go out on the road every month. GM also planned to test a partnership with eBay that could revolutionize how people buy cars online, he said.

We need to listen to the questions, ideas and the concerns of the people who matter the most, Henderson said.

The new company will focus on three top priorities, customers, cars and culture, Henderson said.

If we dont get this right, nothing else is going to work, he said during a morning news conference at GMs Downtown Detroit headquarters. Business as usual is over at General Motors.

The new GM emerged from bankruptcy early Friday morning as lawyers finished an all-night paperwork session transferring the bulk of the automakers assets to a company controlled by the U.S. government.

Once the worlds largest and most powerful automaker, new GM is now cleansed of massive debt and burdensome contracts that would have sunk it without federal loans. The new GM also emerges amidst the worst sales slump in a quarter-century.

The massive transfer of factories, money and intellectual property to bring GM out of bankruptcy was completed about 6:30 a.m. ET Friday, clearing the way for a smaller and faster company better equipped to compete in the brutally tough global automotive market.

One bankruptcy expert called GMs 40-day case the fastest ever for a company of its size. The speedy close marks a victory for the Obama administration, which now boasts two successful automaker reorganizations. Government and company officials had expected the bankruptcy to last as long as 90 days, but it went even faster than crosstown rival Chrysler Group LLC, which spent 42 days under court protection.

Henderson and new GM Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr. announced details Friday of the plan to make new GM profitable again. The troubled automaker has lost more than $80 billion in the past four years.

Henderson outlined another 4,000 white-collar job cuts, including 450 top executives. The company still employs 88,000 people in the U.S. and 235,000 worldwide. He announced that product development guru Bob Lutz will stay with the company as an adviser, rescinding his retirement that was to take place by years end.

He also described how GM will streamline its bureaucratic management structure to become profitable again. GM has said it will be able to make money even if the U.S. auto market stays at a depressed level of 10 million to 10.5 million vehicles sold.

Yet despite massive cost reductions, experts say GM must produce vehicles that people want to buy, and change its image to one on the cutting edge of efficiency and quality. The new automaker now must win back customers in the worst auto sales market in more than 25 years.

It is the smaller, leaner, tougher, better cost-focused GM, said George Magliano, an automotive analyst with the consulting firm IHS Global Insight. But they still have to deal with the problems that they faced longer-term.

Rep. Gary Peters, whose Michigan district is home to three GM factories, said the companys emergence signals a new era for the domestic auto industry and the thousands of people it employs.

With bankruptcy in the rearview mirror, U.S. auto companies will even more aggressively pursue new technologies, become more globally competitive, he said. Decades from now, our nation will be glad we did not let a global credit crisis put an end to the American automobile.

Im very much looking forward to a point where were operating in clear air, and the name of the company not being associated with bankruptcy and loans and these things, said Mark LaNeve, GMs North American marketing chief.

GM ranked as the top global automaker in terms of sales for 77 years before Japans Toyota Motor Corp. snatched its crown in 2008. The company sold nearly 8.4 million cars and trucks around the world in 2008, falling short of Toyotas nearly 9 million.

Once the largest corporation in America, GM held the top spot in the Fortune 500 ranking for 20 years before being pushed out of the top spot in 1973 by Exxon Mobil Corp. It reclaimed No. 1 status in 1985 and held it for another 15 years.

Experts say GMs success will depend largely on its ability to persuade consumers that its a different company, one that builds cars that will equal or outlast Japanese models. To illustrate the change, GM is considering a new name.

Turning a profit will not be easy. GM has piled up losses and survives only because it expects to receive $50 billion in U.S. government loans. Without the loans, its executives have said the company would have been sold off in pieces.

The Obama administration has said it does not plan to interfere with day-to-day operations, though it ousted ex-CEO Rick Wagoner and has been involved in picking the new companys board.

Most of GMs model lineup is expected to stay unchanged for now. But the company on Friday will probably show off its newer, more efficient models, as well as plans for a U.S.-made subcompact and rechargeable electric vehicles.

In addition to the U.S. governments 61 percent controlling interest, the United Auto Workers union gets a 17.5 percent stake of the company through its retiree health care trust, and the Canadian government will control 11.7 percent. The remaining shares went to bondholders of the old company.

The parts of GM not moving to the new company will become part of old GM, a collection of assets and liabilities that will be sold to pay creditors.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

SOURCE - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31826205/ns/business-autos//

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Go get 'em. General!