General Motors already has plans to slash hundreds of its dealers late next year, but for the dealers who make it through the cuts it won't just be a case of 'business as usual'. Instead, the struggling automaker will be modifying its contracts with the remaining 4,100 or so dealers in its network and expects to have the new agreement signed as early as this Friday.

The terms on the contracts being changed will significantly alter the way GM dealers go about their business, and in the coming months GM wants to meet with all the dealerships in order to discuss changing their sales targets and the physical characteristics of the dealerships themselves.

GM also wants dealerships to focus exclusively on GM brands - this means the automaker will be trying to get rid of service centers at dealerships that deal with both GM and non-GM brands. Dealers will still have some recourse, however, in how they want to run their own businesses through GM's mediation processes, reports Automotive News.

GM claims that the new agreement is to give more flexibility as it restructures, and that new modifications to the agreement will allow it to alter its dealership network to be more reflective of the leaner and more efficient policies.

At the moment, close to 90% of dealerships have stated informally that they will sign the agreement when it reaches their offices on Friday. As for the remaining dealers, there will likely be some issues that they want to take up with GM, although it has been said that dealers not signing the agreement by Friday will be terminated by the U.S. bankruptcy court.