AUTOS

GM Cuts Pension Liability: In remarks at the auto maker’s annual meeting, President John F. Smith Jr. said the company added $1.5 billion in cash to its pension funds last week. The latest contribution puts the remaining unfunded pension liability at $5 billion. Since the start of 1994, General Motors Corp. has paid $17.2 billion into its pension plans. The auto maker also announced that it has cut its forecast for total U.S. vehicle sales by 300,000 to 15.3 million. GM officials said the lower forecast is based on weak sales in April. The meeting, held in Wilmington, Del., was the company’s smallest and cheapest annual meeting in decades. This year’s event cost about $150,000 to stage. Last year’s cost $1.2 million. Only 137 shareholders registered for the session, the smallest number in the nearly 50 years the company has kept track. As recently as 1992, more than 1,600 people showed up.