[cincygoblue]

That plan would never work, and here's why:

Once you kill a "look" or a "brand image", there are a certain number of customers you will lose. Some people who are interested in a Buick (like an Enclave or Lucerne in particular) will never buy a Pontiac. They won't like the split-kidney grille or the performance image or the tighter suspension. People interested in a Pontiac won't go for a Buick for the same reason. Saturn, same thing. So let's say you lose half your Pontiac customers, half your Buick customers and half your Saturn customers. Now your marketshare is 15% instead of 22%. Now you have to close another 6 assembly plants, another 6 stamping plants, a couple transmission plants, engine plants, etc.

Even by doing all that, you still have tons of fixed costs that have to be offset by sales. Plus you have dealers either suing GM for lack of support or have GM paying them off to go out of business. And GM has no cash for either of these things. Plus, you also have suppliers suing GM for lack of volumes, with the lower marketshare.

Sure, GM has high-marketshares on the other continents, but those shares are in the 10-15% range at best. If GM want's to be that small, they aren't going to do it in a year or 2. It'd take decades, and I don't think GM can afford to be that small with the # of retirees and employees they currently have.

And beyond that, Pontiac has a certain position in the market. GM has to get away from things like the G5 with them, and stick with things like a Solstice and G8. Buick has a certain position in the market. GM needs to get away from things like the Lacrosse, and become more like a domestic Lexus as GM has stated. Saturn people like the Saturn experience. You think those customers are ever going to a Pontiac dealer? Not likely.

GM did the right thing with combining Buick, Pontiac and GMC. They just need to avoid things like the Outlook, G5, Lacrosse, Torrent, etc. 3 cars for Buick, 3 cars for Pontiac, 1 large crossover for one of them, and some trucks/utes for GMC. Killing Saturn dealers would be dumb. Killing GMC eliminates a couple 100,000 sales. Getting that small for no benefit is ridiculous. I don't see the advantage to your plan. GM can stop the overlaps as constructed. Saturn tried to move upscale too fast, just like Chrysler brand. It'll take another 10 years, but they can get there, especially if they continue to mimic Opel (but with some American switchgear and decent options please).

I totally disagree with killing any more brands. Even Saab should do well, paired with Cadillac here. And Hummer should stay small, but get more efficienct.