GM Inside News Forum - View Single Post - Rumblings & Rants: Saving money, Cutting brands, and what GM SHOULD do to survive

dracleath · 09-06-2008, 08:34 PM

Honestly, I really think that regardless of its problems Saturn is a better brand fit than pontiac for what GM needs to market heavilly to be successful. The main failing of Saturn is that they're unavailible for large swaths of the country due to lack of dealer coverage, and they require an entirely different sales channel.

What I believe they should do is this:

1. Sell Saab, Hummer.

2. Merge Saturn into BPG dealers.

3. Drop all rebadges from Pontiac and Saturn, aside from the. This might mean for a bit the Solstice and G8 would be the only Pontiac models, this is fine. Pontiac should be special, and not just thrown away on crap FWD models.

4. Bring in opels to fill in the blanks in the line ups.

5. MARKET THE CARS.

The final line up would be something like:

Saturn:

Astra
Insignia
Vue

Pontiac:
Solstice
G8 Grand Prix (Pontiac should start to phase in the old names to emphasise the end of the G5-g6 era)
Vibe

Buick:
Lacrosse
Lucerne (eventually should be replaced with a new chinese-style Park Avenue)
Enclave

GMC:
Canyon
Sierra
Acadia
Yukon

The overall marketing theme for the new dealership should be slightly more upscale than chevy, aiming at the volkswagon/mazda/etc segment.

Bingo, a full line of cars, with a distinct theme for each brand that are neither cannibalizing sales from each other nor so completely separate that they don't make sense on the same lot, and also which are distinct from chevy.

09-06-2008, 08:34 PM	#153 (permalink)
dracleath 2.4 Liter SIDI ECOTEC Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 154	Re: Rumblings & Rants: Saving money, Cutting brands, and what GM SHOULD do to survive Honestly, I really think that regardless of its problems Saturn is a better brand fit than pontiac for what GM needs to market heavilly to be successful. The main failing of Saturn is that they're unavailible for large swaths of the country due to lack of dealer coverage, and they require an entirely different sales channel. What I believe they should do is this: 1. Sell Saab, Hummer. 2. Merge Saturn into BPG dealers. 3. Drop all rebadges from Pontiac and Saturn, aside from the. This might mean for a bit the Solstice and G8 would be the only Pontiac models, this is fine. Pontiac should be special, and not just thrown away on crap FWD models. 4. Bring in opels to fill in the blanks in the line ups. 5. MARKET THE CARS. The final line up would be something like: Saturn: Astra Insignia Vue Pontiac: Solstice G8 Grand Prix (Pontiac should start to phase in the old names to emphasise the end of the G5-g6 era) Vibe Buick: Lacrosse Lucerne (eventually should be replaced with a new chinese-style Park Avenue) Enclave GMC: Canyon Sierra Acadia Yukon The overall marketing theme for the new dealership should be slightly more upscale than chevy, aiming at the volkswagon/mazda/etc segment. Bingo, a full line of cars, with a distinct theme for each brand that are neither cannibalizing sales from each other nor so completely separate that they don't make sense on the same lot, and also which are distinct from chevy.