Business Magazine Suggests GM Should Close 5 Of Its 8 U.S. Brands

[FStephenMasek]

Again - GM needs to advertise all of its brands together, not eliminate brands. The brands are an advantage. Le'ts use the Camry example from that article. Toyota only offers the Camry, Camry convertible, and Lexus ES, but GM offers the Malibu, G6, G6 convertible, Aura, 9-3, and 9-3 convertible, giving buyers a greater choice of interior and exterior styling.

[lowsl2]

GM should keep Chevrolet, Pontiac, Cadillac. You have your entry level, performance level and luxury level. What else do you need? Maybe keep GMC for it's heavy duty trucks?

While I'm a huge Saturn fanatic, I think Saturn needs to go. It's not like it was back in the day when they were building the S-series. Now it's just another GM brand.

[Lunden]

Originally Posted by jkennedy293

What is this guy smoking? except for the Outlook, no Saturn is a rebadged Chevy.

How is the Outlook a rebadged Chevy?

[61BelAir]

Originally Posted by windvale

I'm going to go ahead and nominate this for the dumbest comment of 2008.

lol.....the reasoning is brilliant! Lets get rid of 1,000,000 plus units a year and the profit that goes with them. ;o)

[CmicasatheGreat]

Originally Posted by HotCarNut
the best strategy would be to kill Chevrolet as it has the most independent dealers and nearly every model has a counterpart in another brand...In short, Chevy has no defining DNA.

Originally Posted by windvale

I'm going to go ahead and nominate this for the dumbest comment of 2008.

Yeah I'd like to second that.. and give the guy a HARD "INTERNET PUNCH IN THE FACE"...

GM needs to keep all of it's brands, and simply marry the NICHE brands, Saab and Hummer with a mainstream one... Saturn/Saab and GMC/Hummer.. allowing for each to benefit from the other's dealer network and marking funds... In fact Hummer needs to be a part of GMC in a way that would allow fo it to be the Premium Land Rover/Jeep alternative with BALLZ...

Even more to the point tho is the fact that the author of the original article FAILED to realize that GM has a multi facet MID-SIZE strategy that has both small and larger offerings... example being Malibu/Impala... and in no way is the Camry's sales 3 times that of the Impalas. He simply used the Epsilons as an example when it has been all along an Epsilon/Wbody configuration...

[tholland]

I agree on Saturn and Buick.

Originally Posted by lowsl2

GM should keep Chevrolet, Pontiac, Cadillac. You have your entry level, performance level and luxury level. What else do you need? Maybe keep GMC for it's heavy duty trucks?

This sounds pretty good to me.

[Lunden]

I my opnion...and I do mean OPNION!!!!

Gm should merge Saturn with Chevy

Replace Pontiac with Holden and build a Mini competetor

Have Buick follow Buick of China

Cut Hummer down to One model..the HX

Have GMC only sell the Acadia, The Avalanche (Take it from Chevy) and only offer a hybrid version. And the Yukon, also only a Hybrid and the Heavy Duty Trucks

[roteague]

Originally Posted by FStephenMasek

Again - GM needs to advertise all of its brands together, not eliminate brands. The brands are an advantage. Le'ts use the Camry example from that article. Toyota only offers the Camry, Camry convertible, and Lexus ES, but GM offers the Malibu, G6, G6 convertible, Aura, 9-3, and 9-3 convertible, giving buyers a greater choice of interior and exterior styling.

Amen. GM should value it strengths, in this case, its diversity.

[throwback]

[quote=Perian;1399753]Link: http://www.portfolio.com/interactive...hat-Should-Die

Source: Portfolio Magazine, June 2008; Page 86.

Article quote:

If you’re shopping for a midpriced sedan, for example, G.M. has six. Buick by itself has two. Toyota, by comparison, has just one—the Camry, which sells nearly as many vehicles each year as all six of G.M.’s offerings combined.

I have said this many times in the past 3 years. I actually think GM should sell SAAB and Hummer it's cheaper that way, merge Saturn and Chevrolet. I would keep Pontiac as the performance brand, which would require some real performance cars, keep Buick for 2 models In the US (Invicta and Enclave). I still don't know why GMC is needed other than to give BPG dealers trucks to sell.

[vcs2600]

Originally Posted by ronald mcretard

If GM killed Saab I would never forgive them. Besides, why kill it? I'm sure someone would buy it.

People here seem to forget that GM is a major european automaker. Should they just abandon the premium segment in Europe? Wouldn't this put GM at a major disadvantage versus Ford, VW, and Fiat?

Meanwhile they have 3 premium brands (Cadillac, Buick, Hummer) in North America - the problem is here, not in the EU where their brand hierarchy actually makes some sense (Chevy/Opel/Saab).

[zete]

The number of brands isn't the issue, instead it's the fact each was a full line brand.

What we're seeing now is a niche strategy for specific brands -- Buick, Pontiac, Saturn -- while Chevrolet becomes the full-line brand.

With a niche strategy it will work fine. GM has the reach since they can spread the costs of a specific model around the world. The old GM would have each area have their own cars, but that's slowly disappearing. Pontiacs will be rebadged Holdens, which means Holden has an avenue in North America for their cars. Saturn are rebadged Opels, again, Opel gets an avenue in North America. Buick ends up being a total niche luxury player, focusing on comfort and unpretentious luxury and the Chinese market while Cadillac can go after everyone globally along with Chevrolet.

Killing Pontiac will hurt Holden. Killing Saturn hurts Opel. Killing Buick hurts Buick. And Buick is massive in China.

The article is written by someone who is so fixated on the North American part of GM they don't see the global picture. If the author had dug a bit deeper he'd have realized that what GM has been doing isn't simply consolidating dealerships but consolidating platforms. No longer are we going to see design and manufacturing replicate a small car for every market, instead they're looking at global platforms and global vehicles.

That's what Toyota does. And Toyota has started into niches with Scion.

Niches are the future. They won't sell like the main line, but they will keep people in the family when they no longer want the Chevrolet but want something more exotic. The niche brands will provide that, selling 200,000 - 300,000 vehicles a year tops. And as niche vehicles, GM can keep the supply limited and the profits high while Chevrolet can focus on those looking for a deal. Cadillac, once it regains its old luster, will simply charge a premium for being Cadillac.

And if you want to look at where the niche strategy currently works at GM look no further than Hummer. If that's not a niche vehicle, nothing is.

[vncj96]

i think saturn going away and saab being shifted to just europe would be the best bet, take the outlook and make it a chevy, the aura could just go away or use it as a buick, the sky could be put as a buick, or kill the cadi rebadge of the vette and put as the sky in as cadi, stuff a V-8 in it, and keep the CTS V6 as its base, the ion and vue can easily be killed all together, and the astra can become an eco chevy. Saturn dealers are all independeant so there, the buildings get sold and the line absorbed by three other brands.

[zete]

Originally Posted by vcs2600

People here seem to forget that GM is a major european automaker. Should they just abandon the premium segment in Europe? Wouldn't this put GM at a major disadvantage versus Ford, VW, and Fiat?

Meanwhile they have 3 premium brands (Cadillac, Buick, Hummer) in North America - the problem is here, not in the EU where their brand hierarchy actually makes some sense (Chevy/Opel/Saab).

You can have three premium brands so long as they target three different groups of buyers. Thus, Cadillac and Buick can co-exist, but they can't offer the same look, feel, etc. Cadillacs should perform. Buick is understated luxury. Each has their place. And Hummer is a niche player building vehicles that cater to a specific group of people -- and I'm not one of them.

BTW, if GM fully moves Pontiac to RWD then that creates a niche in and of itself. A brand that caters to enthusiast who desire a RWD car. It's also why I'm not going to be upset if Chevrolet doesn't get a RWD sedan, it caters to a different crowd if its truly going head-to-head against Toyota.

[zete]

Originally Posted by vncj96

i think saturn going away and saab being shifted to just europe would be the best bet, take the outlook and make it a chevy, the aura could just go away or use it as a buick, the sky could be put as a buick, or kill the cadi rebadge of the vette and put as the sky in as cadi, stuff a V-8 in it, and keep the CTS V6 as its base, the ion and vue can easily be killed all together, and the astra can become an eco chevy. Saturn dealers are all independeant so there, the buildings get sold and the line absorbed by three other brands.

Saturn should just be rebadged Opels. The Outlook, though a great vehicle, doesn't fit that European feel Saturn should strive for. Make all Saturns and Opels the same and it all makes sense. Then push the European flavour of Saturn as a selling point.

I think there's a definite fixation on just looking at the North American market and not realizing how GM is repositioning the brands.

Take Pontiac. The G8 is a Holden. An Alpha-based G6 would be a Holden, too -- the Torana. It makes sense this way as you have the exact same car, with different badges, sold worldwide.

Same holds for Buick: same cars here and in China, both huge markets. Focus on understated luxury in both markets.

No need to kill or sell anything, just ensure each has its own flavour. And with proper rebadges -- you'll never see a Holden and Pontiac on the same road, for example -- it'll work wonderfully well, cost less than the old system GM used, and provide cars to niche markets like auto enthusiasts.

[AMERICA 123]

I wonder what this author would have to say about Toyota brands & channels in the JDM.