Wagoner: 'Saab is not for sale'

[Uligar]

gm should not be owning a foreign brand, they need to sell all other brands overseas as part of any bail out package. GM should sell Holden, GM China, GM Europa and all its brands. Only this that should not be sold is GM North America, then GM should shut down Pontiac, Caddy and Saturn

Without GME (Opel/Vauxhall) and GMDAT (Daewoo) GM is worthless on a Global market.
The most Global cars are from them.
Look @ South & Latin Amerika most sold cars are Opels with a Chevy badge.
Look @ Europe most sold cars are Opels and Daewoo's rebadged as an Chevy.
The same in Asia except China.

[paul8488]

Originally Posted by Gm786

I would say that it's a solid decision on Rick Wagoner's part! All GM needs to do is inject Saab with some R&D and get their engineer and design team to design sport luxury cars that have "True Aircraft Inspired Design". It's about time Rick speaks up!

Once again, if they haven't been able to do that yet, why will they tomorrow? Especially now that they have no funds for development of even high-volume vehicles... if GM couldn't fund Saab during the SUV boom-days in the 90's, they're sure as heck not going to do it now.

I mentioned it awhile ago in another thread, but I'd love it of Suzuki bought Saab. No idea of it makes any business sense... I don't understand business at all... but from a car enthusiast standpoint I think that they'd make a very neat pair.

[sigma]

Originally Posted by paul8488

Once again, if they haven't been able to do that yet, why will they tomorrow? Especially now that they have no funds for development of even high-volume vehicles... if GM couldn't fund Saab during the SUV boom-days in the 90's, they're sure as heck not going to do it now.

I mentioned it awhile ago in another thread, but I'd love it of Suzuki bought Saab. No idea of it makes any business sense... I don't understand business at all... but from a car enthusiast standpoint I think that they'd make a very neat pair.

It wasn't a couldn't fund it back in those days, it's a they didn't fund it.

[paul8488]

Originally Posted by sigma

It wasn't a couldn't fund it back in those days, it's a they didn't fund it.

Oh yeah, that actually is what I meant.

Voila... Saab wasn't important enough to earn GM's attention over the past decade or two (I forget when GM bought them), and they robbed them of the one cool thing they had going for them... the 900 hatch... so there is absolutely NO hope for them today. None at all. Mini is laughing all the way to the bank, but Saab doesn't have a hot little 3 or 5-door in their lineup. I love Saab, or at least loved Saab in the past, and would much rather see it go to a company that is going to do something with it instead of GM which is content to let it flop.

[K-1]

Chevy/Saturn (Toyota/Scion), Cadillac/Buick (Lexus/Comfy-Lexus) - that's all you need.

[genjy]

Originally Posted by K-1

Chevy/Saturn (Toyota/Scion), Cadillac/Buick (Lexus/Comfy-Lexus) - that's all you need.

GM doesn't even need Buick in the U.S.

I think U.S. GM only needs:

Chevy: Cars and trucks
SAAB: European sporty-luxury
Cadillac: Everything luxury

For the overseas markets, keep Buick (China), Opel/Vauxhall (Europe), and Holden (Aussie).

[Chaz_23]

Of course it's not for sale because they know that no one would buy it. Just like Hummer will not find a buyer. No one on this planet is going to buy a car company associated with GM or any other of the Big 3.

[gmishistory]

Originally Posted by FierySolstice

Are you on crack? Shut down Cadillac?!?! Your point makes no sense!

the reason is simple gm does not have the money for caddy they should consintrate on merging gmc and chevy together and then having buick to replace caddy

[FierySolstice]

Originally Posted by gmishistory

the reason is simple gm does not have the money for caddy they should consintrate on merging gmc and chevy together and then having buick to replace caddy

You make no sense. Period.

[chevypowa670]

Originally Posted by TORRED1

Saab is quirky, let it die, or else just let it it be a niche very low volume vehicle, How does Saab sell in europe, and the rest of the world. How many Saab,s sell in the USA vs Europe in a yr.

see that is the thing, Saab doesn't even sell well in Europe.... they aren't making money for GM anywhere.

[Rick_VT]

Originally Posted by 96_impala_ss

No, A lot of people think the same. Saturn is cheap cheap plastic cars. (To the American public) They should phase out Saturn, and if they insist bring Opel here. Personally I think they would do better as Pontiacs, since Holden is nothing but rebadged Opels and the Holden developed RWD cars. Also Pontiac has a larger dealer network than Saturn, and it wouldnt cost much to rebadge them as Pontiacs than to bring Opel here and go through that hassle.

Lets see:

Barina - Daewoo
Viva - Daewoo
Astra - Opel
Epica - Daewoo
Captiva - Daewoo
Commodore - Holden
Statesman/Caprice - Holden
Rodeo/Colorado - Isuzu

Just exactly where are all the rebadged Opels you talk of??

[jokuvaan]

see that is the thing, Saab doesn't even sell well in Europe....

Sure doesnt, after GM axed:
-9X
-9-5
-small Saab
-off-road style Saab
-who knows how many r&d projects

GM Saab deal was simply mutual disaster. A future text-book case of blunders.

[sigma]

Originally Posted by jokuvaan

Sure doesnt, after GM axed:
-9X
-9-5
-small Saab
-off-road style Saab
-who knows how many r&d projects

GM Saab deal was simply mutual disaster. A future text-book case of blunders.

SAAB sells just fine in Europe. In fact, it sell better than most other luxury brands there. Without SAAB, GM would have no presence in European luxury market.

[Olds88]

Originally Posted by genjy

GM doesn't even need Buick in the U.S.

I think U.S. GM only needs:

Chevy: Cars and trucks
SAAB: European sporty-luxury
Cadillac: Everything luxury

For the overseas markets, keep Buick (China), Opel/Vauxhall (Europe), and Holden (Aussie).

As of right now GM needs its classic core brands to keep sales volume up.

And do you honestly think Saab has more value in the USDM than Buick? Their top selling product was the 9-7 TrailBlazer clone. Lucerne alone outsells Saab's entire lineup in the USDM. I think Buick has more value than Pontiac, Saturn or Saab. I can back that up with the evidence of the Enclave. Most average people view Buicks as reliable, nice cars that they don't want to drive becuase they're "for old people". Elegantly styled vehicles like Enclave can break Buick's "old man" image. Wait for the new LaCrosse to come out, it will be a sales success. Buick doesn't have a poor reputation for quality, mostly thanks to the bulletproof 3800's ubiquity in Buick vehicles for the better part of the last 15 years. Buick is easily salvagable. It just needs more evocative styling, which it will get. It also could use an RWD V8 vehicle.

If I controlled the reigns at GM I'd rearrange the brands as follows

Keep
=====
Chevrolet -> Everything under the sun. If there's a class of vehicle that has a sizable market, Chevy sells one. Chevy should always offer an option, no excuses to look elsewhere due to GM not having an applicable product.

Cadillac -> Since it seems to have abandoned American luxury, it should be a happy medium between BMW and Mercedes, offering sportiness AND comfort. RWD Sedans/wagons/coupes, Escalade should be the only SUV. SRX should be the new Buick Rendezvous and not a cadillac.

Buick -> American style affordable luxury. My dream Buick Lineup
1) Buick Enclave -- As is
2) Buick Rendezvous -- Take the new SRX and apply Enclave styling.
3) Buick LaCrosse -- Can't improve on the 2010 lacrosse, its plenty attractive as is.
4) Buick Regal -- Alpha based RWD midsized sedan and coupe.
5) Buick Roadmaster -- Full-sized Zeta II RWD sedan, station wagon and coupe. The station wagon's wheelbase is stretched by 5 inches and the overall vehicle lenght is streched by 14 to 18 inches to accomodate a flip-up third row and a massive cargo area. Available engines are the 3.0L 3.8L DI (that displacement will cause sales to happen), and the LS3.

If Pontiac is no more
6) Buick Skylark -- FWD compact car offering a 2.0L (naturally aspirated) 2.3L and 3.0L

GMC -> Rebadged Chevrolet BOF truck/SUVs as always. Sierra, Sierra HD, Yukon, and Yukon XL.

Limbo
======
Pontiac -> Pontiac needs to return to the over the top styling that made them sell cars in the first place. If GM keeps offering Euro styled vehicles their customers don't want, then Pontiac can't last. If G8 was aggressively styled. like the Dodge Charger and named Bonneville or Grand Prix, they'd fly off the lots. Pontiac's customers are more concerned with looking cool and sporty rather than actually being cool and sporty.

Hummer -> Its a pariah in the age of fuel economy, but if its image could be reinvented like Jeep, it could still be a viable brand. H2 would disappear, leave the big SUVs to Chevy.


Gone
=====
Saab -> Sold, spun off, whatever, its a money pit for the USDM. Maybe just continue Saab in Europe.
Saturn -> Same, its a money pit, maybe sold as a package with Saab.



Side note: Somebody explain to me the rationale for cutting GMC. It costs GM almost nothing to have GMC and it generates essentially free sales. It doesn't harm GM in anyway to have GMC alive. It gets practically no advertising and still pushes metal.

[Kennyboy]

Originally Posted by gmishistory

the reason is simple gm does not have the money for caddy they should consintrate on merging gmc and chevy together and then having buick to replace caddy

Who are you? A troll or something. Stop flaming everyone with your non-sense statements.