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Let's face it: GM North America has way too many brands. No other auto-corporation in any other part of the world has so many brands concentrated in one market.
Once upon a time this wasn't a problem. Sales were good and the money kept flowing in, but times have changed. Other makes, such as Toyota and Honda, over the last three decades have decimated GM's once strong sales and market base and have shown that no car maker was safe, even in it's own, flag-waving homeland.
Now let's look at GM and it's overseas operations. GM is constantly on top or near the top of the sales charts in Australia/New Zealand and Europe with only a few brands in each, and that's not including Cadillac, Saab and Hummer. Opel/Vauxhall and Chevrolet in Europe and just Holden down under. Not only that, these divisions also return a healthy flow of cash to GM corporation and have been part of the reason GM hasn't gone bust already.
How do they do it? With a good quality product mix and an efficient dealer group. Each brand is focused on what it does and does it well, unlike GM's North American brands which share very similar, or the same rebadge products, thus diluting brand purity and appeal.
Now let's put brand loyalty aside for one minute. What... you can't! Of course you can't. That's the problem and GM is now paying for it. It's seems that only now GM has finally seen the writing on the wall and is now considering closing down more North America brands while investing and consolidating products in others. And it's about time. GM is bleeding and North America is the gaping wound.
I believe the Pontiac, Saturn and Buick in North America need to be merged to form one formidable premium quality brand. I believe it should be called Pontiac, with the Buick and Saturn brand names heading for the big scrap yard in the sky. Why Pontiac? Keep reading.
That means: Commodore, Sportwagon, Ute, Calais, Statesman/Caprice, Corsa, Astra, Insignia/Aura, Antara/Vue, Outlook/Enclave and Sky/Solstice.
There you go - 11 premium products all under the same roof. That's about the same amount as Holden's current range and also a very similar product mix of mostly Opel and Holden-sourced products. Any of the current Buick, Saturn and Pontiac products I didn't mention can be put out for pasture.
The Holden Statesman/Caprice is a perfect replacement for the Buick Lucerne, as is the luxury Holden Calais for the Buick LaCrosse, and with Pontiac already selling the Commodore SS sedan and soon the SS Ute, plus the Sportwagon hopefully sometime in the near future, it makes sense to sell it's sister products, the Statesman/Caprice and Calais as Pontiac's.
The same can be said for Saturn. Currently Saturn and Pontiac have very similar or the same small passenger vehicles under their badges. What's the point of that? There isn't any. Consolidating these products under an expanded Pontiac brand makes perfect sense. It would be a one-stop shop for quality GM small to medium passenger vehicles. The Insignia/Aura should keep FWD Buick buyers very pleased aswell.
The cheaper Daewoo sourced products can remain under the Chevrolet brand. Premium Opel and cheaper Daewoo products should not mix. It only dilutes the brands image and appeal doing so. Just look at Holden.
Holden cut it's Opel sourced Corsa (Barina) and Vectra from it's range and replaced them with the Daewoo sourced Kalos (Barina), Lacetti (Viva) and Tosca (Epica) several years ago due mainly to the higher cost of importing small cars from Europe compared to Korea. While sales of the Barina have improved, the Viva and Epica have been a sales disaster and have lead to many people calling for Holden to introduce a cheaper, Daewoo type brand down under so Holden can return the premium Opel Corsa and Insignia to the lineup. Introducing Chevrolet to our market may be the answer, but that's a different story.
So what does this all prove? It proves GM can do improve sales and products while reducing capital costs by cutting it's North America brands to only three: Chevrolet and Pontiac, plus it's premium global brand, Cadillac.
Rolling GMC and it's products into the current Chevrolet range makes perfect sense and our current 'Which GM Brand(s) Should Get The Chop' Poll proves a lot of our members feel the same way. Stay tuned to GMInsideNews for all the latest news!
This would not be an easy change, especially for die-hard brand loyalists and some dealer groups, but it's the fresh start GM needs to reduce costs, improve sales, products and brand appeal to power on strongly into the future.
PS. As I've stated before, I believe the fate of Saab and Hummer within GM is a totally seperate issue to that facing GM's North American brands and that's why I have not discussed them here.
JoeT
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Once upon a time this wasn't a problem. Sales were good and the money kept flowing in, but times have changed. Other makes, such as Toyota and Honda, over the last three decades have decimated GM's once strong sales and market base and have shown that no car maker was safe, even in it's own, flag-waving homeland.
Now let's look at GM and it's overseas operations. GM is constantly on top or near the top of the sales charts in Australia/New Zealand and Europe with only a few brands in each, and that's not including Cadillac, Saab and Hummer. Opel/Vauxhall and Chevrolet in Europe and just Holden down under. Not only that, these divisions also return a healthy flow of cash to GM corporation and have been part of the reason GM hasn't gone bust already.
How do they do it? With a good quality product mix and an efficient dealer group. Each brand is focused on what it does and does it well, unlike GM's North American brands which share very similar, or the same rebadge products, thus diluting brand purity and appeal.
Now let's put brand loyalty aside for one minute. What... you can't! Of course you can't. That's the problem and GM is now paying for it. It's seems that only now GM has finally seen the writing on the wall and is now considering closing down more North America brands while investing and consolidating products in others. And it's about time. GM is bleeding and North America is the gaping wound.
I believe the Pontiac, Saturn and Buick in North America need to be merged to form one formidable premium quality brand. I believe it should be called Pontiac, with the Buick and Saturn brand names heading for the big scrap yard in the sky. Why Pontiac? Keep reading.
That means: Commodore, Sportwagon, Ute, Calais, Statesman/Caprice, Corsa, Astra, Insignia/Aura, Antara/Vue, Outlook/Enclave and Sky/Solstice.
There you go - 11 premium products all under the same roof. That's about the same amount as Holden's current range and also a very similar product mix of mostly Opel and Holden-sourced products. Any of the current Buick, Saturn and Pontiac products I didn't mention can be put out for pasture.
The Holden Statesman/Caprice is a perfect replacement for the Buick Lucerne, as is the luxury Holden Calais for the Buick LaCrosse, and with Pontiac already selling the Commodore SS sedan and soon the SS Ute, plus the Sportwagon hopefully sometime in the near future, it makes sense to sell it's sister products, the Statesman/Caprice and Calais as Pontiac's.
The same can be said for Saturn. Currently Saturn and Pontiac have very similar or the same small passenger vehicles under their badges. What's the point of that? There isn't any. Consolidating these products under an expanded Pontiac brand makes perfect sense. It would be a one-stop shop for quality GM small to medium passenger vehicles. The Insignia/Aura should keep FWD Buick buyers very pleased aswell.
The cheaper Daewoo sourced products can remain under the Chevrolet brand. Premium Opel and cheaper Daewoo products should not mix. It only dilutes the brands image and appeal doing so. Just look at Holden.
Holden cut it's Opel sourced Corsa (Barina) and Vectra from it's range and replaced them with the Daewoo sourced Kalos (Barina), Lacetti (Viva) and Tosca (Epica) several years ago due mainly to the higher cost of importing small cars from Europe compared to Korea. While sales of the Barina have improved, the Viva and Epica have been a sales disaster and have lead to many people calling for Holden to introduce a cheaper, Daewoo type brand down under so Holden can return the premium Opel Corsa and Insignia to the lineup. Introducing Chevrolet to our market may be the answer, but that's a different story.
So what does this all prove? It proves GM can do improve sales and products while reducing capital costs by cutting it's North America brands to only three: Chevrolet and Pontiac, plus it's premium global brand, Cadillac.
Rolling GMC and it's products into the current Chevrolet range makes perfect sense and our current 'Which GM Brand(s) Should Get The Chop' Poll proves a lot of our members feel the same way. Stay tuned to GMInsideNews for all the latest news!
This would not be an easy change, especially for die-hard brand loyalists and some dealer groups, but it's the fresh start GM needs to reduce costs, improve sales, products and brand appeal to power on strongly into the future.
PS. As I've stated before, I believe the fate of Saab and Hummer within GM is a totally seperate issue to that facing GM's North American brands and that's why I have not discussed them here.
JoeT
