GM exec: killing brands a bad idea

Despite calls from billionaire investors Kirk Kerkorian and Jerome York for GM to kill off at least two brands, vice president Mark LaNeve insists it would be a bad move. "In spite of all the great advice we have been getting -- and I am sure we will continue to get until we turn our finances around -- this is where we stand on the issue," he said. He cited the turnaround success of Cadillac as a reason why GM shouldn't kill off Saab or Hummer. "Cadillac had totally lost its identity," in 2000 he said. But today, "nobody talks about chopping Cadillac." He also said he feels killing Hummer would be a bad idea. "Hummer doesn't have just customers; it has zealots," he said. As for Saab, he said it simply needs to sharpen its image. "It's fair to say that we haven't been real tightly focused on what segments we're going to compete in," he said of the Saab division. "Everyone knows [Ford's] Volvo stands for safety and no one was sure what Saab stands for. The [Saab] products were just as good, if not better."