General Motors announced today that SAAB USA general manager and former Cadillac marketing guru, Jay Spenchian, has been replaced by Buick general manager Steve Shannon. Shannon has been general manager of Buick for the past four years, supervising the allocation of more than $3 billion for the development of the LaCrosse, Lucerne, Terreza, and the Enclave. During his reign, US Buick sales have plummeted but hope remains that the new Enclave will revive the brand.
Spenchian has been promoted up the corporate ladder to executive director of North America vehicle sales, service and marketing strategy and revenue management.
One really has to wonder if its a career advancing move to taken from one morbid GM brand and put at another one (SAAB USA). GM hopes Shannon can create the same sales success for SAAB in America that the brand has seen recently in Europe.
04/17, 4:48 PM
posted by:
CTS DRIVER
ok gm lets put the moron who killed buick in charge of cadillac, what a great stupid idea.
04/17, 4:54 PM
posted by:
gbb
GM should have ditched Buick, GMC, Pontiac and Oldsmobile at the same time. I like GM, but enough is enough. Caddy, Chevy, Saturn and the ones that carry the company. Who needs the rest of them?
04/17, 4:59 PM
posted by:
jbird97
saturn brings in no profits, i could point out more things but ill just leave at that, so much for ur gm breakdown,
04/17, 5:00 PM
posted by:
CTS DRIVER
^^that summed it up well, those are the good ones, the rest are just concrete shoes.
04/17, 5:01 PM
posted by:
CTS DRIVER
saturn brings in no profitsComment by jbird97
the saturns are finally good cars now so i see that changing.
04/17, 5:08 PM
posted by:
Scott Kempton
CTS Driver—Shannon has been moved from Buick to Saab—NOT Cadillac. The only place that Cadillac was mentioned is where it says that the outgoing Saab guy was also the Cadillac marketing guru at one point. According to this report, nothing is changing at Cadillac.
04/17, 5:08 PM
posted by:
Sharif
Actually i think they should keep Pontiac, and I agree the sky is just the beginning—-I hope!!!!!!!
04/17, 5:14 PM
posted by:
CTS DRIVER
duuuuh, my bad scott youre rite, thanks.
04/17, 5:21 PM
posted by:
LamborghiniZ
Lacrosse: Boring garbage.
Lucerne: Even more boring garbage.
Terreza: Worst idea EVER.
Enclave: Overweight, ponderous handling, weighs 5000 lbs, awful mileage.
Buick…officially….SUCKS.
04/17, 5:36 PM
posted by:
Jazz
Did I read that correctly? I read it three times. Shannon- oversaw the plummet of Buick got moved to one of the profitable brands? And we complain about not being able to fire union people.
04/17, 5:38 PM
posted by:
Jazz
Should have read it four time I guess (no caddy change)
Still lets take a failing brand and put a failing exec in control of it. Sheesh.
04/17, 6:37 PM
posted by:
carsarecool
LamborghiniZ,
I agree with your assessments of the LaCrosse, Lucerne, and Terreza, but you are way off on the Enclave. If you have read any review for the GMC Acadia or the Saturn Outlook, you would know that they have been praised for their handling despite their hefty curb weight. They also get better mileage than the glorious Honda Pilot. There is no need to be ignorant.
04/17, 7:22 PM
posted by:
Madcapp
I’m gonna have to disagree LamborghiniZ. The Terraza is not the worst idea ever. The Pontiac Aztek is.
04/17, 7:41 PM
posted by:
autonutt
Anyone ready for a SAAB Park Avenue?
04/17, 10:02 PM
posted by:
0GSharK6
Those Terrazas are butt-ugly. I’m surprised I ever see any on the road. I got to drive a Rendezvous for about 20 miles a couple weeks back, and it just doesn’t feel right driving one of those. I can only imagine the driving feel of the asstack.. errm, Aztec.
04/17, 10:12 PM
posted by:
1c3d0g
No, GM, NO! What the hell were you thinking putting ANYONE from Buick in a leadership position? Damn it! This will ruin every effort that GM’s been trying to do to improve its sales.
04/18, 7:40 AM
posted by:
Fletch
Not sure Buick or Mercury have a place in todays market. It costs a lot of $$$ to axe a brand though.
Buicks are cool because Tiger Woods drive one, right?
04/18, 7:43 AM
posted by:
wetstuff
Concrete Shoes like CTS says. Cull any division that has not made a profit in the last five years. …but they’ll have to bankrupt to pull that off with the dealers and UAW chomping at GM’s ankles.
04/18, 7:51 AM
posted by:
Vertical
If the article is accurate, Spenchian’s title is a joke; Director of Sales, Service, Marketing, and Revenue Management? What the hell is revenue management?!! Don’t Sales and Marketing cover it? Sounds like excess corporate beauracracy – or am I missing something? Or are they missing something – like focusing too much on sales and not focusing enough on cars. Build it (right) and they will buy.
04/18, 8:41 AM
posted by:
Get Real
Cadillac exterior is striking but the interior is bland.
Buick has very nice interiors (among all of GM), but the exterior is still a ‘88 Taurus soap-bar.
Jay should be in charge of exteriors.
Steve should be in charge in interiors.
Use each person’s strengths to help GM.
But I agree, a guy that blows $3 Billion on cars that sell an average of 7/dealership/month should NOT BE IN CHARGE. GM is crazy.
04/18, 11:25 AM
posted by:
whoopee
gm needs to do more than a reshuffling, they need to CLEAN HOUSE
step one should be to buy tesla motors. first of all, it would be a cheap acquisition and get gm into the game of electric cars. second, it would push a thin-wedge of twenty-first century corporate and manufacturing structure into gm. gm needs to be rebuilt, not altered (as does ford). dump the 80s leftovers in management, dump all unions, redesign the entire system of how cars are designed and manufactured (hint: look at apple, they only design their computers, they outsource construction)
gm needs to take some big risks
04/18, 1:57 PM
posted by:
Impulsive
“whoopee”, reading your post was scary … I was about to post a nearly IDENTICAL view.
CLEAN HOUSE.