Then they should get rid of the Trailblazer, Equinox, Uplander, and the Torrent

There I have saved GM

1. Escalade
2. Solstice/Sky
3. The new Aura based on the Vectra
4. CTS-V

They should also change their name to SuperHOMOAutoSchwanzenwerks.

That’s it. All the other shit, like the Aveo, Cobalt, G6/8, Malibu, all that garbage can go.

HRR you need to watch the movie “Tucker The man and his dream” to get a background on how American car companies lost their way. When you complet that watch “Who killed the Electric Car”
Also please check what “rebadge” means
Thank you
Comment by tripleonefive, posted on June20 at 4:10 pm

Didnt the stonecutters kill the electric car? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_the_Great

My post may have been a little confusing. I was suggesting that GM should only convert “Saturn” into “Opel”, not Pontiac. The midmarket dealer network would be a combined Opel/Pontiac channel with Opel offering FWD cars/MPVs/crossovers and Pontiac offering RWD cars. I think Pontiac could easily regain its sporty, affordable performance car image if it was given brand appropriate products and a little advertising.

So basically GM would have a 3-tier dealer network in the U.S.
* Chevrolet: Affordable, Volume Network.
* Opel/Pontiac: Midmarket, Import Focused Network.
* Buick/Cadillac: Luxury Network.

I apologize for the confusion.

If the market was how it was say 5+ or 10 years ago I’d completely disagree with all of this. I think one of the good things (now few) about GM was your choice of vehicles to choose from. Which I think for them was and is still one of their successful philosophies regarding selling vehicles, which goes all the way back to when GM battled Ford back in the days of the old Model T and beat Henry Ford’s “Whatever color you want, as long as it is black” but not only with color offerrings but car choices. Yeah alot of them were done completely wrong and were just poorly re-badged, but not all. And when you have a group of vehicles from like 7 or 8 brands to choose from there’s a lot to choose from, but there’s also cons to that as well. Well that was then and this is now and I guess this is time for a change.

With the truck/SUV market shrinking, I do think GMC is redundant. GMC doesn’t offer anything unique enough to justify its existence. I think GM should relegate GMC to commercial vehicle sales only. Chevrolet can singlehandedly handle the shrinking truck/SUV retail segment.

This would give GM the opportunity to focus on its core brands. I would like to see them reconfigure their remaining divisions into a 3-tier dealer network to cover the U.S. market.

* Affordable, Volume Dealer Network: Chevrolet is strong enough to handle this portion of the market on its own. The division would continue to carry the largest product portfolio consisting of FWD cars, FWD/AWD crossovers, trucks/SUVs, and the RWD Camaro/Corvette.

* Midmarket, Import Focused Network: Convert “Saturn” into “Opel” and combine Opel with Pontiac to form a midmarket, import focused dealer network. “Saturn” has a somewhat dorky image that will never be synonymous with sleek, premium, Euro inspired vehicles. To properly reposition this division, I think GM should use the “Opel” name. GM could properly shape and mold the newly christened division’s image because “Opel” doesn’t have much of a history in the U.S. market. Opel would carry FWD cars, MPVs, and crossovers based on their European product portfolio (along with the Acadia; reassign it to Opel and discontinue the dorky, slow selling Outlook). Pontiac would carry RWD cars based on products in Opel’s and Holden’s foreign market lineups.

* Luxury Network: Combine Buick and Cadillac to form a luxury dealer network. Buick would focus on FWD luxury cars and FWD/AWD luxury crossovers. Cadillac would focus on RWD luxury cars.

It would be nice to follow suit with Ford and offer a panel van and small truck for GMC. And no, I’m not talking about fucking around trying to make a big truck like the one pictured fit into the image of what most people would want- just a small truck. The Rangers old, new ones late, and all others are too large. Even a car based pick-up, although I wouldn’t mind the GMC Denali XT as well. Just look at Ranger sales at the moment, but more importantly where the sales are going- large companies that need these sort of fleets.

Not only does GMC offer limited vehicles in their portfolio don’t forget they also sell small commercial trucks, that are built with Suzuki.

It would be though the next choice. And I’ll say it but I don’t think GM would ever sell Pontiac.

I sure hope GM keeps Pontiac over GMC but I hope they dont sell either.

One more thing, 1115 wrote:
“you need to watch the movie ‘Tucker The man and his dream’ to get a background on how American car companies lost their way. When you complet that watch ‘Who killed the Electric Car’”
So much has been made clear to me. I’ll bet you’re one of those guys that watches MOVIES and absorbs the fictional ‘filler’ as though it was filmed during the actual event. You cannot take those movies for anything more than how one or a few people are best trying to sell their view of a historical event to Joe Public. Bias abounds in movies, in particular ones about historical events. And, more times than not, people that make movies have an agenda worked into their made-up story. Every item on a set has been included and positioned for a reason. Today’s level of information manipulation, which we call “movies” and “TV”, would make Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels envious. Needless to say but I will say it anyway, try doing independent research and forming your own opinion. By the way, oddly, I think we agree on this particular topic – but for different reasons.

I don’t even think it’s wise to sell Hummer… scale back production? Sure. But if you sell all of your truck divisions what are you going to do when oil drops to $60 a barrel and people want trucks again?

That isn’t even the issue of this article.

It’s just a rumor clip. I would not be shocked if GMC did get killed off. Though I think it is a bad move. More workers and fleets use GMC over Chevy trucks. Then there is the much more effective advertising. Cutting back and developing new and better product, like the DENALI XT would not be out of place. Really look at what the are looking to kill rather than taking the short easy answer. BUt in the end I do not think I will care much except that I would buy the DENALI XT. If it came out as a Chevrolet (likely the next Avalanche) I would pass it by like roadkill. GMC makes better trucks and SUVs.

Pontiac isn’t going to be a problem for GM to keep if GM would just keep their divisions on task and focused. It’s that simple. Just give them their targets and let them at ‘em.

But ending the lame rebadges like the G5/Cobalt would be nice. Build the ULTRA WTCC as a Pontiac in ditch the Vibe/Matrix. Develop a rework of the Solstice into an MR coupe and leave the SKY as is. Share the same platform but the cars couldn’t be more different and FIERO fans get their affordable MR sports car back and GM and Lutz get to keep their FR roadster. The list goes on, but if GM does opt to kill GMC and/or PONTIAC it will be because GM did not stick to their own announced game plan: streamline each division, eliminating redundant models, focus on division goals and missions (or find them if they don’t have them – pick a company to beat and go after them like you mean to kill them), and develop the cars people want more than the bean-counters do.

The latter is going to bite more the way things are but real effort and just getting over themselves and using the off-the-shelf technology that will get you a 400hp V8 that will return 30+mpg and still making excuses, though I’ll just go to “Raul’s Wrench pit” and have them install a “hydro-booster” (Most cars it is a $300 add-on) if GM won’t.

Gm is just cutting off perfectly good limbs killing off divisions because they aren’t using them properly.

This announcement or rumor (whatever) is just another tacit admission that GM is not doing their jobs. Car companies need to look at themselves as technology companies or else they will fail. Embrace the technology or else.

The Acadia shares no exterior panels with any of the other Lambdas, except the roof. Same with the Envoy.

The Yukon isn’t a rebadge. All the metal ahead of the A-pillar is unique. Same with the Sierra.

The only “rebadge” models in GMC’s line are the Savana and Canyon, neither of which make up the bulk of GMC’s sales.

Oh, and if you’re going to call the Pontiac G8 a rebadge, then you can go ahead and call the Infiniti G, the Lexus IS, and the Acura RL all rebadges as well, because they’re sold elsewhere as the Nissan Skyline, Toyota Atenza, and Honda Legend.

However, despite the falling truck sales, GMC is still the second best selling GM division.

In my opinion, if any brands should die, it should be Saturn and Pontiac. Saturn brings very little to the table, and only offers competitors to Chevrolet. Same goes for Pontiac. Give the roadster to Chevy or Buick, the G8 to Buick, and let the new Invicta replace the G6. Move Cadillac further upmarket, and there you have it.

Keep Chevrolet
Keep GMC, Buick, and Saab in their own dealer channel
Keep Cadillac

Most Japanese models are available in Japanese or European markets under different names than they have here. I wouldn’t call a 350Z a “rebadged Fairlady” for example. I suppose if you wanna get technical it is, but the negative connotation of “rebadge” wouldn’t really apply in that situation.