General Motors has announced that it will continue to streamline its operations by shifting the management structure of its four channels — Chevrolet, Buick-Pontiac-GMC, Cadillac-Hummer-Saab and Saturn. The shift will move four of the company’s five regional managers to GM’s Detroit headquarters, eliminating those positions.
In addition to those changes, GM has also created a new position of general sales manager for each of its four channels.
The elimination of the regional manager should help speed the transfer of information within the GM hierarchy, thereby streamlining marketing efforts. “The dealers don’t have a regional manager in their region now; they have a general sales manager here in Detroit,” LaNeve told Automotive News. “The way it was, the general manager in the region worked on all eight brands in the region. Now the sales manager in Detroit is only worried about the one channel.”
The changes will become effective on July 1.



06/12, 1:47 PM
posted by:
SickofGarbageMotors
Should be Chevy, Cadillac, Buick/Pontiac/GMC and the rest fo the dead weight either killed or sold off to the highest bidder (each is worth squat anyways but at least development dollars can go to the core brands rather than piddly ****/failures)
But a good move none the less.
06/12, 2:04 PM
posted by:
NoNameDenton1
Wait, if they are trying to sell Hummer (or even kill it) why combine it with Saab (another grabage brand) and Caddy (a brand that is trying to compete with BMW and Mercedes Benz).
06/12, 2:30 PM
posted by:
xyunya
Where are good news? They moved 4 out of 5 regional manager to Detroit headquarters and created new management position for 4 sales channels. Where are management savings? Total net addition of 3 FTE’s. If that is the new definition of “streamline” watch out Toyota and Honda: new even more “leaner” then ever GM is coming after you.
06/12, 2:33 PM
posted by:
brassmonkey
Maybe they should fire Bob Lutz and the bean counters. Then not only would we get the cars sooner, they would be better screwed together. I would actually buy another American car if they were built with any reliability. I have owned only 3 American cars ever (1970 Pontiac Bonneville, 1965 Chevrolet Malibu, 1993 Ford Explorer), and have owned multiple German and Jap cars. I just can’t buy American cars because for the most part, they suck.
06/12, 2:43 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
I’ve seen better shuffling in a retirement home.
06/12, 2:45 PM
posted by:
xyunya
have you seen Lutz there? Here you go, GM beats them all!
06/12, 2:49 PM
posted by:
inline6
Right, GM’s vehicles have gotten worse and less reliable since Lutz took over. He’s just a big, old idiot that’s driving the company into the ground.
The Cobalt is worse than the Cavalier. The ‘08 Malibu is worse than the ‘01 model. The GM trucks used to be great and now they’re at the back of the pack. The GM Lambdas are a pathetic joke that are poorly built and not competitive.
Never mind all of the awards for quality, reliability, design, efficiency, and engineering GM has received since 2002, when Lutz came on. Never mind the fact that more GM vehicles are on CR’s recommended list than ever. Never mind the fact that retail sales are up, while fleet sales are way down. Never mind the fact that GM recalls and warranty claims are lower than they’ve been in decades.
All that doesn’t matter. GM will always suck because they once did, and because you say so.
06/12, 3:23 PM
posted by:
xyunya
Inline, don’t put words in my mouth: I never said that he is big.
Jokes aside, I don’t believe Lutz has anything to do with awards for quality or reliability or innovation. The guy does NOT have engineering background. He is not involved in technical design (first step to quality), development, production (quality improvement). He supposedly product management expert (marketing). As such he is involved in product selection for production and visual expression. All successful cars GM sells today (Malibu, G8, Aura, Astra) are conceived OUTSIDE of US, where he does not get involved in product definition.
As far as marketing, since 2002 GM build plethora of small fuel efficient cars in anticipation of rise of gasoline.
06/12, 4:04 PM
posted by:
NoNameDenton1
inline6, most automotive press have said the Cobalt is better then the Cavalier, not to mention it got an SS version.
06/12, 4:21 PM
posted by:
nickkop
I don’t see a GM product ever being appealing, with the Solstice GXP, Z06 and CTS-V possibly being exceptions. My opinion is that Ford has the best capability to produce an appealing car, if you consider their European offerings, and don’t consider any of the cars they currently offer in the U.S. Although, I don’t lust after ANY american car currently offered. I worked in a dealership and saw many american cars being traded in that were falling apart with less than 75,000 miles in them, while you would see Honda’s and Toyota’s with almost 300,000 miles in slightly better condition.
06/12, 4:28 PM
posted by:
NoNameDenton1
I worked in a dealership nickkop and I saw American cars being traded in with over 100,000 miles and in good shape and imports with less miles and falling apart.
06/12, 10:38 PM
posted by:
Jordan
sarcasm, denton. SARCASM.
and this is condescension.
06/13, 1:22 AM
posted by:
NoNameDenton1
And yu Jordan are a rude troll, so stop it.
06/13, 12:29 PM
posted by:
The Stig
GM says let’s fire some underperforming execs (read: useless) and redirect the money saved into advertising to sell off excess inventory.