Generous Motors RIP

Holy Gutted Motors Batman!!!

IAxe GMC. I don’t understand why it exists at this point. If people want a truck send ‘em to the local Chevy dealer. Save Pontiac for a few specialty models in Buick showrooms (Solstice, Firebird/ Trans Am maybe/? GTO maybe?). Saturn ultimately replaced Oldsmobile at a cost of a gazillion dollars so what was the point? Close them down since there’s no brand equity there at this point (15 years ago maybe).

Saab might be sold back to Sweden? Who knows. But why keep Buick – in the USA anyway?

“Potential suitors for Saab haven’t been named.” Yeah, like, because, uh, they don’t exist.

It’s about damn time GM pulls it’s head out of it’s @$$

Me thinks…that’s all she wrote folks:-( At current cash burn rate and an optimistic short-term market forecast (6months-1yr) there is not enough cash on the table.

DB9

“Hey Rocky watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat” Bullwinkle

Well Buick is actually GM’s oldest division. Why wouldn’t they hold onto that?

I’m glad to see Pontiac going back to its performance roots, though.

As far as Saturn goes, it is sad to see them go, but it is ultimately a good business decision because they just aren’t profitable.

GM only needs these:
.
1) Cadillac
2) Chevrolet
3) GMC (All trucks made by GM in this division; no trucks in Chevrolet.)
4) Performance Division (This division already exist, simply place the niche vehicles here with no brand affiliation: Corvette, etc.)
.
Sell Buick to the Chinese; sell Saab. Close Saturn, Pontiac, Hummer.
.
WFR Lutz, Wagoner, and many others through a much needed succession plan.

Lariat Luxury Locomotive Liner No.3: Chevrolet dealers needs to compete with Toyota, Ford, Nissan, and Chrysler if they don’t implode. Can’t do that without trucks. Chevy versions outsell the GMC versions by huge margins now anyway. GMC is the worst case of badge engineering there ever was.

@rsg, I get your point, but I was thinking more along the lines of integrating the truck brand into the showrooms, but keeping it a separate division for many purposes.

There was no mention of Hummer.. guess they’ve already conveniently forgotten about it!

LLLL3

Your comments here couldn’t be more RIGHT. I completely agree. Focus on the core of your brands, and make them better! The idea of giving GMC the truck division, while keeping them in the showrooms alongside Chevy sounds like a great idea. This way, the dealerships can still compete with teh other companies.

Not a big fan of Toyota, but they work with what, 2, 3 brands? From what I’ve heard, they’re doing just fine in terms of quality and overall dependability *in comparison* to the Domestics.

I like the plan. Although I don’t understand why Saturn has failed. GM put so much effort into them and completely replaced all the old models with new ones in like 2 years. Aura, Outlook, Vue, Sky, and Astra are ALL competitive models. The only thing I don’t like about Saturn is its name. Just like Kia, I don’t ever want to hear myself say “hey my saturn/kia is over there”. Was it lack of advertising that caused Saturn’s demise? I mean aren’t their products the best in GM’s stable? Or maybe its too much overlap between Outlook/Enclave/Traverse/Acadia and Aura/Malibu/G6 and Sky/Solstice and Vue/Equinox/future 9-4/SRX.

What happened with Saturn? What do you think?

This company has not needed three truck lines-counting the Cadillacs-and does not need GMC and Chevy trucks. Want distinction? Fine, brand all the trucks GM (not GMC) and create packages with the current model names.

Buick makes 2 vehicles for sale here, why keep it? Or merge it with Pontiac, drop the Torrent (who came up with THAT name?) and the G5. And what’s so great about Chevrolet anymore? Aveo? Impala? Certainly not Cobalt! Better yet, just call everything that’s a rebadged Opel an Opel and have that as the primary GM brand. Don’t rebadge them, just make them meet the fed standards and ship them over. That would be a full range of models from small- “Astra”, to medium, “Aura or Malibu” , to large , Impala or G8 as a “normal” sedan not a BMW clone. Ever been to the Opel website? They make bunches of small cars Small suv too. Or keep the Aveo as the minicar. If the Chinese Buick is so good, import it here!

The other problem for me is GM doesn’t have what I want in this country- a small station wagon . The Traverse/Acadia class is a huge vehicle. The HHR is too small. But I can go to Hyundai or Kia and have choices. Was there really a mob demanding the G8 or better yet, the CAMARO?

For anyone who wants or hasn’t read/seen the nitty-gritty – From the General:
>>>media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet?target=http://image.emerald.gm.com/gmnews/viewpressreldetail.do?domain=2&docid=50747<<<

DB9

How can they “sell” Saturn? Aren’t they just rebadged Opels? Closing down Saturn is the only logical option. If they’re selling the brand, then it’s worthless. If they sell the division/factories, it doesn’t matter because most of the cars are designed and manufactured in Europe anyway.

Where’s Hummer in this report? Sell it off. A civilian Hum-Vee never made sense.

I know a lot of people say eliminate GMC, but it’s essentially free money because it’s just badge engineering. Plus a lot of people prefer GMC trucks to Chevy trucks.

Eliminate the Buick brand in the US. Keep Buick in China. It’s worthless in the US and has no market. (Moving Cadillac upmarket will not create a market for Buick) I suspect GM is only keeping Buick in the US to maintain the Buick/Pontiac/GMC dealer setup. If Pontiac is truly going to be a performance-only brand, then Pontiac needs Buick and GMC.

@Commodore
Regarding Saturn… Too little, too late. By the time Saturn got products worth buying, the public stopped caring. Only car nuts know that modern Saturns are actually European Opels. Most Americans still think they’re POS plastic American cars.

Oh yeah, as an addendum to my earlier “eliminate Saturn” comment: Please continue to bring Opels to the US somehow. I don’t know what badge you can put on it to sell it here. The Japanese make a distinction between American and non-American models (see US Accord v JDM/Euro Accord), so we can’t just replace Chevy cars with Opels. A lot of people actually prefer cushy American driving dynamics. Pontiac? Buick? I dunno.

LLL3/Lau: you guys hit the nail on the head. That’s exactly what they need to do in order to survive.

The only thing they need to cut from GM is Exective and CEO pay, there is no need for them to make so much money at the same time the company is in trouble. This is what US market need from GM:

Cadillac – Lux (US market).
Chevrolet – Family (US market).
Pontiac – Sport (US market).
GMC – Truck (US market).
Buick – sell to china, cause chinese can do it better
Hummer and Saturn – need to be kill right now.
Saab – sell back to swedish people.
Opel – Upscale Family (European Market)
Holden (HSV) – Sport and Family (Australia Market)
Peugeot – Family (European Market)

The things about GM is they have too much brands, Ford only have 4 (Volvo is for sale now, so Ford only have 4), Toyota has 3, Renault-Nissan has 3, Honda has 2, Fiat has 3, VW has 5, BMW has 3. Plus too many bad management team at GM, and they need to go.

Commodore: What happened to Saturn was that after the initial (and successful) launch of the S-series it was essentially abandoned. It was competitive with the Japanese at the time (early 90’s) but because small cars were not on GM’s agenda the brand was starved. While the imports got better and better the S-series received a few updates (a new body on an old chassis in ‘96, a slightly reworked body in ‘99) but the car’s major shortcomings (N/V/H, cheap-feeling interiors, some serious but easily solved engine issues such as oil burning) were never addressed. The car that put Saturn on the map was starved to death. Then to add insult to injury GM answered Saturn dealers’ desperate pleas for product by completely abandoned Saturn’s raison d’etre and started the platform sharing (L-series, Ion, Vue). Platform sharing degraded to 80’s style badge engineering (Saturn Relay, anyone?), and when that wasn’t bad enough, GM resorted to selling rebadged imports at the very Saturn retaillers whose chief reason for existence had always been “To market a vehicle designed and manufactured in North America capable of going against the imports”. In short: Saturn was created to sell GM cars to people that wouldn’t normally buy GM cars (”Import Intenders”). Then GM diluted Saturn by rebadging GM cars. The final nail, the moment GM finally admitted that it couldn’t build American cars to compete with the Japanese and started selling imports under the brand name that was suppoed to be an import fighter, Saturn became redundant.

On top of this, Saturn vehicles had some serious flaws that GM refused to admit to (and by refusing to admit to them, they refused to fix them, both in current vehicles and future). These problems included excessive oil consumption (all S-series cars), cylinder head cracking issues (SOHC S-series cars), transmission issues (differential pins in 5-speed cars, valve bodies in automatics), sudden and catastrophic engine failures (caused by timing chain failures) in Ecotech powered L-series, problems too numerous and varied to list in the Relay, expensive transmission failures in VTI-equipped (CVT) Vues and Ions… the list goes on. Many of these issues landed GM in court. None of these issues (or GM’s handling of them) helped build a loyal customer base.

Disclosure: I worked at a Saturn dealership as a mechanic for seven years (1993-1999), before an injury ended my career. I watched GM kill its own baby off from the front row. My daily driver/beater is a REAL Saturn (’96 SL1). It’s slow, it’s crude, it’s not particularly attractive. I bought it because not through brand loyalty, but because it was cheap ($400), I know the cars inside out, and the plastic body panels don’t rust, a big consideration in Nova Scotia (though they rust like a sunuvabitch underneath, but rust that you don’t have to look at is easy to fix because it doesn’t have to be pretty).

FSVT – you do realize that Peugeot has nothing to do with GM, right?

I really hope there’s a decent suitor for Saab. GM really neglected Saab after introducing the second-gen 9-3 for 2003. There’s a lot of brand equity and recognition there and it would be nice to see someone do something with it.

Fiat seems a logical suitor given their desire to crack into the US market. The cars would compete with Alfa Romeos, however…but maybe Alfa could move upscale to where it should be? Alfa is currently a small step down from BMW in European minds.

Saturn – too bad, they have decent cars. But zero brand equity.

Pontiac – zero brand equity, blah cars. Scrap it – GM lost me with Pontiac in about 1975. That was th end of that brand for me.

GMC should also be closed. Nothing unique, no problem keeping Chevy-badged trucks. Zap it.

Buick – to the Chinese. Great idea.

Streamlined GM should be Chevy, Cadillac, Opel, Holden.

And, as expected, GM has not exercised good judgment.

What do they mean Saturn “is just not successful” ?

Damn. They sure got that wrong.

The only thing good I saw up there was that Saab was being sold.

-eat your cereal

Everybody says GM should sell Buick to the Chinese. That’s crazy! China’s one of the few places where GM/ Buick is actually making a nice profit, is a respected name, and the market is only going to expand. They’d be crazy to essentiially take themselves out of THE burgeoning market. Even if China gave them 10 billion bucks, they’d piss it away in 4 days. Here’s what I think..

Chevy- full car and truck line (like always)
Cadillac- Luxury cars (same)
Saturn-bye-bye
Saab and/ or Hummer-Sell to whoever would want it. Indian or Chinese company maybe.
Buick/Pontiac -same dealers-Buick middle of the road/ near luxury- Pontiac- A sporty car or two to keep the dealers’ average customer base under 80 haha.
Or.. Pontiac as GM’s Canada brand -rebadged and retrimmed Chevys in Canada, like the old days.

Someone said earlier “GM finally pulls it’s head out of it’s a$$”
You have to corner GM, throw a net over them, and perform an exorcism to do that

Shrink Pontiac?
To what?
The only cars they have that might be worth driving are the Solstice and G8, and they aren’t bringing them back, so……why bother?

I guess the plan is to have Buick and GMC support 1500+ dealerships?
With what product?
The best vehicle either of them have (Enclave), sells less than 3000 units a month
Sierra sells 15k, but Chevy could claim #1 truck in America if they got rid of the Sierra, so GMC buyers went to Chevy.

Escalade Hybrid was the #1 GM hybrid last month with 400 untis sold.
Malibu less than 200.
That’s sayin sumpin

Buick is done in this country, and is a raging success in China and Russia, so…..

I am definitely in favor of the bailout for GM, not to exceed $10B.

Strange how Ford has the weakest lineup, and is the most sound financially
DrFill

I should also point out that I agree 100% with LLL3’s opinion of what GM should be. I’ve been saying this for ten years, and my “ideal” GM is close to his. GM needs to be de-bloated. Redundant brands (and dealerships) have to go.

Chevy: Mainstream cars, with an entry in each mainstream segment (Sub-Cobalt, Cobalt, Malibu, Impala) plus a few hybrids, such as the Volt. Mainstream trucks/SUV’s/crossovers, too. Toyota doesn’t need a separate brand for trucks. Neither does Chevy.

Buick: Aim at near luxury. There IS a market for this brand if GM could get it right. Think Acura. This includes luxury crossovers or whatever new segments may appear. Match Acura car for car. Many Buick vehicles could be loosely based on Chevy cars (much like most Acuras are based on Honda cars) to keep engineering costs down, but NO COMMON SHEET METAL. Make a Buick look, feel and drive like it’s worth the premium over Chevy.

Caddy: True luxury, competing with Benz, Lexus, Infiniti, but mainly BMW. Give us a 3-series sized car, a 5-series sized car, and a 7-series sized car. Maybe even a 1-series sized car. Apply the V-series philosophy across the board, too. And don’t even think about FWD.

Corvette: Make a brand out of the name already. No SUV’s. No trucks. No econopoopsters. no FWD. Nothing but mid-to-high-price performance. And get over the traditionalists. This is 2008, not 1968. 35 MPG Cafe standards are looming. Don’t get rid of the traditional Corvette, of course, but I can certainly see there being room for a 300-horse, turbocharged DI, four-cylinder “Baby Vette” weighing no more than 2500 pounds. If Porsche can make a Boxter, Corvette could do this. Some of the chassis engineering could be shared with Caddy to amortize the costs of low volume RWD platforms, but NO BADGE ENGINEERING.

And sell it all under one frickin’ roof. Even if a dealership had to be divided to keep the Caddy snobs away from the Chevy rifraff. This would eliminate dealerships whining and ruining the brands (”Chevy is selling a buttload of Cobalts, so we want a Buick version to bring the traffic in here!”).

KILL:

Saturn: If GM absolutely must sell imports, it should simply import the damned things. Open up some Opel dealerships and sell the cars under the Opel name. Design the cars from the outset so they can be sold both in Europe and North America with little difference between the two. This would save money in manufacturing (no silly Saturn noses on Opel cars). Most European manufacturers somehow managed to figure this out. I’m sure GM could too. I am not convinced GM should be selling Opels (or any other import brands) here at all, however. With the streamlining of platform engineering Opel would be just as redundant as Pontiac.

Pontiac: There is nothing Pontiac sells that couldn’t be sold under one of the brands I’ve mentioned above. Absolutely need a G8 (although sales figures would suggest you don’t)? Let me introduce you to the new Impala. Solstice? Hello, aforementioned baby Corvette. Every other Pontiac model (G3, G5, G6) is nothing but a bi-nostriled, badge-engineered Chevy existing only to bring volume to Pontiac dealers.

Saab: Sell it. Give it back to the Swedes. Unlike Ford’s takeover of Volvo, Saab has offered little in the way of engineering expertise to GM (in fact most Saab cars are based on GM platforms). GM Un-Saabed Saab, much like it Un-Saturned Saturn.

Hummer: Stick a fork in it. This brand is done. If there is anything in the Hummer lineup worth keeping it could just as easily be sold as a Chevy. Don’t bother selling the brand – that would only end up creating more competition.

GMC: Round file it. Everything GMC sells now can already be bought at a Chevy or Buick dealership, so why not kill the brand off already and sell the vehicles as Chevies and Buicks? Better still, the Sierra, Yukon and Canyon could be dropped altogether, and the Acadia could easily be a Buick. GMC is easily GM’s most redundant brand.

Personally, I wouldn’t buy a Buick… but they still have a loyal following in the US. I bet that they sell a decent amount of cars during “normal” economic times.

One thing for the “Kill Buick” guys to remember: Senior citizens are one of the largest and fastest growing demographics. They also tend to have more disposable cash, better credit, and tend to pay their bills. Attracting young buyers is nice, but there’s nothing wrong with atracting old farts, either. It’s also good to have a brand that people can graduate into when they’ve become affluent enough to step out of their bottom feeders. This “stepping up” is the only reason Acura, Infiniti, and Lexus are successful. Done right, Buick could do the same. “Done right” being the operative term…

What happened with Saturn? What do you think?

What happened to Saturn is they are GM and they have been building unreliable CRAP and now they want money to build more crap !
Even if they do change it took a federal f–king bailout for them to open their eyes
They are light years behind the Japanese and even the Koreans now and no matter what the crap they put out now will have to stand the test of time to prove reliability and resale.
FoMoCo, GM and Chrysler are WORTHLESS and I say don’t give them the money and let them rot !

If you read between the lines, they are essentially killing Pontiac. How can they have a niche brand if its only niche cars–the Solstice and G8–are going to be axed?

FSVT_Rock makes an interesting point about GM’s abundance of brands and his comparison with other automakers, specifically Ford, is interesting. Even when Ford had like seven or eight brands they were all reasonably well-defined and had very little overlap (outside of the core three brands of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury). There was a world of difference between a Range Rover and a Navigator, but this has never been the case with an Escalade and a Denali. The fact that Ford was able to sell off most of PAG is proof of this. Ask yourself how many of its domestic brands GM could conceivably sell off without giving the buyer a license to make cars it would still be selling under different brands.

Buick and Jeep, and Lincoln (despite of their failure in the U.S.) are the symble of American car in China and many other places. No other names can come close to them. So you should get the idea what is the future for GM, Ford and Chrysler.

it’s sad to see saturn go because we have a 2007 saturn aura xr with over 20000 miles and its great. we havent had any problems with it yet. however, i think gmc should either die, or be turned into a commercial line for only trucks and vans and only sell in small volume. i like the idea of pontiac only having performance cars only. buick is for old people so i think they should really limit their build numbers and focus on selling cadillacs to the old people. in all, GM should get rid of their vehicles that gives a bad image to them. i have one question though. for people like us who have purchased new saturns, what happens to the warranty? where do we take it for service? because they have a 5y/100000m warranty. if gm sells saturn and we cant have proper service for it, we will not pay another pretty dime for it!!

idrinorbarsaku:
If your Saturn has a GM warrantee, you will probably be able to go to any GM dealer for service. Actually, now might be a great time to buy an Aura… dealers will likely be unloading them as quickly as possible, and since they’re essentially the same as the Chevy Malibu, parts/service shouldn’t be issues.

as much as i hate the saturn brand and name, the Aura XR is an amazing car! we were planning on buying it out but now everything is questionable. we got a great lease on it too, 368 with 0 down fully loaded with every option:) gray with morrocan interior…its beautifull, but i recently got an 08 white passat as my daily driver. which is actually not so daily anymore because i’m already having problems with it with less than 6000 miles. i’m really pissed that i got it. POS!!!!!!!!!

“Buick: Aim at near luxury. There IS a market for this brand if GM could get it right. Think Acura. This includes luxury crossovers or whatever new segments may appear. Match Acura car for car. Many Buick vehicles could be loosely based on Chevy cars (much like most Acuras are based on Honda cars) to keep engineering costs down, but NO COMMON SHEET METAL. Make a Buick look, feel and drive like it’s worth the premium over Chevy.”

That’s already true: the LaCrosse is based on the Impala, and the Lucerne is based on the Cadillac DTS. No common sheetmetal either.

Next gen. Lucerne should be RWD and named Electra. Be sure to keep the 6 passenger/column shifter option. That option is one of the few distinctions Buick has today compared to most other makes.
Next gen. LaCrosse should probably remain FWD, and be renamed Regal, and as with the ‘Electra’, the 6 passenger model should remain an option. Also, this car needs the ECOTEC 2.4 4 cylinder as an option, to compete with 4 cylinder Accords and Camrys. The ECOTEC 2.4 has plenty of power to pull this car.

Buick also needs a new SKYLARK. It should be built along the lines of the Acura Integra/RSX. A very successful car that Honda dropped because it didn’t fit in with the quasi-luxury branding of Acura. IMO the Integra gave Acura a youthful aura that continues to resonate while Lexus is almost as “stodgy” as the “old” Cadillac. BUICK needs an Integra type model and Skylark (or maybe Skyhawk?) would be a perfect brand.

Another thing: Buick should launch an entire lineup of passenger cars like that at once. A single new model might get some people into a showroom…..3 all new models lauched simultaneously, along with a fresh marketing strategy will get people into showrooms in droves.

The problem is not the BRANDS, but the goddang cars!

Ugly and boring! All of them!

They FINALLY got the Malibu to look good, but WTF is up w/the Impala?

Buick cars are boring as heck to look at.

Pontiac…the G8 is awesome, but the rest of the lineup is a joke. Their spaceship styling lasted too long and created a horrible reputation for crap like the Aztek and plastic body cladding on everything! Even the dang Solstice looks like a Norelco shaver. The Saturn Sky should have been the Solstice! Think mini-Vette.

Things are looking up however. The Camaro looks hot and new Cadillacs too. But the rest of GM needs serious changes. Cobalt…ugh. Cruze can’t come fast enough to the lineup.

They need funding big time b/c they have some cool stuff around the corner. They just need to shed quickly the ugly old boring crap.

^teahead

I didn’t think of that before, but your totally right. The current lineup IS a bit of a mess,w ith small exceptions like the Malibu. If they put the time and effort into quality into EVERY car like they did with the Malibu and the CTS, then it would be a good lineup. But, to do that, they need better R/D which needs money, which GM currently needs to get from the American gov’t…….

Which makes me sad to see guys like Thunder Chicken only ends up being a mechanic at GM. Maybe it’s just the whole political thing inside GM where top management gets commission $ from dealers for making noticeably bad decisions.

Actually, Thunder Chicken, Saab has provided a lot for GM – their tech center in Sweden brought us the Cobalt SS engine – a seriously great powerplant. Saab’s four-cylinder turbo expertise would be quite valuable. It’s just a shame that Saab got little in return from GM…

Just sell all vehicles in one GM showroom (two sides of building).

GMC – pickup & SUV
Pontiac – solstice & G coupe
Chevy – Malibu & cheap econobox

Caddy – CTS and bigger sedan
Buick – big sedan & CUV
Corvette – all its own

GM seriously needs to add GMC to the list of companies to unload. Maybe Pontiac and Saturn should merge and form some kind of Non-American GM dealer. Astra and Aura from europe, G8 from down under. Buick in the USA definately needs to go.

Oh… and STOP THE BADGE ENGINEERING… for cyring out loud. GM could cut its offerings (and associated production costs) by 33% if it stopped rebadging vehicles.

Can we all make this simple and just call it one brand (GM) and keep all the cars they intend to keep under this brand? Consolidate all the dealers under this name so you don’t have “competition” among other dealers under the same parent company. I know this sounds crazy but wouldn’t this simplify everything? Take the Corvette for example, its unnecessary to say its a Chevy Corvette since it’s got enough heritage and respect among the industry that it can be referred to by its last name. And GM has cars/trucks in its lineup that are readily identifiable on a “last name” basis. Would it lose its fan base if you call it a GM corvette? or a GM Escalade? or a GM Enclave? I know this is out in left field but you can eliminate redundancy and cut cost. Or maybe have GM (mainstream cars/trucks) and Cadillac (luxury brand). Other manufacturers have Honda/Acura, Toyota/Lexus, Nissan/Infiniti, Kia/Hyundai, VW/Audi, etc. Just my 2c..

Chevy – mainstream cars, trucks, SUVs, vans, etc.; sports cars; commercial vehicles
Pontiac – stripped-down, sporty competition for Scion
Cadillac – luxury cars and SUVs; super-expensive sports car(s)

Buick – keep the brand within GM, but only sell vehicles with the Buick name in China

Saturn – get rid of all the models, then sell off the name
Saab – sell it back to Sweden or to some other European or Asian country

GMC – get rid of it
Hummer – get rid of it

Okay…my 2 cents:

CADILLAC–Luxury RWD chaser
BUICK–Upscale FWD luxo car chaser
CHEVROLET- Bread and butter cars like Toyota or Honda but no trucks
PONTIAC–Performance division..group all enthusiast cars here. 6 models
GMC –truck division–period..

Kill the Saturn brand but not the cars. Saab is not necessary.
The Opel line of enthusiast cars as well as Holdens should be found under the Pontiac division.
More basic Opels and other global brands should be wedged into Chevy.
GM should study european car lines and reeducate the public. I dont think we should all be driving a Priusmobile, but concentrate on selling competitive vehicles. The various ridiculous SUVs , Cross overs or whaterver need a rethink. Bring back an array of more efficient station wagons. Truck based family vehicles are a gross excess. BIG BIG BIG is OUT.

Just more terrible decisions.
I say get rid of GMC, move Buick to the old Buick/Olds area and keep caddy out of the platform sharing (except with the ‘Vette).
Give Saab autonomy, and make pontiac a RWD performance division.

Keep Saturn out of the platform sharing, and make it Opel West.

“Henderson told Automotive News that Saturn ‘is just not successful.’” Oh, but it was. Then, someone decided to make it just another GM branch, and it became superfluous.

Lau: Toyota works with three brands, but two of them sell the same cars. If Toyota is “doing just fine in terms of quality and overall dependability,” then my Buick should last 50 million miles.

“A civilian Hum-Vee never made sense.” no, but they sure did sell!

Thunder Chicken: “Commodore: What happened to Saturn was that after the initial (and successful) launch of the S-series it was essentially abandoned. It was competitive with the Japanese at the time (early 90’s) but because small cars were not on GM’s agenda the brand was starved. While the imports got better and better the S-series received a few updates (a new body on an old chassis in ‘96, a slightly reworked body in ‘99) ….”

someone clearly knows his history.

” My daily driver/beater is a REAL Saturn (’96 SL1).” I should’ve bought an SL2 instead of a Honda Civic.

GM needs to be de-bloated. Redundant brands (and dealerships) have to go.

“Buick: Aim at near luxury. There IS a market for this brand if GM could get it right. Think A—a.” No No NO! That’s not near-luxury, that’s faux luxury!

“Many Buick vehicles could be loosely based on Chevy cars (much like most A—-s are based on Honda cars) BASED ON?
Although to be truthful, I was thinking acadia, but drove the enclave and was convinced.

“Caddy: True luxury, competing with Benz, L—s, I——i, but mainly BMW.” DO YOU WANT TRUE LUXURY, OR DO YOU WANT IT TO COMPETE WITH TOYOTA’S FAUC-LUXURY DIVISION?

” Apply the V-series philosophy across the board, too. And don’t even think about FWD.” That, I can agree with.

Corvette is a brand in Europe.

” I can certainly see there being room for a 300-horse, turbocharged DI, four-cylinder “Baby Vette” weighing no more than 2500 pounds.” Uh, no.

Thunder Chicken: I ain’t no senior citizen!

tripleonefive: “What happened with Saturn?” You already know. the quastion should be “who happened to saturn?”

What is a light year?

idrinorbarsaku: GMC as a commercial line might be a good move. I used to think Buick was for old people, but now I drive one, and I know damn well I ain’t old!

etroitWatcher: now might be a great time to buy an Aura … It’s the best commuter coffin ever!

idrinorbarsaku: I like the passat

olds307: “Be sure to keep the 6 passenger/column shifter option.” Now, you’re bringing back memories!

I’m not sure Buick needs a new SKYLARK, but if one comes into existence, it should be a hige improvement over the rebadged Civic.

“Buick should launch an entire lineup of passenger cars like that at once.” yes, that’d be bold … sort of a “coming out party.”

teahead: it should be against the law to call something V6 and FWD an Impala.

RaineMan: “Can we all make this simple and just call it one brand (GM) and keep all the cars they intend to keep under this brand?” One benefit of that would be that rebadging would go away. If you wanted a nicer version of a vehicle, you’d just say, “I want the Malibu WB” or “I’m interested in the Vue HB.”

“Pontiac – stripped-down, sporty competition for Scion.” I’m not sure scion is selling itself so much as “sporty” as “cool.”

I love Saab and I think it would be sab to see them go!

I think that Sir Richard Branson shouold buy Saab seeming he has so much money, enjoys a challenge and owns a 9-5 Sport Estate.

I reckon he could make saab a real player in the world because hey look what he did with his ither businesses!