Bye Bye Saturn and Buick, it was good knowing ya!

They should sell Hummer ( GM delaers won’t touch those things anyway ) to some investor guru’s and kill Buick.

Saturn can stay since they seem to be gearing up for some better things.

GMC has to go, all they sell are chevy clones. No sense in that at all. Even though GM is encouraging “Pontiac Buick GMC” dealers.

Hummer should stay, the H3 was one of the 2005 bright spots for GM. Look at how well it sold. People pay for the “hummer” nameplate and are willing to step up to the plate for the gas prices. How do I know? I worked at a Hummer dealer, and spoke with more than a couple customers.

Saturn can’t go, if they keep it on the track they’ve set out for, it will soon be profitable again.

Chevy, Cadillac, and Pontiac aren’t going anywhere.

That leaves Saab and Buick, in a Survivor style battle. The old people brand, and the snobby, quirky swedish brand. I’d probably try and sell Saab first, since a ton of money has been dumped into Buick in the past few years. If, in a year, Buick’s sales still suck, and Saab is still on the roster, then you consider sending Buick down the Oldsmobile road. But then and only then.

GMC is really the only obvious one, in my opinion.

Get rid of GMC and Hummer. Hummer is a fad and like Jerry said, GMCs are all clones anyway.

GMC is more than just mid and compact trucks. It is a huge full size and industrial truck company.

They cannot afford to abandon the two ton truck market. GMC Topkicks make up a huge portion of the domestic US truck market.

They paid too much for Hummer, a brand that sells itself on name alone (ala jeep)

Saturn is disposable. Very disposable. You could rename those Chevrolet like they did when they axed GEO and nobody would be the wiser. Remember Geo?

Buick has ran its course and failed to re-establish an identity. If for some reason folks have a romantic fascination with Buick then Pontiac would get the ax, if only for continuing in GM’s history for killing off great cars in their prime. (IE Solstice)

You may think it’s stupid to re-badge Chevy trucks as GMC, but it’s a profitable brand. Some Americans don’t like the idea of driving a truck that scream “Country Music Awards�. These people prefer GMC, and if you kill that brand, half of these people will move to Toyota.

Hummer is making money, so GM should keep it around until it stops making money.

Cadillac is in good shape.

Selling SAAB is not a bad move but it also won’t help GM’s bottom line very much. It’s a small brand and compared with GM’s daily budget it’s not much of a drain.

Leave Saturn alone and let Opel run it as its division in the US. Even though Saturn has NEVER made a profit, Opel should be able to turn the brand around. No minivan but “sport tourer� would fit right in with the European image

Keep Pontiac as a small car sport brand in direct competition with Honda (if possible) not BMW. No minivan, no SUV.

Buick should focus, as it is, on Lexus, making mostly 4-door cars, plus the Velite and Enclave. No minivan.

Here’s the real solution:

Kill Chevy. Turn Corvette into its own brand with a baby vette (Boxter fighter), a $29,000 2+2 seat (3-series fighter), a $100,000 Blue Devil, and a $200,000 Supercar. Let GMC handle all the trucks and SUVs.

-J

Saab has a crappy brand image. Kill It!

GMC’s product line should be shifted to the Hummer brand as they are redesignd. Once thats finished, GMC should Die!

Buick should take over the Denali truck line and continue to improve its quality and styling. If that doesn’t work, kill it!

By looking at the Aura and Sky Saturn will be fine.

Pontiac needs a supercar and continued quility improvments.

Cadillac needs nothing.

Chevy just needs to start from scratch.

GM is getting more from Saab than sales and that is what mr. York doesn’t see.

Where do you think GM is getting the Ecotec Engines, Turbo’s and the Direct Injection Technology. That is going to make the Solstice GXP 260hp!!!

First they came for Geo, and I said nothing

Then they came for Oldsmobile, and I said nothing

Now they are coming for…

See now this is why its so hard for GM, there is about 7 different “plans” in this comments section (nevermind the thousands of others that have been laid out on other websites) There is no real clear cut way to phase out one of their brands. Thats why it doesn’t happen very often.

i believe that anybrand is sucessful that GM owns. gm must reinvent the product lines at saab and hummer. saab is an amazing luxurious european brand that has much potential for sucess in the american market. i believe gm needs time to sort through its finances and then to decide which brands to revive. before i ever sold two vital car brands i would cut white collar pay and compensation so that the pain is felt of loses throughout the company i would also eliminate the stock dividend all together which would save the company an addtional 1.1 billion dollars per year and stop some financial bleeding at the company. in todays world efficiency is key. i believe gm should expand the hummer line maybe offering a few different hummer style vehicles but presented differently. saab has many strengths and is very very strong brand outside of the united states it would be an absolute shame to sell it and gm executives know that. also i dont think it makes much sense for gm to sell GMAC the one very profitable arm of its entire corporation which is singlehandedly providing large amounts of cash to the corporation when it desperately needs it. i believe gm will falter because the large trucks and suvs’s that gmc offers along with the redesigning of them will not do much. gas continues to increase in price, so the new style will not do much for consumers. people are realizing they dont need huge gas guzzling cars to transport three people around town, and consumer tastes are changing. the quicker gm and its brands respond to that the better. one bright spot for gm is chevy. chevy has amazingly styled cars that the people really want to buy. all car companies should learn from what the chevrolet division is doing correctly. i believe easy steps such as cutting the executive/office staff pay and compensation and eliminating the dividend cud save the company an additonal 2-3 billion dollars plus the 7 billion it aims to trim from expenses by 2008. that would be 11 billion dollars in savings, more than enough to get gm back on its financial footing without resorting to selling profitable brands.

The answer is easy. Replace Saturn and Saab with Opel.

CHEVY- VARIETY
GMC- TRUCKS
HUMMER- HUMMERS
PONTIAC- SPORT/YOUTH
BUICK- CLASSIC LUXURY
CADILLAC- SPORT LUXURY
OPEL- EURO CAR

P.S. Would like to cut GMC becuase it shares every single model with Chevy, but it has HUGE brand loyalty!

Saab – compared to Audi, BMW and Mercedes:

The brand has a minimal product range and is neither amazing nor luxurious. However, considering drive quality, vehicle value and company value/costs – the brand should stay.

Opel/Vauxhall have zero US brand image as does Cadillac in the UK- not wise moves to pursue by GM. US luxury Vs Euro Luxury, I’m afraid there is no contest.

Buick and Caddy are virtually the same market – combine the brands, then think about possible consolidation between saturn and saab.

Saturn branding for US markets, Saab for EU – Just an idea.

I think losing the Hummer and Saab brands right now would be the WORST thing GM could do from a marketing standpoint at this point if their goal is to be a viable player in the young affluent consumer market in the near or distant future..take me for example….I am a 40-year old man (car freak to say the least) who has never owned anything but European luxury cars and SUV’s (BMW, Porsche, Mercedes) and I would NEVER EVER have considered a GM car (except for maybe a Corvette) until the H3 came along this year. I absolutely love that H3 and I am officially now a GM convert…but make no mistake, the Hummer brand is the ONLY reason MANY MANY of us Gen X’ers would even CONSIDER a GM car. Now I think with the Escalade, the H3, the Corvette (of course) and the fun new Solstice and Saturn roadsters GM is actually ON the radar screens of young folks now more than ever in the last 50 years. Yes, Hummer cost too much to purchase initially, and the Saab line needs to be fixed but to lose those brands would be marketing suicide. Sorry, but we ain’t never buying a Buick or an Oldsmobile…you have got to have the brands to attract the younger demographic.