Date: Sat, 12 May 2007 10:39:27 -0400 From: "BoobooBear" <Boonospama.com> Subject: Re: GM's excess baggage - Buick, Pontiac, Saab, Hummer
"Nomen Nescio" <Use-Author-Supplied-Address-Headernospam.1]> wrote in message news:739d5581a91aeb5c1e894ab28a887a3cnospamm.com... > Fortune http://doiop.com/77487l > > ..Multiple brands mean multiple expenditures for marketing, > advertising and distribution. Still suffering from negative cash flow, > GM simply has too many mouths to feed. > > GM should keep Chevrolet where it is - the volume brand that is the > heartbeat of America. Maintain Cadillac at the top of the market and > expand its product offerings with derivatives of the popular CTS. And > continue to use Saturn, with its dedicated dealer channel and loyal > buyers, as the brand for import intenders. > > Plenty of excess baggage remains. Here are my recommendations: > > It is past time to perform euthanasia on Buick. Successive waves of new > models haven't moved the needle on sales and it is unlikely that the > new Enclave crossover will make a big difference. For nostalgia buffs, > the Buick brand can soldier on in China, where it is uniquely beloved. > > Pontiac should get the same treatment, though without the Asian escape > hatch. Its boy-racer image is dated and GM's one-time excitement > division has deteriorated into a regional blue-collar brand. In a world > that increasingly is going green, there is little upside for its > testosterone-laced pavement rippers. > > Whatever noble intentions GM had for Hummer, they have been permanently > damaged by the greenhouse gas debate. Hummer should be sold to whomever > winds up with Jeep after Chrysler is broken up. More Jeeps fall off the > truck on the way to the dealer than Hummer sells in a week. > > Turn GMC into a commercial truck brand. As gasoline becomes more > expensive, there won't be enough traffic in personal-use trucks for GMC > to share with Chevy. There are lots of opportunities with huskier > trucks that a player with GM's scale could exploit in the business-to- > business market. > > Say goodbye to Saab. With its perpetually tiny volume and high-cost > European manufacturing base, Saab has defied GM's efforts for nearly > two decades to make it consistently profitable. The success of Japanese > sport-luxury brands Infiniti and Acura has made Saab irrelevant. > GM could actually keep all the brands if they knew how to make cars the peeples wanted. There problem is styling. Most GM cars are now styless, gm thinks they can compete by making all there cars look like every other bland silver metalic car on the road. When they learn that they need to begin building a car with nice contoured eye catching lines that makes the customer step back and say "that be one nice looking car". But GM doesnt get it, so hasta la vista.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
