Chevrolet without Pontiac & Saturn
05-28-2009, 11:43 PM
#1
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Chevrolet without Pontiac & Saturn
As much as I hated to see both of these brands go imagine where GM would be if they had cut these brands years ago. GM has many great cars but they were scattered throughout 5 different car brands! Each brand having 1 or 2 "great" cars. Imagine going to a Chevrolet dealership today and having a choice of:
Aveo (had to put a subcompact in here)
Astra or Vibe (both in the same segment)
Camaro
Cobalt
Corvette
G8 (whatever the Chevy name would be)
Impala (would have been updated last year or before not 3 years from now)
Malibu
This would be a better line-up than any other manufacture has. I saw my 1st Astra a few months ago only because our mall had several Saturn cars in the middle of it. As soon as I saw it I though "wow thats a nice car for a college student".
With Chevrolet these cars would have flurished with a much larger customer base and many more dealerships.
I believe GM will be in great position once it is out of bankruptcy. They will be able to focus all their resources on fewer brands which will hopefully streamline new product development.
Look at what people in the Middle East have to choose from. Check out the CSV, Caprice & Lumina
http://www.chevroletarabia.com/conte...tml?cntryCd=SA
I believe if we didn't have Pontiac & Saturn thats what our dealerships would look like today in NA + the Camaro.
What's everyone else think?
Aveo (had to put a subcompact in here)
Astra or Vibe (both in the same segment)
Camaro
Cobalt
Corvette
G8 (whatever the Chevy name would be)
Impala (would have been updated last year or before not 3 years from now)
Malibu
This would be a better line-up than any other manufacture has. I saw my 1st Astra a few months ago only because our mall had several Saturn cars in the middle of it. As soon as I saw it I though "wow thats a nice car for a college student".
With Chevrolet these cars would have flurished with a much larger customer base and many more dealerships.
I believe GM will be in great position once it is out of bankruptcy. They will be able to focus all their resources on fewer brands which will hopefully streamline new product development.
Look at what people in the Middle East have to choose from. Check out the CSV, Caprice & Lumina
http://www.chevroletarabia.com/conte...tml?cntryCd=SA
I believe if we didn't have Pontiac & Saturn thats what our dealerships would look like today in NA + the Camaro.
What's everyone else think?
05-29-2009, 01:24 AM
#2
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Good idea for a thread.
To some extent, Chevrolet had been boxed-in because of Saturn and Pontiac. For example, the Aura has a lot more chrome than the Malibu, and the G6 has a coupe/convertible that Chevy never got. And that had somewhat left Chevy with nothing but the whitebread middle-market.
So, I think it's a reasonable conclusion that Chevy will become a lot more stylish and maybe a notch more upscale. GM might also risk more investment on niche models because they aren't constantly backfilling some other division.
But the latest rumor is that the new Astra is going to Buick.
To some extent, Chevrolet had been boxed-in because of Saturn and Pontiac. For example, the Aura has a lot more chrome than the Malibu, and the G6 has a coupe/convertible that Chevy never got. And that had somewhat left Chevy with nothing but the whitebread middle-market.
So, I think it's a reasonable conclusion that Chevy will become a lot more stylish and maybe a notch more upscale. GM might also risk more investment on niche models because they aren't constantly backfilling some other division.
But the latest rumor is that the new Astra is going to Buick.
05-29-2009, 08:58 AM
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Astra is a Chevy in Mexico. I don't know if they would need both the 3 door Astra and Cobalt cope on the same lot though.
G8 would make a great Impala. Offer 2.4L, 3.6L (both with DI and A6) and a V8 for the SS
G8 would make a great Impala. Offer 2.4L, 3.6L (both with DI and A6) and a V8 for the SS
05-29-2009, 09:17 AM
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Even the GTO when introduced....it was hindered by dealerships with slow sales that were desperate to gouge customers with markups so they could make money. Chevrolet has always been the volume brand.
05-29-2009, 09:24 AM
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To some extent, Chevrolet had been boxed-in because of Saturn and Pontiac. For example, the Aura has a lot more chrome than the Malibu, and the G6 has a coupe/convertible that Chevy never got. And that had somewhat left Chevy with nothing but the whitebread middle-market.
Aside from just the models Chevy might or might not have missed out on, there's also the timing issue. It seems that too often Chevy would be out of sync and have to wait a year or so to get their models out, after the other divisions already got first shot at the market. The W-body Chev was a year behind the others for almost every generation, and also the L-body (vs. N-body), Lambdas, and current-gen Malibu. Now without the other divisions to distract, perhaps Chevy (the volume leader) can get the shiny new hardware first.
05-29-2009, 10:21 AM
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I agree that the sky/solstice would make a great Chevy. I don't know if they plan to continue the car any longer though. I think a chevy badge on a Sky would make it instantly more appealing... it seems stupid that a badge would matter so much, but being a chevy would give it more credibility as a sporty car for me. I really think the Sky is more similar to the original Corvettes in size and purpose than what the C6 has become.
05-31-2009, 12:24 PM
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Don't forget about the Kappas ... if any division should have had an inexpensive mass market convertible, you'd think it would have been Chevy.
Aside from just the models Chevy might or might not have missed out on, there's also the timing issue. It seems that too often Chevy would be out of sync and have to wait a year or so to get their models out, after the other divisions already got first shot at the market. The W-body Chev was a year behind the others for almost every generation, and also the L-body (vs. N-body), Lambdas, and current-gen Malibu. Now without the other divisions to distract, perhaps Chevy (the volume leader) can get the shiny new hardware first.
Aside from just the models Chevy might or might not have missed out on, there's also the timing issue. It seems that too often Chevy would be out of sync and have to wait a year or so to get their models out, after the other divisions already got first shot at the market. The W-body Chev was a year behind the others for almost every generation, and also the L-body (vs. N-body), Lambdas, and current-gen Malibu. Now without the other divisions to distract, perhaps Chevy (the volume leader) can get the shiny new hardware first.
05-31-2009, 02:25 PM
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Here's some news in this vein. GM will be spending a lot more money advertising Chevy.
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/643137
And GM will have a $1.3-billion annual marketing budget for each of Chevrolet and Cadillac, double the current ad spend, and close to what Toyota commits to its namesake and Lexus brands.
05-31-2009, 02:30 PM
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If I were an investor in GM, which I partially am as a taxpayer, I would be furious that they would be spending that much money on marketing instead of using it to build higher quality cars and gain lost market share.
05-31-2009, 02:32 PM
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Kappa can't be built in high volume. The architecture was designed to be low volume, requires lots of manual procedures, (ie, welding), and is not set up for alot of automation.
05-31-2009, 02:44 PM
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You need to read the whole article....great read. They are building high quality cars & they need to spend more money to get the word out...
Focused on just four brands rather than eight, Buick and GMC will no longer be deprived of new-product development funds. For the first time, Buick will have close to a full line of models. And GM will have a $1.3-billion annual marketing budget for each of Chevrolet and Cadillac, double the current ad spend, and close to what Toyota commits to its namesake and Lexus brands. That's crucial, because GM quality and reliability have vastly improved in the past decade (Buick typically tops or is near the top of J.D. Power quality surveys), but GM has lacked the money to tell that story to potential customers that first turned away from GM decades ago. A clean-slate GM has a decent shot at winning customers among Gen Y motorists (ages 22 to 32). At 70 million people, that group is larger than either Gen X or the baby-boom generation. Certainly GM has the J.D. Power- and Consumer Reports-acclaimed vehicles for making converts, including the Chevy Malibu, Impala, HHR and the Cadillac STS sedan.
05-31-2009, 02:45 PM
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This isn't an either-or proposition. And they will probably be spending less money overall because they won't have the overhead of eight different ad agencies.
05-31-2009, 02:58 PM
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