Malice 1

I like the plan, alot. I just have a few questions.

1) is GMC gonna sell upscale trucks like the arcadia, or are they gonna go back to being high value commercial fleet trucks?

2) Aside from Buick being a chinese cash cow, isn't buick and caddillac still a little redundant? They are both luxury cars meant for older folks. Caddy's are just more expensive and nicer.

3) Which brand is gonna be the alt energy brand? Chevy? Are they gonna be the primary electric, hydrogen, hybrid supplier?

4) How extreme is poncho gonna go? Are they gonna limit themselves to G8's and solstices, or are they gonna keep the low 15 second eye candy like the G6 GTP coupe? (I've only seen like one of those on the road in my life, so prolly not)
With a now dedicated performance niche, would V8 RWD coupes be in the future development plan? (Dare I say it: GTO or Trans am?)

Z284ever

Buick will fill the gap between Chevy and Caddy. Cadillac will be farther upmarket than Buick. As it appears now, Opel and Buick will share styling and products. That works out well, since Opel has wanted to go upscale in Europe and now can be aligned with Buick for NA and Asia.

99SilverSS

So if Pontiac is opened up to a niche product only that technically leaves the door open for sister car Firebird!

I like the whole plan in theory as it goes the extra painfully necessary step in bringing GM into a place for it to compete in this century. Seems as though this economy finally got GM to where Wall St. wanted them for quite some time.
The corp. jet thing still bugs me as it's just a Washington side show. Ask the Reps. how they get around and GM/Ford planes would look like American Eagle.

flowmotion

I wouldn't call Buick a "luxury" brand by any means, although they sell cars a notch or so above Pontiac and Chevy.

A "baby Buick" starting at say $22K could be more profitable than another Colbalt rebadge. Then you bring in the midsized Regal (Opel Insignia) and the upcoming LaCrosse as the "big" car starting at around $32K. (Just below the CTS.)

It's a risky strategy because Buick is practically on their deathbed, but it potentially could pay off a lot more than investing more into Saturn or Pontiac.

Z28x

It would be nice to get the new 2009 Buick Regal in the USA. Fills the midsize gap between the Malibu and CTS.

Z284ever

Considering that this very car was cancelled for Saturn, I'd bet on Buick getting it here.

guionM

We will.

The Reps get around on commercial airlines just like we do.

The CEOs going there on corperate airplanes to ask for money was simply stupid. Even I was beside myself when I heard that.

As far as Firebird, I wouldn't hold my breath unless it either is on the Alpha or the Commodore coupe gets the green light.

Evilfrog

Is that suppose to be 1.750% of dealers or 1,750 dealers?

anasazi

foxnews is hosting a pdf version of the "Plan"
http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/GM_Plan.pdf

something that caught my eye... page 30 about half way down:
holy crap!

although it does go to show that the quality turnaround didn't happen until very, very recently, there certainly has been a huge improvement based on that statistic.

too bad there really isn't any way to advertise that number without screaming "hey look we made ****ty cars but WE'RE OK NOW!"


edit:
although i just considered... how is this number derived? are there 48% fewer warranty repairs since 2006 because there are fewer cars sold? or is this an average RATE of warranty repairs?

edit2:
when did GM sell suzuki and isuzu? (page 31)

formula79

Funny how they went through and shrunk Buick to three models to reduce redundency, and now it is supposed to be the volume leader of the BPG pipeline? So are they just gonna rebadge all the Saturns as Buicks? Who under 50 buys a Buick anyway?

rlchv70

Has anyone compared the Ford and GM official plans? The GM version looks like they spent a LOT more time on it. Much more professionally note.

Also note that throught the documents, they capitalize "Plan".

flowmotion

Yeah, I'm confused about that too. Two years ago Saturn was the future and Buick was dead, and now they've reversed that. That's only about $3 Billion down the drain. Oops.

Changing their brand/model strategy every couple years is one of the major reasons GM is on the skids. From the customer's view it looks like they're playing russian roulette with their products. They need to come up with a long-term Plan and stick to it, if they intend on saving any of these brands.

flowmotion

Also, on second look, most of the brand changes proposed are heavy duty BS.

+ Sell Saab and Saturn -- nobody's going to buy them, and GM will be stuck with them. Eventually they will get new models, if GM survives.

+ Pontiac into a specialty brand -- this will last about 30 second until Chevy gets a new car and they need to placate the dealerships with a badgejob.

+ Buick as a volume brand -- aka GM is finally replacing the ancient W and H bodies, let's not get too excited.

Also, according to the PDF, they are only dropping 8 models by 2012. That's easily accounted for by Hummer and stuff that's already going out of production.

gtjeff

[QUOTE Sell Saab and Saturn -- nobody's going to buy them,QUOTE]

Saturn might gather some attention from some of the competition. Access to 400 more retail locations which are all newer showrooms. In addition, the brand has high customer satisfaction ratings.

The real question here is GM dumb enough to include in a Saturn sale the space frame tooling that they cluelessly arent using today. It would help another manufacturer achieve a series of flexible, lightweight, low cost, cafe friendly vehicles, quickly and at a relative low cost.

Purple 92 SS

I could be way off base on thinking this, but does anyone else think that their plan isnt enough?

I mean, it would appear they have the chance here to really cut the fat off, and instead they're barely doing things..


Ok Sell Hummer and now saab.. ok so hummer was already for sale, saab barely sells many cars so is it really that much different?

Kill off Saturn. Ok good move.

Reduce Pontiac to a Niche? Your screwing the pooch. I dont see the need unfortunately anymore for pontiac, as much as I love their cars and history, it just doesnt make good business sense.

Buick, in the states, just why? should go bye bye as well.

GMC? keep? come on, axe it already too. Everything in its lineup is a Chevy anyways..

thats just my opinion.. i mean that would not only help with them getting approved for the loan,but also help in the long run with trimming the fat.


I could be way way off base t hinking its just not enough, but the plan doesnt seem "committed" enough to me.