GM sales chief says automaker needs all brands

Reuters
Automotive News / February 10, 2006 - 4:00 pm



ORLANDO, Fla. -- General Motors needs to maintain its current North American brands despite pressure to shed some as part of a broader restructuring, a top executive said on Friday.

GM's largest individual investor, billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, has called on the No. 1 automaker to consider eliminating Saab and possibly Hummer in order to focus attention on turning around its loss-making U.S. manufacturing operations.

Kerkorian adviser Jerome York, who urged GM to pare its brand line-up in a widely watched speech last month, joined the company's board this week.

But Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president of North American vehicle sales, told a group of auto dealers and industry executives that GM's current brand strategy could work as it invests to turn around lagging nameplates such as Pontiac and Buick.

"In spite of all the great advice we have been getting and I am sure we will continue to get until we turn our finances around, this is where we stand on the issue," he said.

LaNeve said Saab had badly underperformed Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo division, another Scandinavian brand, because Volvo has maintained a sharper consumer identification with safety, while the Saab message was more muddled.

"It's fair to say that we haven't been real tightly focused on what segments we're going to compete in," he said of the Saab division. "Everyone knows Volvo stands for safety and no one was sure what Saab stands for. The products were just as good, if not better."

LaNeve said GM had reduced its dealer count by about 20 percent over the past decade, a period in which it lost about 10 percent of its sales.

He said GM would be "opportunistic" in cutting back on dealerships in order to protect the profitability of those sales operations, but cautioned that dealer margins would remain under pressure.

"There's just so much competition," he said. "Our margins are under pressure. New car margins are under pressure because you've got oversupply."

 

What is SAAB's mission statement??I never really heard/thought about it either.
I too believe they need what they have, and need to develop them to better suit the "public's needs".

 

Saab... FWD, turbo, and a little odd.

 

the oddball part got cut out of the equasion under GM. there USED to be a loyal core SAAB following even tighter than our Camaro community here. but GM changed all that..

 

You're right. I remember people who swore off everything but SAABs. Used to see plenty of them around.

Can't remember the last time I saw a new SAAB on the streets now.

 

Same here too, maybe advances in technology have the rest of the industry caught up with them, at lower prices?..

 

another thing, ask any SAAB loyalist still out there (find then first) and the first thing he'll tell you is the hatch must return. no availability of one is what really did it in for most of them. to give you perspective, its as if GM made Camaro 4cyl FWD 4door.

 

I see SAABs all the time