skorpion317

With the talk of GM "strategically reviewing" Hummer, as well as other brands, I had an idea.

What if GM did the same thing that Ford has been doing - sell and/or kill certain brands that don't represent their core business, thereby making the whole organization smaller and stronger?

Here are the rules.

Chevy and Cadillac, by GM's admission, are their "core" brands, and are thus safe. Everything else is fair game. You can choose to sell a certain brand, or kill it off completely, depending on the brand's value to the company and potential buyers.

I'll start.

Buick fills a niche, but it doesn't have the products (yet) to be a strong seller. The Enclave is good, but the Lucerne and Lacrosse just don't compete well enough with other cars in their segment. I'd let the Chinese go wild with Buick, and see if they can't inject some life into it.

Pontiac has potential, but it's being crippled (IMO) by short-sighted dealers and a current lack of "exciting" products. Aside from the Solstice and G8, what in Pontiac's lineup is there to get excited over? The G5 is a rebadged Cobalt (brought on by the dealers), the G6 is getting a little dated (and the GXP is a joke), and the Torrent doesn't fit in with any of the other models. The restyled Vibe looks good, but it's still a rebadged Toyota Matrix. Pontiac needs some serious help. The introduction of a couple Alpha chassis models would help, but that's still a few years away.

The G5 needs to die. The Vibe should be promoted in it's place. The Torrent doesn't fit in the lineup, so it gets the axe. The G6 needs a refresh. The Solstice and G8 are fine for now, but the G8's days are already numbered. Pontiac needs better products, and they need it now. I don't know if they can limp along on life support until Alpha comes along. Pontiac might need to be put out of its misery.

GMC is a tough one. It doesn't cost much to make the trucks, since they're just restyled Chevy trucks. The biggest threat to GMC is CAFE, in my mind. GM needs to have as many fuel-efficient vehicles as they can, and GMC isn't helping that at all. Even though GMC sells in relatively small numbers compared to the Chevy trucks, GM still needs all the help it can get on the fuel-efficiency front. I don't know if the profit they make off GMC is enough to offset the CAFE hit of the trucks.

Hummer is in trouble. Unless GM can figure out a way to make Hummer more "green" and CAFE-friendly, and therefore more consumer-friendly, I don't think they'll be sticking around for much longer. I'd sell Hummer and try to get as much money out of it as I could, as opposed to spending money trying to make Hummer eco-friendly.

Saab doesn't offer much, other than small and midsize-car technology and engineering. Their cars don't sell well here. They do sell well in Europe, though, so you can't dismiss them completely. I don't think there's much that can be done to increase U.S. sales. I'd keep them around for research and development.

Z28x

Hummer should go. Let GMC pick up what little there is left of serious off-roaders with a BOF truck/SUV.

I'd like to see a Delta II AWD pickup built for GMC. Regular cab with a big rig Sierra like front end, 4'x6' bed. Engines ranging from 2.2L HCCI 4 cyl. to the LNF turbo 2.0L. Modern day Chevy LUV. 2wd price should be about the same as the panel HHR.

mastrdrver

Kill Buick and Hummer. Let GMC merge with Chevy dealers and make the GMC brand the commerical grade of Chevy trucks. Get 1.4L Ecotech, and turbo version of that motor, here for Aveo/Cobalt. Put the 1.4L turbo motor with a 6spd auto in the Malibu and a retuned 2.0L turbo with same auto to replace the 3.6L V6. Move Vibe over to Chevy to replace Equinox.

Kill all vehicles for Saturn except Astra/Vue and give it another Aveo/Beat car. Keep Sky and get a replacement by 2011.

Leave Cadillac where it is plus a Lamba CUV. Get STS/DTS replacement here asap and give it a turbo 3.6L V6 and maybe an optional Northstar V8. Move Torrent to Cadillac and move it upscale with a new name.

Give Pontiac all RWD alpha cars that are similar in size to Malibu and Cobalt. Do not let the price on any of its cars get past 40k. Use 1.4 turbo, 2.2, and 2.0 turbo to motors in these cars. See above for Solstice and Torrent notes.

guionM

Selling off divisions would be extraordinarily difficult because GM owuld essentially be selling nothing more than marketing. Unlike the divisions Ford's been selling, GM's vehicles share assembly lines as well as engineering and parts. Killing divisions is no treat either. If I recall, when the dust and lawsuits settled, GM was out of quite a few billion dollars.

But playing devil's advocate here:

Since China is now by far Buick's biggest market, most all future Buicks will be designed there using GM's global architectures save the Austrailian Holden Caprice based Park Avenue

Vibe is more that simply a rebadged Matrix. They share the same structure, same assembly line and quite a few parts, there's alot more than a grille and a badge between them. The G5 is actually doing pretty well. Pontiac's sold more G5s than Cadillac's sold Escalade SUVs. Behind the Cobalt and the Impala, the G6 is running neck & neck with the Malibu as GM's best selling cars. The Torrent doesn't even outsell the slow selling Larosse, you you have a point there.


GMC sold over 197,000 vehicles so far this year. The only GM division that's sold more is Chevrolet. Right behind GMC is Pontiac.

Pontiac is outselling Dodge by at least 33% and outsells Lincoln-Mercury and is outselling Mitsubishi by more than 2 to 1 (70,322 YTD vs 152,754)

The irony here is that the smaller H3 has dropped more in sales than the H2.

Despite the plunge in sales, I would think twice before killing off or selling off Hummer. Hummer sales this year to date have dropped 40%

Jeep, which has no enviromental baggage as Hummer does (and in fact, a favorite of many enviromentalists next to Hybrids), is down.... 40%!

Hummer has been in the gunsights of hard core enviromentalists for years & it still sold. That tidbit plus the fact Jeep sales are down an identical percentage for the year leads me to suspect the economy and the general drop in sales has more to do with Hummer's plunge than someone waking up one morning and suddenly realizing Hummers aren't exactly fuel miserly.

Saab doesn't do much research and development. They are incorperated with GM Europe which engineered the Espilon and Delta. As one of Sweden's only 2 automobile brands, there's more Swedish national pride than large scale profit ability involved there. Killing Saab would be akin to Daimler killing off Chrysler after being viewed as running it into the ground.

POS Camaro

Isn't HUMMER still selling to the Army and Marines? If so, just stop civilianizing the H1 and make military vehicles. No CAFE hit and the DoD already pays way too much for material.

Derek M

Might you be confusing the GM Hummer specifically the H1 with the AM General that produces the military HUMVEE and derivatives?

JakeRobb

GM stopped building the civilian H1 quite some time ago (last year, IIRC).

GM does not build the military H1. Never did.

Z28x

Hummer has never sold vehicles to the military. AM General has, they are the ones that make the H1, which as of 2007 is no longer sold to Civilians.

Big Als Z

AM General is GM. GM purchased them few years ago.
Civilian H1's were built in AM General's factory. I dont know if GM still owns AM General.

Z28x

GM has never owned AM General http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am_Gene...porate_history

Eric Bryant

Oh my, everyone here is an expert on AM General.

Wrong. AM General is currently owned by a JV between LTV and a private holding company, and has never been owned by GM. It, however, has been owned in the past by Studebaker, Kaiser, and AMC - and would have been owned by Renault had it not been for government rules.

GM purchased the Hummer trademark from AM General, and a manufacturing agreement exists between the two companies.

HAZ-Matt

I would not kill brands (for the most part), but I would kill off models to reduce overlap. Sort of like they claimed they were going to do which didn't really amount to anything except reducing Firebird overlap.

Chevrolet can keep it's lineup even though I personally don't think that they need a car for every segment. I might get rid of the Avalanche and just make the wuss suspension available on the regular light trucks. But I don't know the comparative economics.

GMC can sell premium trucks and SUVs as long as they still sell well.

Buick needs a midsized sedan, fullsize sedan and cross-over. They should be the "Lexus" versions of their Chevy counterparts, all FWD.

Pontiac should have a compact 3 and 5 door, mid sized sedan, keep the Solstice, and a full-sized sedan. The compact could be FWD but the other should preferably be RWD and derived from global platforms (ie Holden). Coupes based on the midsize and fullsize would be nice, the midsize probably taking priority.

Cadillac. Needs midsize, fullsize, and crossover type SUV. If the Escalade stays profitable, keep it too.

Saab should not exist in America.

I am not a Saturn fan. What are their sales volumes again? This whole import fighter idea is a little silly and could be taken care of by decent product at other brands. If they remain, they should be rebadged Opels and Saabs.

I wonder if Hummer could be combined with GMC or even Cadillac. Should only have two model lines at the most.

mastrdrver

So how are these two different again?

The current problem is that Buick needs to go up market more, but Cadillac is in the way.

flowmotion

I would merge all of the domestic brands into a single "General Motors" dealership and start whacking duplicate products left and right. Chevy/Pontiac/Buick/GMC in the same dealerships. Stores with the best facilities can also carry Cadillac.

GMC would be luxury versions of Chevy trucks and SUVs. Sierra and Yukon Denali, and the hybrids basically. Buick would get a few upscale versions of Chevy products. I think they only really need the Enclave, LaCrosse, and maybe a large sedan.

Pontiac I would position below Chevy as inexpensive youth cars similar to Scion. G1 (Beat), G3 (Aveo), Vibe and Solstice. That's it, no muscle cars. Sorry, Pontiac fans but I think that's being realistic.

Everything else goes to Chevrolet. The G8 becomes the Impala. The Malibu and the Camaro (coupe/convertible) replaces the G6. Cadillac stays the same.

Saturn and Saab retain separate dealership channels, and I would turn over management to the guys in Europe. They can then market unique Euro products over here without worrying about getting rebadges forced on them by Detroit.

Good Ph.D

Would that really be such a bad thing though?

It's probably not feasible but if they could sell a brand, and get Tata or whoever to paritally buy or bankroll the production of the existing models until they began producing their own, that might kill two birds with one stone. I don't know what dealer contracts look like but if they're still getting product...

Just a thought.