Bye Bye Hummer, Saab and Saturn
- Thread starter Tony_SS
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I thought Saturn had potential as a GM brand seeing as they were a no-haggle, no BS, economical entry level to car buying-kind of company. I also saw them as a potential answer to Scion, but guess they wont be around long enough to see that potential.
I can't believe they are keeping GMC over Pontiac. Nobody would miss GMC and they offer nothing unique to the market.
It's too bad about Saturn, my first one has made me a huge fan of them as economical and extremely reilable cars... I have two of them now, and will continue to buy old ones as DD's for long as they are around.
It's too bad about Saturn, my first one has made me a huge fan of them as economical and extremely reilable cars... I have two of them now, and will continue to buy old ones as DD's for long as they are around.
2000.malibu.ls said:
I'm kind of feeling the same way - they deserve to go under with their idiotic thinking. GM hasn't learned any lessons in this whole mess, and the more I hear the more they deserve to go down.
A 5 year old kid could tell you that GMC is a useless re-badge division, but for whatever reason, to GM exec's it makes sense to keep them around. If you keep GMC, then get rid of Chevy trucks - what in the world is the point of slapping a different grill/badge on a truck and calling it something else - do they honestly thing people are that stupid? (dumb question I guess, because I HAVE heard GMC owners claim GMC's are built better.... so yes, people ARE that stupid LOL). Anybody who pays for more for a truck because it has a different badge on it has more money than brains. If GMC was eliminated, there will be little to no loss in sales as ALL GMC buyers would flock to a Chevy instead... and Ford would no longer be able to have that ridiculous claim that they have had the best selling truck for X amount of years. But hey - what do I know... I have no experience running a company into the ground
One thing that should have been done decades ago is combining ALL brands into GM dealers - it makes no sense to have separate dealers for the different brands - they are all GM. What seems like a simple solution to this whole mess is cutting back on the rebading of the same vehicle 10x over. Make ONE minivan and decide whether it will be a Chevy, Pontiac, Saturn etc. Do this for every model - pick a brand and get rid of the remaining rebadge versions until you are down to 3-4 vehicles per division with all having a distict purpose/market. All the brands, including Oldsmobile, could have survived this way IMHO.
The G8 is one new car I would consider buying in a few years (after someone else takes the resale hit). That car is the first 4-door I've really liked and think is a damn cool car. It's also one of few new cars in years that has some character (no, the Vette doesn't do it for me). I'd put the new Challenger in this category as well (not big on the Camaro or Mustang). Just think if GM made the GTO look like this in a 2-door model - it would likely still be around and selling like hotcakes! So the one car that GM makes that I (and I believe many others) find interesting/exciting will soon be extict. Sure they may rebadge it as a Chevy, but it's current appearance is what makes it so appealing - GM is sure to screw it up with a bland car that looks like all other new Chevys.
Well, GM lost my business years ago. They do not produce anything I want that is not very high in the market. Unfortunately, neither do any of the other companies either.
GMC still makes big "medium-duty" trucks. You know, line trucks, dump trucks, etc... so they're not completely useless.
Saturn should have stayed the plastic-bodied "odd man out" of GM, once they started importing the platform cars from the UK the game was over. Hummer? eh. Should have kept it AM General.... Saab I'll be surprised if they don't sell it back to the Swedes or whoever invented the ugly things...
and Pontiac? In typical GM fashion, just when they start to get something right, they axe it.
GM's biggest failure in the last several years has been marketing. What was the last TV commercial for a GM car, from GM, that was actually selling a car, instead of onstar, or 0% financing, or some fairytale "ownership experience" BS. People won't buy cars if they don't know they exist, and don't know anything about them. The G8 could be kicking *ss, but have you seen it advertised? No. Ditto the Camaro, they should be marketing the absolute sh*t out of that thing, and simply aren't. at all. Meanwhile the Germans and Japanese are buying primetime HD ads that actually sell cars instead of loans.....
GM assumed people would always buy GM cars as they have for 70 years, just because, and they found out too late that just ain't the case.
DeLorean, Estes, Knudsen are squirming in their graves (I think they're all gone??) right now... (Mr. Olds quit squirming some time ago actually.)
Saturn should have stayed the plastic-bodied "odd man out" of GM, once they started importing the platform cars from the UK the game was over. Hummer? eh. Should have kept it AM General.... Saab I'll be surprised if they don't sell it back to the Swedes or whoever invented the ugly things...
and Pontiac? In typical GM fashion, just when they start to get something right, they axe it.
GM's biggest failure in the last several years has been marketing. What was the last TV commercial for a GM car, from GM, that was actually selling a car, instead of onstar, or 0% financing, or some fairytale "ownership experience" BS. People won't buy cars if they don't know they exist, and don't know anything about them. The G8 could be kicking *ss, but have you seen it advertised? No. Ditto the Camaro, they should be marketing the absolute sh*t out of that thing, and simply aren't. at all. Meanwhile the Germans and Japanese are buying primetime HD ads that actually sell cars instead of loans.....
GM assumed people would always buy GM cars as they have for 70 years, just because, and they found out too late that just ain't the case.
DeLorean, Estes, Knudsen are squirming in their graves (I think they're all gone??) right now... (Mr. Olds quit squirming some time ago actually.)
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