GM Woes

Oh, if GM could just go back in time and not F everything up. Oh woe is us, the '80s version of the Pontiac LeMans... but anyway, reading the web lately has just been so depressing if you still bother to be a GM fan.

The Detroit News says, GM announces new incentive program, The Car Connection reports GM Faces Q1 Red Ink and The NYTimes (registration required) speculates, How Long Can G.M. Tread Water?. That's almost as much bad news as we got while asking out potential prom dates: 1. No. 2. No way... oh God, no. And how did you get into my room? 3. You can not bring your mother to the prom.

Reading these articles (at least one of them anyway) you'll notice that GM's bond rating is near junk status. What the... ?! Sure seems like GM's gotta do something and fast. But what?

Oh, well, okay, since you asked... We'd say sell off the brands that aren't producing: Buick, Saturn, Saab. Heh, we know. Who's going to buy Buick or Saturn? Even Grandpa (Grandpa of Cars! Cars! Cars! fame) thinks it's time for Buick to close up. When Grandpas are recommending a division close because its products are just too "old" it's time to do something. And constantly changing the name of products isn't going to cut it, Buick. How many divisions does GM need anyway? And, more importantly, GM didn't buy these companies (Oldsmobile, etc.) in order to make specific brands for specific markets. They bought them in order to be the biggest. But without a plan... oh how the mighty fall.

GM: Make a plan for each divison. If you can't figure out what to do with a division, kill it. Auto writer Jerry Flint had an interesting idea we read a while back: make Saturn the green divison of the company. All hybrids. We still like that idea. GM should have, at most, these seven divisions:

-Cadillac: should go more upscale. Nothing under $60k.
-Chevrolet: Bread and butter division. Nothing over $35k (other than Corvette)
-GMC: we're a cars site, so whatever
-Hummer: Oh, good God, di-tto!
-Pontiac: Performance division. Common man's BMW should be their goal. No small, non-sporty cars. Leave that for Chevy. Pontiac should shoot for BMW 3 and 5-series cars and a better handling Mazda Miata. The G6 is a great start.
-Saab: More upscale. More Swedish, less spaghetti.
-Saturn: 100% green. All hybrids. And if Saturn doesn't do this, just kill it and give the hippie-crunchy friendly dealers to Saab.

We'd probably kill Buick and Saturn and sell Saab to Ford... seems like Ford'll buy anything if it's losing money.

Comments

[Limousine]

Hi people.... Who know history of Hummer cars?
Do you know that the first Hummers were developed by the U.S. Army and the Hummer is still a very popular vehicle in though terrains. The Hummer limousine is a modified version of the Hummer H2 model and is created in Los Angeles. A Hummer H2 is simply cut in half and a middle part is added that makes the Hummer limousine up to 38 feet long. This can be compared to the 23 feet long standard Hummer H2. When a Hummer H2 is turned into a Hummer limousine the roof is also raised six inches to make the limo more comfortable for the passengers. All non-military Hummers, including the Hummer limousine, are manufactured by the AM General Corp. of South Bend Industries. They began to offer Hummers for civilians during the early 1990’s.

[Pat Riley]

You'll love this. General Motors, wasn't it apple pie and Chevrolet, plans to allow one its dealerships (Wright Pontiac of Wexford, PA) to build on a site that is on the National Register of Historic Places (1975 Legionville). This is the site of the Native American Village of Logstown (1728-1760) and Legion Ville HQ of the US Army in 1792-1793. There are also 17 US Soldiers buried there. Makes the American Revolution things look in very bad taste. Wouldn't it be nice if people cared about dead soldiers. People wonder how Enron happened. It is because we do nothing to prevent it....

[carsareus]

what's killing General Motors is their legacy cost? Do you think one company should have to pay all that money and not be able to layoff UAW members?

http://www.carlist.com/autonews/2005/autonews_131.html

[bryan]

well, i agree on killing some stuff, but where GM went wrong was when they killed off the f-bodies. Now if they could just go back and produce them again they'll make it for sure, but i hope ford dies because they have nevr made a quality car that would last 10 or 15 years. i mean think about it you go out t0o the drag track and you count the chevys and fords and 99 percent of it is chevy. because ford cannot make anything last more that 5 years.

[BrianCam]

I still have a slight personal soft spot for GM cars and trucks. Maybe it's because my first car was a Buick and I later restored an Oldsmobile.

Either way, I like the new Lucerne and I like the outgoing Park Ave. I like the Tahoe, Alero Coupe, Equinox, Solstice and the new DTS. The Saturn Sky looks promising too.

With regard to Pontiac, I just can't see a reason for them being around. Almost every car or truck they have can be had from another GM division. There is nothing compelling about Pontiacs. Even Buick seems more contemporary than Pontiac.

Whoever made the comment about Saturn going all green is probably on to something. It's a good idea - GM will never do it.