jasonjm

Some rumor and predictions to have with the turkey,
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...WA&refer=canada

If GM sheds Saturn, then there might not be a reason to keep Opel. Several German companies have expressed interest in Opel...

If GM sheds Pontiac, then there might not be a need to keep Holden.

If GM sheds Saab, ... Why do they own Saab?

GM is desperate.

What happens to GM cars when you loose two stout design/engineering branches?

...

TheDonEffect

GM doesn't need Saab, especially since they have cadillac. I would also argue that Pontiac isn't needed as well. Saturn is quirky in that they have a loyal following, but they don't really need to exist either.
If this goes through, so many dealers are going to close down. But just think for a second if this were Chevrolet's lineup:
Cobalt/Astra
Malibu
G8
Solstice/solstice coupe/sky/etc (some version of it)
Camaro
Corvette
Trucks and SUVs

Then you could make cadillac focus on luxury cars , drop the dts (big fwd car?) and add in the saab 9-2x in there as an entry level car (to compete against the audi a3 for example), so now you'd have:
9-2x
CTS
STS
Escalade
SRX
XLR

So now they'd be able to focus all their marketing efforts into these brands and not spread their resources thin, not to mention save some money in doing so.
I have no qualms about gmc since they're mainly focused for commercial anyway.
So I don't see where they would really need Pontiac or Saturn here in teh states.
They don't drop Opel or Holden as those are GM's staple brands overseas, like how we have chevy and what not. They're not selling Holdens under three different names like they are doing with chevy products here.

GinoGT

How about Buick or GMC? Or GMC? Really, GMC.

WTF is the possible reason behind the existance of GMC? They sell duplicates of Chevy trucks. That's it. GMC could be completely obliterated by an extra premium option package on Chevy trucks. Talk about waste.

Opel and Holden are for Europe and Austrailia, respectively. I don't think the Saturn/Pontiac brands operate there, do they?

Nuke GMC immediately. Saab is pretty sorry, and Buick is nothing special.

To get down to it, most of what GM has is/can be sold as a Chevy. Everything they do nowadays is a bunch of platform-sharing badge engineering. There's nothing unique going on. I think Chevy & Caddy would just about do it. Look at the big Japanese brands: there's the main brand, then the luxury division. Toyta broke that trend only recently with a really cheap brand. What the hell do you need a dozen different brands for?

Elistan

Honda should buy all rights to Corvette.

TheDonEffect

So they could make it right once, give it two less cylinders than their competition, and not update it for a decade?

Rednine

That is funny

cbehney

I think you meant to say "...for at least a decade."

Siepel

^^^

MrClean

It does seem that GM has redundancy within their brands that could be trimmed back, but can this move really help GM be competitive again over the long term?

From what I read/hear their costs per unit are so high (health care, legacy, etc) there is no competitive business model for the long term compared to their foreign counterparts.

The way the situation is portrayed, bankruptcy seems to be the only way that will allow the necessary restructuring for the domestic car makers to be competitive again.

airgate

100%