In the past, American cars had souls, stories and unique recognition. All of this is gone for GM. GM needs a moniker that gives recognition similar to what Chrysler has barely managed to keep with their four letter world – HEMI. A simple word representing a part – or engine – can go a long way in creating a soul, and it’s not something you can invent and shove at people.

On the good side, GM is planning on selling Hummer and selling brands makes alot more sense compared to dropping them and getting hurt alot more. Although, GMC/Buick/Pontiac are all one brand now, so that elimates two brands already. Then Saturn and Saab in one makes alot of sense to. Although the Idea of the Corvette as a brand, is rather horrible, since the Vette has always been a Chevy model and always should be.

The good thing to is that the brands are getting more and more of an identity with certain models to, and should keep it up. But to get GM down to two brands of just Caddy and Chevy is just plain stupid and would ruin GM more than what they got going for them now.

If Honda can do a great job with just two brands (which actually share more than they’re willing to let on), why can’t an American car company? Why isn’t Ford just Ford and Lincoln? [Chrysler has parred down to two brands, but - really - is there any difference between the two?]

Some ideas:

Chevrolet: Focus in the smart, low cost economical car segment. Merge Saturn into Chevrolet-dump the Aveo and let Saturn make the small car import fighter. Dump the Impala and improve on the Malibu. Move the trucks to the GMC division. Put the Volt and/or two stage hybird technology into a small car. Eliminate all other models (Yes, no Camaro).

Cadillac: Focus in the luxury/sports four door car segment.
Move the SUV segment into GMC. Dump any two door variations of their models to avoid confusion with the Corvette.

Corvette: Focus as the perennial American two seater sports car. Separate Corvette from Chevrolet into its own brand.

Buick: Kill the brand, move the profitable SUV models to GMC. (What does “understated” luxury mean anyway? That seems to be an oxymoron to me.)

Pontiac: Kill the brand. Any potential market for this brand could be filled by the Chevy or Cadillac brands.

GMC: Focus in the light/heavy duty truck segment. Offer the Buick SUV as an Escalade Lite.

SAAB: Gone. No replacement.

Hummer: Move any profitable models to GMC. Kill any other models in Hummer.

Other commentators have noted that GM cannot “Kill a brand” w/o billions in fees. My question is while GM cannot kill a brand can it “suspend” it instead? Thanks for any information.

One last thing: Ensure engineering and build quality are the same from the Chevy to Cadillac to the Corvette to (yes, even that) their trucks. If GM could do that, I believe they would get rid of their reputation for not so good quality in record time.

Cadillac, domestic luxury.

Saturn, the best imports of the GM family (from Opels to Holdens to even GM Daewoos).

That’s all a slimmer, trimmer GM needs. I’m not going to mourn the death of Pontiac, Buick, GMC, SAAB or Hummer. They just aren’t needed. ‘Loyal’ customers will get used to something new. The frequent customers of Plymouth, Zayre, and Pan Am did. There will be parts and service to honor those expiring warranties, and steals for whoever wants buy the last of them new or used.

First of all, most Japanese cars are less expensive than teir Euro counterparts in Europe. The reason why they don’t dominate the market are:

1) high cost for replacement parts, compared to Euro cars

2) prejudices (”they only do small cars well”)

3) zero interest in higher-priced offerings, like Lexus

4) lack of the models people want (for example Nissan had a successful mid-size car until the mid-90s, the Primera. The last iteration of it was ugly and less agile. They solved the problem by killing the Primera completely)

5) nationalism

6) fuel economy

7) level of equipment: One alternative to my current car (BMW 1-series diesel) would have been a Mazda 3. Rear parking sensors are only available as a dealer-installed option. The available iPod connection sucks.

Generally I like Japanese cars. My first car was a ‘89 Nissan Sunny hatchback. Nissan doesn’t make a single car I would consider now though.

Huh? GM could only wish that was true. They’re trying to force bold styling after looking like an also-ran land yacht for most of the 90s. European driving dynamics? I mean, the new CTS is a step in that direction, but it’s far from the image.
The image is more like “rich old white guy soft cruiser” and “bling bling”. Much like the rest of it’s portfolio, GM sat on convention for far too long with Caddy (which is easy to say in hindsight…I guess). You could get in a 2002 DeVille and not differentiate much from a 1996 DeVille…and I’m probably being conservative on that. They’re attempting to change, but it’s painfully slow.

Saturn is dead. Pontiac is dead (despite my feeling that they could be to GM what Mazda is to Ford….those days are gone thanks to the current market situation…CAFE and high fuel prices severely limit Pontiac’s potential to resurge). SAAB is dead/sold.

Here’s what I’d suggest beyond Chevy and Cadillac, should you not wanna throw everything out.

1) Keep Hummer. Seriously. Don’t expect sales through the roof, but this brand has a serious image. Focus only on the best off-road vehicles on the planet. Do em right and there is money to be made. However, I don’t see potential beyond 1 or 2 models (say a Jeep Wrangler type thing and something a little larger). Hard to justify a whole brand and dealer network for 1 or 2 models. So I can this thing going.

2) Buick. I seriously believe there can be a market for Buick if done just right. Yes, Cadillac is their luxury brand. However, Cadillac’s image is one of bold, in-your-face styling, with European driving dynamics. Cadillac drivers want to stand out among the luxury crowd at every level. Something like a Cadillac Enclave really just doesn’t fit. Cadillac is really a sedan/coupe/ maybe sporty SUV brand. Where I see buick is as a Lexus-like brand. Buicks are classy, quiet, soft, and super comfortable. They don’t stand out and make everyone look at you, but they do coddle you in luxury inside. My opinion this could be a real winner. American styling done to the best world standards with a focus on extreme comfort and quality. Not the latest gadgets. The kinda luxury car people can only get from Lexus today. But a Buick buyer would want American style. Like the Buicks sold in China :)

GMC. No consumer trucks (all Chevy’s). But this brand should stick around for commercial and heavy duty truck sales.

Anyway, that’s my idea. Though again, if you can’t get volumes up enough, the Buick idea would never fly. It would need to be its own dealer network too. So again, extremely difficult but if done right I think could work. Drop dead classy/curvy styling and nothing but top notch interior treatments would be the only way to go. If not, don’t bother.

But sometimes you don’t have those options. Chevy Cadillac does make sense to me. I guess I just have some reservation that cars like the Enclave, if badged as Cadillacs, would really taint the bold style and attitude Cadillac’s have today. Diluting Cadillac’s image would be just as big a mistake as having too many brands.

By the way, if fuel efficiency is in their blood…where the hell are the Bavarian Diesels in the US?? They’ve missed the boat on that big time. How about a newly developed BMW Turbo-4 in the 1 series? If they could put that car out there with an average of say, 28mpg combined, I’d be all over it.

So they DO need to advertise. Thought so.

I hear you! Uh, I think.

DetroitIronUAW: “It’s time to stop believing the pro-japanese hype and come back to realty!

Well, house prices are getting more affordable.

Then why do they?

I don’t know if GM franchisees would still have cause for legal action. In my area the GM dealerships are all owned by the same cartel. There is no real price competition. A 30-mile drive up the highway can result in significant savings.

Hence the need for brand building, but selectively.

Let’s face it — ALL of the GM brands in the US suck, save for Hummer which is well defined but plays to a shrinking market. Nobody would want to begin with brands like this, this is a nightmare for any executive.

But this brand destruction is GM’s true legacy cost, and the company has to live with it. As bad as the brands are, they are arguably better than nothing, so it makes more sense to fix them than to kill them and start over.

The question becomes one of which ones to fix, and which ones to neglect or kill off. I think that Toyota provides a decent model for the US market — a mainstream brand and a luxury brand slotted above it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/business/22ford.html?th&emc=th

I wish we could get a good investigative journalist on this, who could infiltrate GMs boardroom and get some dirt and thoughts about how they feel and what they think needs to happen. Anonymously, of course.

Pch101: If Caddy was on its game, it could sell loads of sedans between $30,000 and 50,000 without substantial discounting. They hit this price point with SUV’s, but have been less successful with cars. They are stuck in the bind of having to offer for the money in order to get there, but with the right products, they should be able to get there.

There’s a home run right there. Caddy has been off it’s game for about 15 years at this point. The CTS was really about 6 years too late. They definitely let the DeVille, Seville, and Eldorado (before killing it…) languish too long, with mere sheetmetal upgrades and increasing prices. It took GM until 2003 basically to fight the C300 and 3-Series with a mid-size lux sedan? I mean really, the Catera? Cadillac could be right there in the same breath with Lexus, but GM has almost hopelessly screwed them. Hell, if it wasn’t for the Escalade and it’s street cred, would Caddy even be at the pitiful market share it’s at now?

The facts are far different. Not one of those vehicles described in the blog sells in volume and some the volt aren’t for sale. Ford also has a hybrid suv but you can’t find it at the local dealer. Why is it that the less than perfect Prius has sold 1 million copies world wide (and will be built here soon) and these other “show cars” are still being trotted out for the auto press?

It comes down to execution and the hidden fact that the domestics don’t have the resources anymore to compete one up with the foreign brands. Let’s take the next GM breakthrough the “volt”. When it finally appears at north of $40,000, Toyota and Honda will have the second generation of high production hybrids out, both south of $30,000. If the volt is better (still hypothetical) how many will care?

Honda and Toyota will take 80-90% of a growing market. Also, they will be developing the third generation of hybrid, all battery, or whatever the technology allows while GM and Ford wonder what happened. Isn’t that what happened with the conventional sedan market the last 20 years?

Have I been asleep for two years? Is the Volt out now?

Most Hybrid models in production

More or less the same model replicated over eight brands.

Largest Hybrid vehicles

This is something to be proud of?

Hydrogen fuel cell cars

Most manufacturers have hydrogen cars in development.

JD powers top ratings

Looking at http://www.jdpower.com/autos/ratings/quality-ratings-by-brand/sortcolumn-1/ascending/page-#page-anchor this, it seems Toyota, Honda, Infiniti, and Lexus are all ranked ahead of the top ranked GM brand, Cadillac.

First production EV with the volt
Most Hybrid models in production
Largest Hybrid vehicles
Most distand per tank on pickups
Hydrogen fuel cell cars
JD powers top ratings

It’s time to stop believing the pro-japanese hype and come back to realty!

But Caddy isn’t on it’s game and hasn’t been in decades. GM management will have all it can do to get Chevy on it’s game w/o also fooling with Caddy.

Third, Chevrolet and Cadillac serve two distinct markets. Almost all major OEMs selling in the US have two brands – a mainstream brand (Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Ford) and a luxury market brand (Lexus, Acura, Infiniti, Lincoln). While the luxury market is considerably smaller than the mainstream market, it can also be highly profitable with higher contribution margins per vehicle (Porsche for example). While there may be some price point overlap with Chevrolet, it’s among different classes of cars. Chevrolet will have the highest priced GM vehicle with the new Corvette ZR1 at $100 grand.

Let’s take Corvette first. IMO, it’s a brand unto itself. It happens to be sold at Chevy dealers for historical reasons.

There is always some way to rationalize keeping something. Caddy serves a different market. So would a “tweener” brand, and that would allow Caddy to go up market, making higher margins, while the tweener makes good margins. Then of course there’s a place in the world for a performance brand, so now we have an excuse to keep Pontiac. The demographic for the Enclave shows that Buick’s customers aren’t necessarily dying and never coming back. GMC last year was responsible for 13% of total GM sales so we can’t sacrifice the revenue. There is no end to this. I’ve now justified keeping 6 out of the 8. If we can rationalize a place for Hummer and Saab we’re right back to square one. The line needs to be drawn at Chevrolet. Keeping anything else just shows a lack of seriousness. Let’s focus, but not too much. Let’s try to keep Chevy from dying but at the same time we’ll continue fooling with a dying and badly damaged luxury brand that sells fewer cars than Olds did in it’s last year of life.

Ford and Chrysler aren’t in much better shape than GM, so it doesn’t help the “keep Caddy” argument to point out that Ford is saddled with a dying Lincoln brand (and useless Mercury brand) while Chrysler has gone down market so much that it’s no longer a luxury brand. Toyota and Honda can both afford to put time, money, talent, and their attention into a luxury brand, because their base brands are making money hand over fist. Hell, Honda is making business jets now – you can branch out like that when you’re making money. GM’s base brand – Chevy- isn’t making much (if any) money, and it’s continuing to loose market share.