1. Chevy
2. Cadillac

and there is no third.

What does GMC bring to the table that you can’t just offer with Chevy? Buick? Nothing. The label doesn’t matter as much as marketers think it does, what the label represents does. If Chevy sells heavy duty trucks with good warranty service, the commercial crowd will be fine with it. If they come out with “plush” editions of their cars with fake convertible tops, the Buick crowd (I don’t know if crowd is the right word) will be okay in the end too.

You might need some differentiation for luxury marque. But that would mean deciding Cadillac is a luxury brand for everyone, or continue their “I’m oh so macho it hurts” styling.

The only one I am sad to see go is Saturn. And that is only because it reflected my hope that we could finally get Euro-spec cars here without the inevitable softening and cheapening that usually happens. But GM probably can’t even handle the two brands I am leaving them with, much less another “quirky” brand.

When you have success for years on end, so much success that an operating loss year (when you still made profit) is reported in the news as a sign of doom… then you can resurrect or launch marques. But until that day keep it simple and focus on core competencies.

They shouldn’t try. There’s no shame in Cadillac being GM’s luxury brand in North America, and Saab doing the same in Europe. Every brand does not need to be all things to all people—that road leads us to crap like the BLS and 9-7x, both of which fail their respective brands, while cannibalizing their intracompany equivalent.

Let Saab take on Audi, and perhaps BMW, in Europe. Let Cadillac fight Lexus and Mercedes in North America. There’s absolutely no shame in either brand being a niche product in their non-native markets.

Let Mercedes, BMW and Audi make those mistakes. Goodness knows, products like the R-Class and X6 show they’re more than willing to.

The local dealer in my hometown is staggering – and not in a good way. It is (deep breath) a Chevrolet/GMC/Pontiac/Buick/Cadillac/Hummer dealer. Saturn and SAAB are, thankfully, located across town. Not only that, but across the highway from that super dealer is ANOTHER Chevy/GMC dealer. I’d say it’s time to seperate the wheat from the chaff, yesterday.

On another note, that Solstice coupe is pretty sexy looking. I see more than a whiff of TVR in that design, and I like. Too bad it’s not nearly bonkers enough to warrant that comparison.

Sadly, you’re both right. There’s no way to save Pontiac at all.

Ol’Poncho – Make sure that you enjoy that dinner there, and then come meet me behind the barn, by the big tree with the rope hanging from it. I have a surprise (not really a surprise, actually) for you.

Sic transit Pontiac mundi

The problem with this, and any theory that keeps more than one or two brands per region, is that you still have the marketing costs. If you want to sell Chevrolets with different interiors and bigger engines as Pontiacs, why not just put the money into improving the Chevy’s interior and offer the engine and suspension as an option? By doing so, you’ve saved a whole whack of design and marketing costs.

There’s a very small argument that could be made for selling brand-incompatible products under a different roof: for example, hocking the Opel Meriva or Zafira in North America under the Saturn brand, or the Saab 9-3 and 9-5—assuming they could be made competitive with your average Audi. But you have to make sure than anything you sell in such a channel would pass a test: a) it would make no sense, or actively damage an existing brand, b) it doesn’t cannibalize buyers of existing products. Chevrolets as Pontiacs or Buicks fail such a test miserably.

Oh, and you have GM’s inability to control brand creep. They’ve shown a terminal ability to a car of every class for each division, even when they’ve sworn they wouldn’t do this sort of thing.

“We can’t continue brands that have no prospect of earning their way.” Well, in my opinion, one model that won’t earn its way will be the Volt, so I predict it will never see the showroom, or if it does, it will hasten GM’s demise since it will be a money loser from Day One.

Did anyone notice that all the concepts or 2010 models shown at NAIAS are Buicks, Cadillacs, and Chevrolets? Pontiac and Saturn will wither away.

But then, I would have handled Brand Management in general a little diffrently:

Chevys are the base models. The small engines the cloth interiors.

You want a big engine for that car and a little nicer interior? It’s Pontiac version.

You want a real nice interior and more power than the Chevy? That’s the Buick.

You want something better than the Buick – something that most people can’t afford? Something flashy but classy? Then you want a Caddy, but you’re going to pay for it. Corvette goes with Caddy.

Engineering money goes into ‘real content’ rather than styling deviations.

All the dealers become GM dealers, and any of them can sell you a Chevy, Pontiac, Buick, or GMC truck/suv.

Caddy/Corvette remains a stand alone.

Regardless, Buick may be a stronger brand now, but the people buying them are going to be retiring and doing the ‘buy a car and hang on to it until I die’ thing.

The Camaro, Corvette, and Cobalt SS are all Chevy. The G8 might be a great car, but clearly Chevy is the sport division from low price to high.

1- Solstice roadster/hardtop coupe
2- RWD mid-sized G6 replacement (low-end of mid-sized in weight/bulk)
3- Pontiac G8 (build it with the Camaro to drop the price a bit)
4- Pontiac Firebird (again, with the Camaro)

No. Not at all. It has a minimum of clutter compared to the preceding plastic-cladding disasters, but that’s damning with faint praise.

Handsome enough with a minimum of clutter is the E34, or for a more modern example, the first-generation TSX. Next to either of these, the G6 looks like a lump.

Enterprise, Avis, Hertz…

Seriously though I actually don’t mind how the G6 looks. Not striking by any means, but handsome enough, with a minimum of clutter. Pretty lousy interior though.

It’s a 7/10ths design…at 9/10ths it might have made it.

So, the Sky is gone then? Pity, I like it more than the Solstice. With that gone, is there even enough volume to make it worthwhile building just the Solstice? I wouldn’t be surprised to see it bow out.

You seriously don’t consider the Tahoe or Suburban worth keeping?

Corsa, Astra, Zafira…?

@CaliCarGuy :
cadillac: american luxury like lexus,mbz,bmw,etc..

Lexus is the polar opposite of BMW. What should Cadillac make?

chevy: mass market appeal a la toyota

cadillac: american luxury like lexus,mbz,bmw,etc..

pontiac: maybe niche but sporty or sport cars.

pontiac could pick up where chevy and ss abandoned its buyers who cant afforded a corvette and dont want an hhr or cobalt ss. can some one tell me how to get in contact wit gm about this cuz really i cant sit by and let this dumb decision go. really tell me how people. think about this.

I for one have always thought the GMCs were better looking.

Too bad about Saturn, just as they were getting their product mojo going….

Meanwhile the area Buick dealer (NW Houston) closed up shop last week; they had moved out to the burbs around 15 years ago from Buick ground zero – River Oaks, where the hair runs blue and the money mega old.

Crazy times to be a domestic dealer….

Though i also don’t think having Pontiac/Cadillac would make sense either. if Pontiac became a niche RWD brand, they’d likely be based on Cadillac platforms.

I think it would have made sense to have Saturn/Chevy/Cadillac/GMC. keeping Saturn as Corolla-size and under brand, like they used to be.