You are at the helm of GM. It’s time to swing the axe. What do you keep beyond Chev and Cadillac?

Ultimately I doubt any other division can survive, but can we determine the order in which they will be cut? I suspect there will be two to three smaller bloodlettings, not a wholesale elimination. This does have the advantage of focusing the minds of politicians, but the disadvantage of alarming potential customers.

Since only the government, and not paying customers can save GM at this point, I think we get a drawn out operatic swoon, not a matter of fact downsizing. After all, at this point the only people whose nuts aren’t in a vice are the clowns running things. Win or lose, they get paid. Absolutely everyone else is playing chicken.

The other three aren’t selling well enough, so let’s dilute the brand with v4.0.

They need 2 versions, at the very most. One a Chevy and one a Buick. Basic and Luxe.

Duh.

GMC serves no purpose other than to charge more for the same truck. What’s the old joke? A GMC is a Chevy with lockwashers.

The only reason GMC exists is so that Buck/Pontiac dealers have trucks to sell. Kill it. Now.

But certainly it doesn’t warrant an entire brand, rather than just redesigning the grille?

I disagree. I’ve always liked GMC styling (whether a simple grill change or more) better than the Chevy (esp. with the thick chrome center bar – yuck). The Acadia is the perfect example – it has the cleanest, most purposeful design of the Lambdas IMO.

Can you elaborate? How do know this? I can’t help but think that it costs a bloody fortune. Right off the top of my head I can think of:
(1) Dealerships
(2) Advertising
(3) Testing and certification

Those three sound expensive to me.

Isn’t it time to retire the word Sport?

How about GWDT – Get Work Done Truck or ETRV – Easy To Roll Vehicle or LTWCVTFA in HR – Large Tires Will Cause Vehicle To Float Away in Heavy Rains (applied to Hummers that try to cross creeks).

Flash in the pan for sure.

That said, killing GMC first would be stupid. The brand costs almost nothing to keep alive. But, getting rid of the Acadia makes plenty of sense. What the **** is that doing in the GMC line-up in the first place, especially when there is a Buick version sold in the same showrooms.

Saturn, Saab and Pontiac all deserve to die before GMC.

To the Saturn defenders: Saturn has NEVER made a profit for GM and has for most of it’s life been a money looser. It’s target market is EXACTLY the same one Chevrolet should be serving.

Yeah, but GMCs are always more attractive than Chevys. Compare the new Silverado to the Sierra, or the Colorado to the Canyon.

Plus, I’m not sure about the customer service at the Chevy dealers.

I’m the first person to bag on GM for bad decision making, but in this case, I’m not sure that brand starvation is the motivating factor here.

My guess is that they hope to raise the average price paid for Lambda vehicles at the consolidated Buick-Pontiac-GMC agencies by steering would-be Acadia buyers toward higher priced Enclaves, and allowing Chevy to take the less ambitious customers. It sounds like more of an effort to support Buick and Chevy’s pricing strata than it does to hurt GMC.

No, it’s:

“We were Professional Grade.”

Was that true though in the 1960s, `70s, or `80s?

At some point it stopped being true. I remember a time when a GMC was definately more truck then a street duty GM model.

Ever seen one of those old military GMC trucks?

Yeah, all they have now are SUVs and a couple of mediocre European imports – but that’s still better cars than the rest of them.

Even so, it makes sense for GM to keep it so that Cadillac, Buick and Pontiac (for as long they are in existance) have trucks to sell. And for the GMC-only dealers who don’t want to be tied down selling Chevy’s crappy line of passenger cars.

Reason #863 why I never want a single dollar of tax money to bail out these dorks when they start begging before Congress Lido-style.

ok, sure. my point doesn’t change. nothing professional about an Acadia.

I believe their tag line is “We are Professional Grade”.

Good Lord, I usually defend the domestics, but this is just plain dumb.

Chevy versions should be more comfortable and for the retail end of the pickups. There’s really nothing that differentiates GMC from Chevrolet and since that is the case a waste of advertising and research for a rebadged Chevy. GM won’t admit their mistake b/c that means they were wrong – and we all know GM has too much pride and stupidity to be honest anymore.

But you know why I’m not confident that GM will do it? Because if there’s anything I know, it’s that there are GMC buyers out there that (for some unknown reason) won’t buy a Chevy. After the painful (but needed) killing of Oldsmobile led to some buyers jumping ship from GM altogether, GM seems reluctant to let go of any sale, no matter how unhealthy.

http://www.trucktrend.com/features/news/2007/163_news080401_navistar_buys_gm/index.html

GMC is probably cheap to run and returns nice profits…but if truck sales go away, then the really have no solid business plan. So, after a 100 year run, sometimes it’s OK to let something go.