DetN Refutes Denial of GM Brand Termination
So now, without referring ONCE to GM's point blank denial of the Wall Street Journal article claiming the automaker was considering chopping brands and firing bureaucrats, The Detroit News reports that GM IS "undertaking an in-depth review of its product portfolio that could include eliminating or selling a brand." "A" brand or "some" brands? Who knows? But according to "a source familiar with the plans"– which could be you by now– this whole kerfuffle will end-up being nothing more than a damp squib. The "strategic review' will "most likely will result in the Detroit automaker purging overlapping models and shifting its emphasis to more fuel-efficient cars." Whew! And there we were thinking something radical might go down. Meanwhile, GM spinmeister Tom Wilkinson assured the DetN that there's gold in them thar' hills, when should GM need it. "Additional measures could include further reducing structural costs, selling noncore assets, and retiming or eliminating other capital spending. In addition, we will consider opportunistically executing financing transactions in the global capital markets, although we have nothing to announce." While we await that announcement, add "opportunistically executing" to "operationally bankrupt" and "aggressively conservative" to your lexicon of two-word bankruptcy-related expressions.
More by Robert Farago
Comments
Join the conversation
As in a song?
Can I add "Living dead" to the list of bankruptcy related euphemisms? As in Hummer.
". . . purging overlapping models . . ." I guess that means they're cutting GMC and most of all the remaining brands between Chevy and Cadillac.
Hood ornament #1: 1949/51 Chief Pontiac "deluxe" hood ornament. The translucent head lit up when the headlamps were turned on. On the standard ornament, the head was chromed diecast (potmetal) as was the rest of the ornament. Hood ornament #2:: NON original Packard type "swan" hood ornament usually seen on big rigs. Sold by JC Whitney since (at least) the 1940's. This is not a genuine Packard hood ornament from any year. When one has owned over 60 Packards from a 1st Series 8 from 1921 thru a 1956 Caribbean, been involved in Packard clubs since 1966, one knows the difference! The correct nomenclature for a Packard hood ornament of this type is a pelican (not a swan, not a cormorant). The pelican was part of the Packard family coat of arms: "a pelican in its piety." btw: The multi chrome strips used on Pontiac hoods was the brainchild of Semon E (Bunkie) Knudson, and first used in 1935. His son removed them at the end of the 1958 model run.