What would be YOUR brand strategy for GM? (luxury car, vehicle, 2010)

[SpeedyAZ]

Because I don't want to hijack a different thread, assuming you were CEO of General Motors, what brand strategy would you incorporate to compete in the global marketplace with the 4 brands GM is going to keep (Chevy, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac)? Are there a particular number of cars in each lineup? Here's my personal ideas:

Chevrolet:

Compete with Toyota, Honda, Ford.

Get rid of the Aveo completely
Keep the 2010 Camaro to compete with the Mustang and Challenger
Redesign the Cobalt to be the economy car of GM
Keep the Colorado except give it a V6 engine to compete better with the Tacoma
Keep the Corvette obviously but better interior
Keep the Equinox
Get rid of the HHR, very limited market segment
Upgrade the interior on the Impala to better compete with an Accord/Camry
Keep the Malibu
Keep the Silverado Series
Keep the Tahoe/Suburban
Get rid of the Traverse
Keep the Avalanche, make it a bit more upscale than the Silverado though

I think Chevrolet needs to examine each vehicle, see what it competes with to make sure that that vehicle is sustainable. Limited market segment such as the HHR should be eliminated.

Buick:

Strategy should be to compete with other entry-level luxury vehicles. Particular goal is the ES350 by Lexus. Keep the older segment but also try to recruit some younger buyers in their 30's and 40's that want a entry-level luxury car for a price tag that is much less than other manufacturers.

Keep the Buick Lacrosse (step in the right direction)
Redesign the Lucerne to offer amenities of a much more expensive vehicle with the price tag closer to that of a mid-level luxury car ($40K ish)
Keep the Enclave, possible redesign
Regal will compete with the IS350 from Lexus and the C-Class from Mercedes

Cadillac:

Truly develop a brand identity of a competitor with Lexus, Mercedes, BMW, etc. Make the interior better than the competition for less money. Don't alienate the elderly but make the brand-name an equal to other luxury automakers.

CTS is a step in the right direction with the sedan, wagon, and coupe versions. CTS-V competes with the M5 for a lot less cash.
Combine the DTS/STS to create a competitor to the LS460 and S-Class. No cheaping out, make a large, luxury sedan that any CEO would feel at home in. Make this the flagship for Cadillac.
SRX is a keeper
Escalade is a keeper
XLR should be redesigned to offer an ultra-luxury convertible such as the SL550 from Mercedes or 6 Series from BMW.

Those are my ideas!

[Drover]

1) Rehire Wagoner.

2) Ditch the Impala -- too much segment overlap with the Malibu, and the latter has far better styling.

3) Take the leftover Impala name, put it on the back of the Commodore-based squad car you're planning to sell to law enforcement only, and sell it to the general public too.

4) Find anyone responsible for rebadging minivans and Daewoos as Pontiacs while refusing to offer the "Excitement division" variants of the Cobalt SS or Camaro, and punch them all in the throat.

5) Get the freakin' Volt to market already. Either sh*t or get off the pot.

[JViello]

First and foremost, renegotiate the legacy costs and union contracts. If they don't like it, tell them to walk. Without that hemmorage stopped, the company will never be healthy IMO.

Second, actually pay the money back instead of trying to sham America. We are not stupid, and playing spinmaster does nothing but **** us off.

As for vehicles, one that comes to mind is an AWD Escalade with the ZR1 engine, no expense spared, lower stance, fat tired, flat out baller vehicle that makes the Porche and X5 run for cover.

Charge $95,000 for it and stop playing around.

[TelecasterBlues]

...pay-off all of the higher ups and engineers at Hyundai to come over and save the company.

[LexusNexus]

Scrap the entire lineup and start over. The entire line needs to be redesigned with an emphasis on putting out quality vehicles that EXCEED Mercedes and Lexus for half the price.

They must then produce sucn vehicles for a couple decades to gain a reputation for quality and reliability.

Any other strategy means putting out the same crappy cars.

[TheViking85]

Make better cars

Then get those cars tested by certain important people in the auto literature.

Sell said cars.

[sailordave]

Chevy

1. Aveo-I won't say get rid of it until seeing how the new one looks and rides. Photos look fantastic. If it handles well and is more fuel efficient than the current Aveo, GM will need it to help with CAFE standards.
2. Cobalt-continue selling it only for fleet sales when the Cruze comes out. If the Cobalt is discontinued, then so should the HHR since it's built on the Cobalt platform.
3. Cruze-once it comes out, stop carrying the Cobalt in the new car showroom. It's mpg numbers are good but it's LTZ version should have a slightly bigger engine as an option. Reserve the 1.8L base engine for fleet sales only. Make the 1.4 turbo the base engine. Since it's based upon the Astra platform, I would have liked to have seen a hatch body, both two and four door. Reserve the two door for performance model and four door for base engine model. Chevy is the perfect place for the Astra to compete with Civic, Corolla, Sentra, and Mazda 3.
4. Malibu-next Malibu is suppose to be smaller, like the Buick Regal is what I'm reading. If the next Malibu is a Chevy version of the Buick Regal then they still haven't learned their lesson.
5. Impala-completely eliminate the current Impala. Take the Chevy Caprice police car and bring it over to Chevy as a Caprice. Take a lesson from the 96 Caprice and offer a limited number of performance versions labeled as Impala.

Buick

1. Regal-great job unless they're issuing a Chevy clone of the car.
2. Lacross-step in the right direction.
3. Lucerne-drop this car and replace it with a RWD sedan.

Caddy

1. CTS-keep and keep increasing level of refinement. Don't let it stagnate.
2. STS/DTS-The plan is to drop both and replace it with one model. No word or photos of new design yet.
3. There's talk of a BMW 3 series fighter size Caddy possibly on it's way.

I'm not a truck guy so I won't comment on the truck lineup. I'd also have them buy the top competitors for each model and have executives and engineers drive them, some on a daily basis, and use these vehicles as a goal to exceed instead of using it as a target. By the time you come close to the target, the competition has passed you by. I'd also have a motto of "function first, style second". If you get the function and build quality right, then you can add style.

[Pretzelogik]

let it go bankrupt and start all over again

[DennyCrane]

When Lexus debuted, people dismissed it as a Mercedes clone. Now Lexus is in the same class as Mercedes. When Hyundai arrived, people laughed and said their cars were just cheap knockoffs of Honda and Toyota. Now they produce cars that match what those companies put out and for less money. It seems like GM has been more concerned with producing "original" and often redundant designs than on trying to give consumers what they want. The result has been things like the Pontiac Aztec or the Buick Skylark. Now GM has finally figured out that the way to defeat your competitors is to just copy them. That's why I think the Buick LaCrosse is a step in the right direction. It looks like a copy of the Lexus GS. The commercial even makes it obvious who Buick was targeting. To those who say they don't want all cars to look the same, you're missing the point. Cars aren't music or movies where you want them to be original works. This isn't art, it's business and if you want to succeed as a business, you learn to give consumers what they want. Look at smart phones. Everyone wanted an iPhone. So Google came along and said we'll make one just like it only better. And now they're doing the same thing with the iPad. They don't care if people call it a clone as long as people buy it. That's the attitude Lexus had when it introduced its LS400. It looked like a Mercedes but enough people said, "for 35K who cares if it doesn't look original." So what GM ought to do is look at the best-selling car in each category and target that.

And if they're going to have a luxury brand, treat it like one. The Cadillac commercials don't exude class. They look like they're after some young hip guy looking for a flashy car. Can you see Lexus, BMW or Mercedes airing commercials like that? And enough with these ugly designs. Update the classy designs for the modern age. I remember when you had the Fleetwood or the Seville STS. Those cars looked like luxury. These new ones look like dressed up Pontiacs.

[texdav]

Personally since GM will be a much smaller company; I woud amke sure in keep the real money makers in SUVs and esepcailly trucks. Keep the developemnt dollars where you make the real profits. Then I would also do more in the foreign markets because those are the future;such as china being the largest market now days.GM needs different vehicles in different countries by appeal and the laws regulating them. But american taste are just different as is what size is wanted.Asl any saleamn and he will tell you that you have to sale alot of cars in the cheaper models compred to the larger trucks and SUVs to make money and the margins between invoice and MSRP are narrow.