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From another thread in the Business section, thought it would be a good thread here:
Government would do well to ease up on the ever-increasing safety and emissions regulations. These add weight and huge amounts of development dollars which run counter to the drive for better fuel efficiency.
Here's what GM has to say: The demise of the American auto industry won̢۪t really affect the American way of life. | GM Facts and Fiction (http://gmfactsandfiction.com/ - broken link)
Here are the GM products I think should/would survive in the ideal lean GM near future:
------------------------- Cadillac CTS sedan -- rear-wheel drive near-luxury sedan, V6 only, kill the V, kill the coupe Corvette coupe -- don't call it a Chevrolet, call it a Corvette, forget the convertible, ZR1, Z06, C6R/racing effort, bring out a smaller, lighter, simpler V6 C7 Corvette with modern/retro/C3 looks Volt sedan -- "halo" green car/technology showcase that initially sells in small quantities (it's going to be EXPENSIVE) but leads to better things and serves to strengthen the image of GM in the average consumer's mind (but don't call it a Chevrolet)
------------------------- Chevrolet Malibu -- front-wheel drive sedan, latest model has done well in sales and comparisons/reviews, bring out new model Chevrolet Cobalt sedan -- kill the Supercharged SS, kill the coupe, then transition this to the new Cruze Chevrolet Beat -- work with the US government (see safety and emissions above) to be able to fast track this small car to US showrooms
------------------------- GMC truck -- I don't know much about trucks, but they should keep a truck in the lineup for fleet and work/utility purposes, but instead of having three bed lengths, seven engines, three transmissions, four differentials, three cabs, make it a basic truck that does truck things
-------------------------
SUVs: either the Traverse -- mid-size SUV remnant or the Aura -- crossover SUV remnant, not sure what to badge them
-------------------------
Sell Saab and Vauxhall off completely, eliminate the Pontiac, Buick, Hummer, Daewoo, and Saturn nameplates in the US and all model lines for them. Kill the giant SUVs and the garbage like the Aveo and all other extraneous models (Solstice, etc.). Badge the cars above Holden, Opel, and Buick in appropriate markets.
There's a relatively complete model line in eight or nine vehicles. Luxury/rear-wheel drive, sports car, green electric car, front-drive mid-size sedan, small sedan, subcompact city car, basic truck, mid-size SUV, small/crossover SUV...
What do you think? What about further down the line?
1) Sounds like you really want to kill off the Corvette, because every single one of your suggestions would lead to that outcome. The C3 is easily the worst and most ridiculed of the Corvette styles. Doing a C3 retro would be a ludicrous idea. So would putting a V6 in it. And so would gutting its main marketing tools -- namely, the Z06 and ZR1 versions (they're not exactly sold to be big moneymakers for the company because they're not) and the racing program. Plus, by killing off the racing program, you kill of the Corvette's main R&D efforts.
2) The supercharged Cobalt got killed off two years ago. The Cobalt is done in a year anyway, being replaced by the Cruze.
3) Killing "giant SUVs" is a bad idea as long as people are still buying them -- and they are. A reallocation of production capacity away from SUVs and toward more conventional cars might be in order, but SUVs will be an important part of GM's product lineup for the foreseeable future.
4) The Daewoo badge was killed in America some 10 years ago. Where have you been?
5) Buick is a MAJOR seller in China, which is of course a hugely critical and growing market. Part of its appeal in China is its perceived American-ness. Kill Buick in America and you do serious damage to its Chinese marketing efforts.
6) To sell off Vauxhall is to essentially give up on the British Isles market. No reason to do that when keeping your market share there is a simple matter of rebadging other GM products and putting the steering wheel on the right hand side (or, if importing Holdens, leaving it there). If Vauxhalls were engineered separately just for the British market, I'd say sure, all that extra effort for a smallish market might not be worth it. But if you're just rebadging other GM stuff, what's the issue?
7) I like the idea of Saturn as the European Import division with a couple other larger GM products such as the Vue and Outlook for previous Saturn buyers to move up to. I say keep it around.
8) Pontiac has been gutted to the point of uselessness. Get rid of it.
9) Saab isn't doing much for GM's bottom line either, but it is a nice little "halo" division and doesn't take up a lot of their efforts or resources. I wouldn't mind seeing it stay or go.
I don't think that's ludicrous, I think it's nice. My father had a 454 when I was a kid, and I loved that car.
The idea is that the C7 emerges in a few years as a simpler, lighter, more affordable sportscar, competing in the 330-340 HP range with a decent, fuel-efficient six -- by necessity. Is GM going to be able to continue to up the ante year after year on this car? I don't know, but a kinder, gentler, less R&D-intensive Corvette line is one possible outcome.
2. Sorry, meant the Turbocharged Cobalt. If the Cruze is still on track for launch in a year (I haven't been keeping up with this one), then it would be the model to keep, with streamlined model choices.
3. So we keep one of the body-on-frame SUVs in the line-up? I guess that wouldn't be a bad idea, as long as it is again streamlined to cover a smaller breadth of models.
4. Daewoo GM continues with many models: GM Daewoo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -- maybe it would not be feasible or wise to ditch these models; after all, the Chevy Beat itself is a result of Daewoo GM design.
5. I wouldn't kill Buick, I just wouldn't sell it in the US, and I'd sell the CTS and Malibu as Buicks in China. I dunno, maybe that wouldn't work. Maybe you keep Holden in Australia and Buick in China and Opel in Europe.
6. See above. Rebadge as Vauxhall.
7. Fair enough.
8. Agreed.
9. I'm just not sure where Saab fits, but your point is taken about it not sucking much in the way of resources. I guess it wouldn't make much of a dent to sell Saab given its low volume and relatively independent operations.
3. So we keep one of the body-on-frame SUVs in the line-up? I guess that wouldn't be a bad idea, as long as it is again streamlined to cover a smaller breadth of models.
5. I wouldn't kill Buick, I just wouldn't sell it in the US, and I'd sell the CTS and Malibu as Buicks in China. I dunno, maybe that wouldn't work. Maybe you keep Holden in Australia and Buick in China and Opel in Europe.
I still don't quite understand the relevance of having so many truck/SUV models either. "I prefer the Yukon to the Tahoe." Say what?!? I think it needs to be streamlined as well. To do this though, GM's going to have to get the power away from their dealer network, since from what I understand, a lot of the duplication comes from the fact that each dealer wants a "full line" of something, hence the G5/new Pontiac aveo rebadge, so that Buick/Pont./GMC dealers have something there.
I think the problem about Buick not being sold in the US will come when the Chinese, who buy it for its exotic import value, hear that "oh, it's so unpopular in the US we axed it. See your Buick dealer today!" I think that if anything, using the sales revenue in China to mitigate a small US Buick ops at breakeven (or a small loss even, if it's controlled and worked into the overall Buick value abroad) would go a long way to preserve image for the lucrative Asian market. This is of course assuming that GM actually plans things correctly to keep the Buick desirable in China. Also assumes that simply rehabilitating Buick in the US market isnt possible/fails.
Something big. Either a full size van or the suburban. There are still some large families out there. You cannot squeeze eight people into those little crossover thingys. Some have eight seats, but it is really silly to try to actually cram eight people into them (and what about the dog, the cooler, and groceries or other necessaries?)
The Cruze body is shared with the Volt in order to cut cost. Make GMC their fleet vehicle division for trucks and SUVs. Drop Pontiac. Some of the Opel and Holden cars could be brought here as Buick for midlevel Luxuary with some performance. Drop Saturn. Keep Caddy but limit it to the upcoming 3 series fighter, the CTS, and a slightly larger replacement for the DTS/STS. Offer only one Caddy SUV. Keep Chevy as the entry level brand and pick-up trucks and SUV. Saab works fairly independent and some of their contributions to GM has helped to improve brand quality like the Epsilon platform which is the G6, Aura, and Malibu. Saab division is small enough that it could be sold along side Caddy at the same dealership. I wish GM engineers and designers would think for themselves and come up with their own small subcompact car instead of relying on Daewoo.
Killing off the Pontiac and Buick would be.... well... so un-American.
I agree with selling Saab & Hummer.... those should have never been GM anyway, nor should Olds have been killed off. Had they kept making large luxury cars that the older generation that bought these cars longed for, they would not have vanished away.
nor should Olds have been killed off. Had they kept making large luxury cars that the older generation that bought these cars longed for, they would not have vanished away.
Those buyers stopped buying Olds. Buick was selling the same products.
But, GM was definitely setting Olds in the right (new) direction with the Aurora and Intrigue. Problem was, Caddy wasn't advancing quickly enough to make it a viable transition(step-up) brand for those coming out of Aurora/Intrigue. Also, Saturn retailers were pushing for vehicles with larger margins than the SL/SC's. So, Olds got the axe. If you ask me, it should have been Pontiac. Chevy could've easily handled the "sport" and "value" segments simultaneously.
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Just as roomy and has to be more fuel efficient than a huge SUV. 
