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What if you were in charge of GM?

874 messages,  Last post on Oct 28, 2009 at 10:20 AM

You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires

What is this discussion about? Automotive News, Classic Cars, Concept Cars, Future Vehicle


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#83 of 874
Re: cross-posted brand cutting [fezo] by gagrice
Nov 26, 2008 (8:59 pm)
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Replying to: fezo (Nov 26, 2008 6:09 pm)

I don't see where shedding dealers will save them anything. I do understand they have responsibilities to supply cars. The number of dealers should be a plus in getting their products to market. Another few months there won't be any GM dealers left in business anyway. They are dropping like flies.
#84 of 874
Re: cross-posted brand cutting [steve_] by nippononly
Nov 29, 2008 (12:29 pm)
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Replying to: steve_ (Nov 26, 2008 5:59 pm)

Well, dealer count aside those are the first three brands I would dump on the way to reducing overhead....and it's still questionable whether they should keep Buick and GMC. But the thing is, if they eliminate the brands but can't do anything to eliminate the excess production capacity, what good does it do?
 
Hopefully Gettelfinger will be as good as his word and the Jobs Bank can be dropped immediately. In that case they could close plants right away, and dropping the brands would be meaningful in reducing a HUGE amount of ongoing costs associated with maintaining those brands.
#85 of 874
Re: cross-posted brand cutting [nippononly] by cooterbfd
Nov 29, 2008 (1:29 pm)
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Replying to: nippononly (Nov 29, 2008 12:29 pm)

"..Hopefully Gettelfinger will be as good as his word and the Jobs Bank can be dropped immediately. In that case they could close plants right away, and dropping the brands would be meaningful in reducing a HUGE amount of ongoing costs associated with maintaining those brands. "
 
What good would dropping brands do if the dealers need to be paid off??? Dropping 1 brand may work, as they can tell the BPG dealers they still have 2, or offer Saturn dealers BPG, but to rid them all would cost billions.
#86 of 874
Re: cross-posted brand cutting [cooterbfd] by fezo
Nov 29, 2008 (1:48 pm)
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Replying to: cooterbfd (Nov 29, 2008 1:29 pm)

This is something we agree on. If you are going to have to pay off dealers I don't see any savings in that.
 
I'm guessing that in most areas where there are Saturn dealerships that there are already Pontiac-GMC-Buick. It's a tough situation.
 
I don't what it costs GM to have a dealership as opposed to supplying x number of cars. If eliminating a brand saves money in and of itself then Pontiac is pretty easy to eliminate because there aren't many Pontiac dealers that don't also sell the others.
#87 of 874
Re: cross-posted brand cutting [fezo] by cooterbfd
Nov 29, 2008 (2:05 pm)
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Replying to: fezo (Nov 29, 2008 1:48 pm)

If anything could save Saturn, it may be turning Hummer into a Jeep like product. Think about it. The whole purpose of selling Hummers to the public was to capitalize on the facination that the public has with Army vehicles, like the Jeep CJ. What they SHOULD have done was to aim and price it towards normal people. $60,000 or more for an H2??? Who needs a pimpmobile like that. They could've toned it down quite a bit and sold it for $40K. How about making a Hummer looking competitor to the Wrangler for under $20K??? If you combined Hummer and Saturn dealers, you could come up with an entire low to mid priced full line of vehicles with a totally different atttitude and character from the mainstream GM lineup.
 
Unfortunately, it's probably too late for that.
#88 of 874
Re: cross-posted brand cutting [cooterbfd] by fezo
Nov 29, 2008 (2:28 pm)
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Replying to: cooterbfd (Nov 29, 2008 2:05 pm)

I agree with both parts - that it would have been a good idea and that it's too late now.
 
I do hope they are able to put a realistic package together to keep things going but the sacrifices will be all around.
#89 of 874
Re: cross-posted brand cutting [fezo] by cooterbfd
Nov 29, 2008 (2:31 pm)
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Replying to: fezo (Nov 29, 2008 2:28 pm)

Well, if GM and Chrysler merged, there's always Jeep.
#90 of 874
Re: cross-posted brand cutting [cooterbfd] by fezo
Nov 29, 2008 (2:46 pm)
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Replying to: cooterbfd (Nov 29, 2008 2:31 pm)

There is that.
 
I'll be very curious to see how they come back to Congress. It sure looks like Ford doesn't want to do anything other than making sure GM doesn't go chapter 11 because that might bring Ford down with it (of course along with Chrysler). Ford is trying to protect the Ford family so they can still run the show.
#91 of 874
Re: cross-posted brand cutting [fezo] by dtownfb
Nov 29, 2008 (5:09 pm)
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Replying to: fezo (Nov 29, 2008 1:48 pm)

No matter the scenario, GM has to eliminate dealerships and brands. They simply can't support 8 brands with a 20% market share and fewer new car sales. No way around and it will cost money. If they do it now and pay off the dealer, it will be cheaper in the long run than trying to "starve" the dealers. Plus fewer brands is less R&D and marketing costs. It allows you to focus on building cars not worrying about which brand gets what version, using which engine, and when to roll it out..
 
It's part of the tough decisions GM needs to make. They have to show how they are going to become a viable company. This is part of the issue. If this is part of their plan, I think Congress will support it and help finance their turn around. The truly unfortunate part is thousands of job will be lost and it's probably too late to save them.
#92 of 874
Re: cross-posted brand cutting [cooterbfd] by nippononly
Nov 29, 2008 (8:57 pm)
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Replying to: cooterbfd (Nov 29, 2008 1:29 pm)

What good would dropping brands do if the dealers need to be paid off??? Dropping 1 brand may work, as they can tell the BPG dealers they still have 2, or offer Saturn dealers BPG, but to rid them all would cost billions.
 
Well, I was thinking they could sell the Saab and Saturn brands wholesale - no need to pay off any dealers there. I don't know about Pontiac, but then again I'm not the one suggesting it, GM is as part of their bailout plan.

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