Those calling for a streamlined Chevrolet/Saturn/Cadillac lineup need to account for why they want to kill off Buick and Pontiac. What are they, chopped liver?

 

No, they are duplicates of what is already available in the GM lineup. If you want a Grand Prix get an Impala instead. If you want a a Torrent get a Equinox instead, you could go on and on. The same goes for Buick. Same goes for Mercury/Lincoln, Ford doesn't need both.

 

I don't see Pontiac serving any reasonable purpose in GM's lineup. If they were able to come out with Buicks that weren't aged at 65 year old men, they'd have a chance in hell of recovering that division.

I think Lincoln has done a good job in the last couple of years to make their brand image a whole lot less bland.

 

Buick and Pontiac have already been tossed around as possible sacrificial lambs in GM's heard. About a year ago Lutz himself let it slip that there are preliminary talks within the company about that.

Buick is a dying breed as it is. It's a lame duck division. And if the Solstice did have any power to resurrect Pontiac, GM's insipid product management would squash that because they only plan on building 8,000/yr. There is an order list 15,000 long. They should build enough to match demand. Instead, they are just going to piss people off by forcing them to wait and pay dealer market adjustments.

Don't be surprised they don't do the same thing with the new Camaro if it comes out. If GM does it the right way, it could sell 200,000/yr like the Mustang is doing. But instead, you watch GM say they will limit production to 30,000/yr.

GM needs to learn how to capitalize on hot market products, and then adjust production as market cools off. By keeping product sufficiently available but not saturated, you strike a good ballance on supply and demand. Being able to produce at pretty much exactly what the demand level is and being able to adjust to it's fluctuations is another example what what Honda and Toyota do so well and what GM is absolutely horrible at.

 

GM is just too big for it's own good.

look at car companies like circles, imagine the area of the circle being the driving force of production, the internals of the company as you will. and now think of the outside circumference as the face of the company, the cars the dealerships.

as the companies get bigger they start to have more exposure, but that is overshadowed by the fact that their products start to overlap and compete against each other. as the circles grow the area inside the circle grow at a much faster rate than the circumferences can keep up with (such as a circle with a circumference of 2 will have an area of .3, where a smaller circle with a circumference of 1 will have an area of.07)

honda and toyota have successfully limited their growth, offering a wide range of products that generally don't overlap. (for the exception of the element which overlaps slightly with a CR-V, and now the Civic SI with the RSX type-s for honda)

for this same reason DCX is doing ok right now, becuase they have dodge as the brute, mercedes as the luxury, crystler is the odd one out, jeep is just jeep, and then mitsubishi is the economical fun company.

 

Chrysler isn't really odd-man out. It's supposed to be the more luxurious division, where Dodge is the mainstream brand. Chrysler is kind of like Acura - more luxurious but not quite a upmarket player. DC also has the benefit that Chrysler and Mercedes customers probably don't cross shop ever.

And btw... DC sold it's share in Mitsubishi last year (along with Hyundai).

 

but dont they still share platforms?

 

That's it in a nutshell.

A friend of mine was telling me how his first new car was a 1976 Toyota Corolla. When he bought it, the salesman told him Toyota was going to be the #1 car manufacturer in 30 years. Of course my friend laughed at him - he loved the car, but still thought like every one else you'd have to be insane to think some little piece of 4 cylinder tin can car manufacturer would take a big bite out of big block Detroit iron.


If Toyota knew back then they could win market share beating Detroit on their own home turf, and GM and Ford knew Japan was slowly creeping up on them, you can only blame Ford and GM for not heeding the warning signs over the last 30 years. And GM's financial status as of last Friday is a culmination of their actions (or lack thereof) over those 30 years.