GM considering sale of Pontiac, Saab, and Saturn. Is it a good idea?

This is not surprising at all. I've said before that GM has way too many divisions.The only thing I'm not sure about is Saturn.I thought that Saturn could be the opening for GM's Euro brand since they would no longer have Saab.Buick makes sense to keep right now as it sells well in China. Perhaps though it should only be sold in China.GMC should also go as it's just a rebadged Chevy.

— mini22 (View Profile)

Posted on 11/27/2008 1:55:54 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

Question is, who's buying...... I don't think they'd be likely to get a decent amount of cash out of it. But hey, I guess, given their situation any cash is better than no cash!

— Styles79 (View Profile)

Posted on 11/27/2008 3:01:44 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

Yes, yes and yes. All of those brands are useless money pits for GM. Saturn can die, Pontiac... well, I don't know, and SAAB should be bought by somebody else.

— S4cabriofoxone (View Profile)

Posted on 11/27/2008 3:05:55 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

My position is GM needs to sell HUMMER (already working on that), kill GMC (build absolutely nothing Chevy couldn't adopt), SAAB (someone will actually buy it, has potential to grow), shelve Pontiac (although the G6 is selling well, the company as a whole was never developed enough. Shelve it because there is potential in the future for a RWD performance brand, just not right now), and shelve Buick in the US (continue selling it in China where it is doing well but nobody wants Buicks here, they can't attract any young buyers at all, there offerings are boring and unimaginative. The brand means too much to GM to fully kill it). I think GMC's models could be consolidated into a luxury pack for the Chevy models they mirror. Saturn should be kept as it has the most potential for growth. Simply take the successful Vauxhall/Opel models and market them over here (Insignia please!!!). Chevy could pick up the Solstice if the Sky isn't enough for Saturn. Obviously keep Cadillac. There products are improving drastically every year. Another reason why there is no need for Buick is their products are trying to fill a luxury segment that Cadillac already fills. Just my two cents, too bad GM won't ever wake up enough to do this kind of work even though it is important.

— BMWM (View Profile)

Posted on 11/27/2008 5:44:10 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

Killing the three brands would not be a big loss for most American car buyers. And like many above comments I would also say GMC can go away as well.

The bottom line is that Pontiac and Saturn both suffer from severe brand damage from the 1980s - 1990s where they were nothing but rental car trash for the automotive unwashed. They will never be able to shake that stigma no matter how good their cars get today.

Saab is and always has been a brand for nerds and wierdos. Born for jets, more like made for idiots that think they are smarter than everyone else. Problem is that the brand has lost all of its equity with GM at the helm.

Most of the Saab-o-philes walked away when the cars became nothing more than re-badged GM cars. This goes especially the Saab Chevy Truck 9-7 SUV. What a mockery.

Buick can stay, old people need cars. Cadillac can stay, the rich and stylish need cars. Chevrolet can stay, Joe Six Pack needs cars.

— SteedPub (View Profile)

Posted on 11/27/2008 7:02:46 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

smokefreak2003,

Selling any of the brands would be dumb, except for Saab. I heard a rumor somewhere that the swedish gov was interested.. but its an ubsubstantiated rumor.

Selling any other brand would be stupid, ESPECIALLY Saturn or GMC. Think, if Toyota got its hands on GMC, and all of GM's truck engineering that goes with it. Not only does Toyota get GM's billions of investments, it also get all the loyal GMC owners who don't care who owns GMC.

Saturn is a great brand that needs to stay. It is a brand that all too often consumers who hate big3 will consider buying (b/c they think it's foreign!!)

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 11/30/2008 5:30:30 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

I think SAAB is the one that should go. GM really has hurt the brand. Too much parts sharing and not enough real work being done. They like to make noise about how all their cars are turbocharged. But to what end? None of them put out enough power to make it worth the effort. And what's this "Born From Jets" crap?!? I mean, most people outside of Sweden are only familiar with the SAAB 340 which was a propeller driven regional aircraft that most people only flew on because they had to. Their jets of real fame (the fighter planes), in typical Swedish Govt practice, are rarely sold to foreign air forces. So what "jets" are American buyers supposed to identify with? If SAAB wanted a good slogan they should have gone with something like "Identify Yourself" (in reference to the fact that SAAB buyers are usually a bit off the beaten path). And for the love of all things good and great, bump up the power and make the designs more distinctive. If any manufacturer needs to go back to the 80s it's SAAB. The original 900 was GORGEOUS!

— tango (View Profile)

Posted on 11/27/2008 10:09:49 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

I think Saturn should be killed, and GM should consider selling Saab. If they didn't sell Opel, then they should consider replacing Saturn with Opel entirely - marketing Opel over here. There's a greater upfront investment in establishing the brand, but I think it'll be in a better position to help GM compete with imports. Opel can be GM's Volkswagen.

Either that, or sell Saab and Opel and let those two brands work together.

In the past 10 years or so, GM has already killed Oldsmobile and Geo (which itself was started not too long before that). GM really needs to consolidate and focus on fewer, more distinct brands. I don't understand why the big 3 went crazy creating all these separate (but similar) brands before (i.e. Ford, Mercury, Lincoln... and Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth, Eagle?). And now... they're the ones in the deepest trouble. Coincidence? No...

— ktu01 (View Profile)

Posted on 11/28/2008 2:40:18 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

It very clear that these three brands are coupled together to ride on the coattails of Saab which has the most value of the three brands. Aside from the chinese who want to get in to the US market, who on Earth would want to buy Pontiac and Saturn?

— woood (View Profile)

Posted on 11/29/2008 12:15:31 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

I agree with most of what was said above...GM is a company with too many divisions and too much redundancy in their product lines...however, I think that selling Saturn is the wrong way to go...it is currently one of the most popular divisions and it doesn't make sense to lose them....In my opinion, they need to drop Pontiac (a few nice niche products but totally unnnecessary), GMC Truck (completely redundant given Chevy's truck division), and Buick (as much as we all have a soft spot for them, they're nowhere near the company that Harley Earl built)...Saab is a question as, if done right, it could gain better prominence. They should definitely not get rid of Holden or Opel as they are popular and profitable in their markets. As far as selling the above divisions, I think it makes more sense to have them simply go away (ala Plymouth, Geo, etc) and absorb the best products into the other divisions in modified form. Chevrolet, Saturn, and especially Cadillac have improving brand equity and some good cars and they need to concentrate on strengthening these brands, otherwise, they may as well lay down and die...

— rscaffidi (View Profile)

Posted on 11/29/2008 9:02:48 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Kill Saturn, sell them for what they are, as Opels(mostly). Kill Hummer. Buick kill it here. GMC kill it, with it with a "professional grade" killing apparatus. Keep Pontiac just feed it more good vehicles, like the G8 not G3, blah. I never really understood Saab, evidently no one else did either, that is how GM scooped them up. Niche cars dont increase profits, especially poor badge jobs, sell it.

— schinbone (View Profile)

Posted on 11/30/2008 9:32:26 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Everyone here seems to be all about killing Buick, but apparently no one here sees the direction that GM is steering Cadillac & Buick.

Cadillac - Compete with Germans and performance cars

Buick - Lofty, stylish, comfortable, smooth & quiet.

Buick's upcoming lineup looks INCREDIBLY promising (see Invicta & Enclave). Rumors out there also say that the Cadillac DTS is going away, being replaced by a Buick model that will also replace the Lucerne, thus ridding Cadillac of its "old man" image which it isn't anymore.

GMC - Yes, I agree, it offers nothing that Chevy doesn't after, but GM cant afford to loose hundreds of thousands of sales.

Saturn - Dont get rid of it.. its a great brand with a yuppy-efficient green image that blind Californians love so much.

Pontiac - Dont know, but it sells better than some companies like Mazda.

Saab - Sell to Swedish gov, but have working deals that allow Saab to piecewise buy GM hardware (like Fisker Automotive does).

— neutral (View Profile)

Posted on 11/30/2008 5:36:55 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

I think that the Big Three are moving toward a dealer network in which all of the company's marques would be selling under one roof. In a situation like that, badge-engineering would die the quick death that it deserves. For instance, why would anyone buy a Mercury Sable when its badge-engineered twin, the Ford Taurus, is selling for hundreds of dollars less IN THE SAME !@#$%^&* SHOWROOM?

That is the reason why GM and Chrysler killed off Oldsmobile and Plymouth, respectively, a few years ago. At the time of their demise what was the difference between an Oldsmobile and a Buick, or between a Plymouth and a Dodge? I'll tell you the answer - NOTHING!!

Killing off Pontiac, Saturn, and GMC makes sense in this environment. GMCs are nothing but badge-engineered twins of Chevrolet pickups, vans, SUVs and CUVs. Pontiac is not sufficiently differentiated from Chevy or Buick to justify its existence. Saturn has yet to find its niche in the marketplace.

If you want a SUV with a super-macho-image, Jeep (owned by Chrysler) and Land-Rover (owned by Tata) will meet your needs nicely. Chevy, Cadillac, Ford and Dodge have their own SUV lines as well. In an environment like this, who needs Hummer? GM should just shut the brand down.

I'm not sure GM should do with SAAB. The brand's unique image has been diluted since it was acquired by GM. (Volvo's unique image has also been diluted since being acquired by Ford, but Volvos have never been as quirky as SAABs, thus Volvo's problem is more manageable.) SAABs are currently too much like Opels for their own good. Either GM should either make SAAB more unique, or get rid of it.

Buick was the first of the General Motors marques, with a long hisotry of making both luxurious and sporting cars. The Buick brand is more prestigious than Chevrolet, and is surprisingly more prestigious than Cadillac in some developing markets like China. Cadillac can go after the "sporting" luxury marques like Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Jaguar, while Buick can function as an entry-level luxury brand and go after the "old man" luxury market currently dominated by Lexus.

— Audiphile (View Profile)

Posted on 12/1/2008 12:58:27 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

YES, YES, YES and don't forget to take Hummer as well!!!

— americanmuscle (View Profile)

Posted on 12/5/2008 4:09:46 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Oh sorry, and don't forget Buick and GMC as well!!!

— americanmuscle (View Profile)

Posted on 12/5/2008 4:12:33 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Saturn NEVER made GM a profit - disolve it. GM is in trouble - sell Saab. A GMC is a Chevrolet with the letters GMC on it(everybody knows it) - disolve it. Make Chevrolet a "Truck" Division and make Pontiac GM's "Performance car" Division. The Hummer was the quintesential "got to have it cause it's cool" All form and no function (except H1) vehicle for GM's mindless followers - kill it. Keep Buick and make it GM's "Transportation car" Division and keep Cadillac as GM's "Luxury car" Division. How easy was that ? - Hey Obama, I want to put in for the CEO's position at GM.

— theman440 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/14/2009 2:06:18 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2