Saturn brand being eliminated by GM
February 19th, 2009 Leave a comment Visited 60 times, 1 so far today
Saturn brand being eliminated by GM
US based automaker GM has announced that they are killing their Saturn brand.
The company also said that they are going to reduce their focus on the Pontiac brand.
GM said that their existing Saturn dealerships would be closed by 2011.
They are not going to launch any more models under the Saturn brand.
Pontiac would be sold through Chevrolet showrooms.
The company is also looking for a buyer for their Hummer brand. GM said that Hummer might be shut down after March 31st if a buyer is not found.
Market analysts say that closing down the Saturn brand is a good decision for the company as it has never been profitable for them.
Checkout: Saturn
Automobiles, Cars, Chevrolet, General Motors, GM, gm saturn, Pontiac, Saturn, USA
Manuj Kumar
Category: Automobiles
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March 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am
GM should be cutting brands. the first brands that should be completely shuttered and not sold are Hummer and SAAB, hopefully they are closed by 2011. Saturn then should follow in 2012 with a complete closure.
The reason why Buick-Pontiac-GMC should stay is because they act as one brand, under one dealership roof, with shared manufacturing and could actually be successful going forward. in the yr. 2000 each had substaintially higher market shares but have deviated from their core branding and message.
It will not cost GM a lot of money to close Hummer/SAAB/Saturn because their dealership footprint is extremely small. combined they have under 1,000 dealerships which minimizes lawsuits and allows dealers to be successfully bought out by the company. when Oldsmobile was shuttered in 2000 the brand has 2,800 dealers which made it significantly harder and more expensive to close.
Using that logic it should only cost GM $700 million dollars to completely unwind those three brands, which is a mire pittance when compared to the $ 30 billion dollar infusion it is about to recieve from the U.S. government to sustain their operations.
To sell Saab/Hummer/Saturn would be a big mistake, it would strengthen their competitors and not help to alleviate the over-branded U.S. market. competitiors will shift production and produce lower cost vehicles and use U.S. dealerships for their entry to the U.S market, this will overall be a major negative to GM in the long term.
It is costing GM more to keep those three brands than it would cost to buy out dealers and shutter those non-essential brands that combined only account for 1.8% of the U.S. market as of 2008, while the Nissan brand alone accounts for 6 times more market share, the writting seems to be on the wall for this one.
Buick right now seems in trouble, as well as pontiac but both brands can be saved by being relegated to importing successful international automobiles. Buick becomes an importer for some high end Opel cars to the U.S., while Pontiac could import most of the Holden Austrailia line under their Pontiac banner to the U.S. this would allow the entire Pontiac/Buick/GMC line to exist with little to no investment or upkeep from GM, which would allow GM to be able to focus on turning around/creating new products for both Cadillac and Chevrolet.
Internationall there are opportunities for consolidation as well. GM should absolutely retain Opel as they are integral to the company and will provide products and logistics for other divisions, my main recomendation would be to eliminate Vauxhall and rebrand it as opel, having that one brand for just Britain is a drain on the company and is an unneccesary cost that can be avoided. this will be a benefit to strengthen the Opel brand as well as cutting costs.
The same logic is used for allowing Holden Austrailia to take over the Daewoo division rebranding the entire division as Holden Worldwide, significantly slimming down their overlap and investment costs and capitalizing on the Holden name and logo.
these steps will get GM on the right track to completely reinvigorate their business and return to their core values while removing brands that severely drain cash from the company as well as massive overlap. by taking the above mentioned steps they will be better positioned to grow their market share in the U.S. and internationally and will be better able to understand and respond to market shifts and changes in consumer tastes. GOOD LUCK GM!!!
March 19th, 2009 at 7:53 am
I was an Saturn owner, loved my Saturn. They built a good car but since GM forced Saturn to do it the GM way not its own way it went to crap. Shows how stupid GM leadership is, let them fail! I purchased my 2nd car – an FORD! Will never buy an GM car for the stupidity and greed of GM managment!