If the Lucerne is so popular, it could be sold as a Pontiac Bonneville, or under the latest Pontiac model naming convention, G10.
Pontiac is a much more identifiable brand name than Buick, IMO. And the G8, which comes from GM’s Holden division in Australia, is a great car. Holden also supplied the most recent GTO. Although it wasn’t a “real” GTO in the tradition of the original, it was a good performance car. It was simpoly too plain-vanilla styled and too expensive. GMC still needs an “excitement” division, and Pontiac is the natural.
Saab needs to go. It’s a low-volume Swedish manufacturer, and GM needs to find a buyer for it. Volkswagen might be interested.
GMC should either go, or all trucks made by GM should be branded as GMC. There’s extra cost involved in having GMC and Chevy versions of the same truck models.
The rationale for GMC was always that non-chevy dealers needed a truck brand to sell. But if GM is serious about cutting down on the number of its’ dealerships, they should be consolodated so that every GM dealership sells every GM brand.
Ssturn should go. It was intended to be a different kind of brand whose dealers did business differently. Now it has become a brand that is nothing but re-badged Opels, Saabs, GMCs and Chevys. No need for that.
Hummer could probably be sold to BMW or VW as a specialty brand. BMW already owns Lamborghini, for example, and VW has Bentley.
Chevy, Pontiac, Cadillac - those are the only three brands that GM needs. Or four, if they decide that all GM trucks should be branded as GMCs.
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Ford needs to do some housecleaning also. Sell Volvo. BMW was interested in it at one time, but Ford wasn’t serious about selling at the time. Perhaps BMW’s interest vcan be rekindled with a good offer. Ford should retain enough stock in Volvo to keep the cross-pollination going that has heldped Ford recently. Using Volvo’s structural ideas, for example, Fords aced the latest crash tests. Ford also learned from Volvo’s engineers how to build a proper seat.
Mercury needs to go. Mercs are just re-badged Fords with different front clips and tail lights. Drop the brand or do something creative with it, Ford.
Keep Mazda, or at least keep enough stock in it for cross-pollination purposes, as with Volvo.
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Chrysler - abandon hope, all ye who enter here. The Dodge Challenger is really hot, but it won’t save the company. Someone needs to buy Jeep to rescue the brand. Perhaps Ford can buy it with the money it gets from selling Volvo.
