smk4565

They have a 285 day supply of G8s and Holden may end the export program all together. The G8 flopped like I predicted, because it is too heavy, and not tailored to the American market. Plus Pontiac's brand image is dead. Enclave down over 40% to 2,000 sales, GM bragged about how the Enclave was such a strong seller, it is a dud now, so I question if Buick has any life left in it. CTS was down 48% as well. GM's recent products, though improved still aren't enough. And the bad models are ruining the reputation of the good ones. They need products that blow the CTS and Malibu out of the water. GM had to suffer massive failure like they are in now to change. I knew this day was coming years ago and they had to shed brands and build quality not quantity. Now GM is forced to make radical change to stay alive, and they will be better for it. When GM gets lean and focused, in 5 years they may be making the best cars in the world.

Cadillac's should be built to last, so a 10 year warranty shouldn't be that big a deal. Engineer it better than Mercedes, build with higher quality than Lexus. And no more rebates on Cadillacs, ever. Low interest rate financing is the only incentive they should offer, along with the a bumper to bumper warranty double the competition. If Cadillac gets the reputation of the best built, longest lasting car, resale value will go up and people won't be afraid to buy one without $5,000 cash back + invoice price. The Buicks sold in China share nothing in common with the Buicks sold here. They are like 2 separate divisions both using the same badge. If they can make the same basic car to sell around the globe, with modifications made to fit specific regions, then they have a viable business plan for Buick.

BMW outsells Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, or Saturn, and operates at a higher price point. Their sales are down, but not as bad as most, and they have Mini to help stop the bleeding. The STS-V has the blind spot warning, lane departure warning, 4 color head up display and better stereo, although both lack sun shades and heated steering wheel. STS has blue tooth which the 08 CTS didn't, but I think the CTS is getting it. The XF-R will be awesome, because the XF has won every comparison test it has been in and with another 100 hp it is going to be as fast as what anyone else has. None of these cars can touch the XF's interior. The M5 is going to change the segment because Audi, Cadillac, and Mercedes all use huge turbo or super charged engines in heavy cars. CTS and E63 are 4300 pounds, the RS6 with the V10 is near 4500 pounds. The new M5 is 500 hp, 516 lb-ft but with aluminum and carbon fiber and a smaller engine, it is going to drop in weight. It will be hard for Mercedes, Cadillac and Audi to shed weight and match the M5 in handling, braking, steering or fuel economy (even though no one buying these cars cares about that).

I like this plan, dump the dead weight. Buick only sells 7,000 vehicles a month, so I don't see how that is really a "core brand" and GMC is all rebadges so they could kill GMC too. Buick is the natural fit for a line between Chevy and Cadillac, but it may be too late to restore brand image, that really needed to be done years ago. Buick needs to get like Lincoln fast and modernize with technology in their cars. GM's reputation is shot right now, unless they hit home runs on every product launch they are in trouble. They should extend warranties too, at least 6/72,000 bumper to bumper on the lower brands and 10/100,000 bumper to bumper on Cadillac.

But will anyone pay $87,000 for a CTS-V? GM could use the profit if people would. I have never aspired to own an M5, but I recognize it as the car that started this segment and has forever been the standard. The CTS-V has great performance for value, but doesn't have all the luxury features that the STS-V has. The XF-R will crush all these cars anyway. The new M5 is going to change the direction of the segment because they are going back to a V8, and making the car lighter. They could beat the V, AMG and RS6 by 300-500 pounds, which is going to make M5 the steering, handling, braking king. My original criticism of the CTS being not quite good enough still stands. CTS sales were down 48% in November, to only 3,000 cars. 1 car doesn't make a brand, Cadillac needs a lot more than the CTS, and the CTS is going to have to get better too to keep up with the competition. New E-class, 5-series and A6 next year, and I know the geriatric duo of STS/DTS won't compete with them.

Amen

They need Chevy, Cadillac and one brand in between. They need profit margin, not volume or anything else at this point.

The Asian companies are making profit (mitsubishi may not be, they seem to be dying), the American ones aren't. If you aren't making money, you go out of business or slim down. Same reason Circuit City is closing 150 stores, while Best Buy isn't or why Linens N Things is closing all stores, but Bed, Bath and Beyond isn't.

I have said for years they need to cut brands, I love this idea. Hummer has to go fast, it is a politically incorrect vehicle and image killer at this point. Saab is next out the door, if they could get even $10 million for either brand they should take it. Otherwise just close them down and eat the cost. Step 2 is hard, because Saturn with 5 relatively new models is still a sales dud, and has it's own dealerships, making it easy to kill. I would lean toward closing down Saturn. Although Pontiac's and Buick's brand images are dead and their product lineups uncompetitive. GMC is totally redundant. GMC could become a fleet sale outlet for both work trucks, vans etc, but rental cars as well. I think GM should have one brand that all fleet sales go through so the resale values of the other brands aren't hurt. I would only keep 2 of the B-P-G group to fill the space between Chevy and Cadillac. If GMC is all fleet and covers rental cars, I'd keep Buick for crossovers and cars based off Chevy but nicer. I would lean toward getting rid of Pontiac in that case. The other option is get rid of B-P-G and keep Saturn, but people still think of Saturn as entry level, positioning them above Chevy is unlikely to work. If they had Oldsmobile, Chevy-Olds-Cadillac would be an epic lineup.

GM had 50% market share in 1960, they have 19% now and have added Hummer, Saab, Saturn (killed Olds) since then. They can't fund 8 brands to make them bad ass with 19% market share. The Sigma platform is too expensive for anything that doesn't carry a Cadillac price tag. Astra is a money loser because of exchange rate, and they have a near 400 day supply on dealer lots, it is GM's slowest selling product. The Vellite was a cool looking concept, but GM doesn't have the money to make it, and a $40-45k Buick convertible probably won't sell in volume.

Well they only have 3 products, 2 of which are extremely dated and uncompetitive, so it is hard to make a website look good when you don't have much to show off. Valid points though, the features on the cars are mismatched and there is too much overlap between them, much like has happened with the CTS and STS. Lack of funding and poor product planning.

I read it all, but I made my point already. People can praise the car all day, they sold 1,000 last month, 12,000 so far all year. GM needs more than 12k units a year out of a product if they want to make money and stay in business.

SNL wasn't ripping millions of hard working Americans, they were ripping 3 CEOs that make $15 million+ a year to run failed businesses and showed up in front of Congress looking for a loan without a business plan.

If GM dies (which it won't) it is no one's fault but their own.

I thought it was funny, especially the chart with dates and amounts of money they wanted and how no one watches C-span. Fred Armesen's Barney Frank was good too, better than his Obama. Detroit needs to learn to take a joke if they are offended. If the Detroit 3 didn't lose $100 billion over the past 5 years, and the CEOs didn't look like fools on the first trip they went to Congress SNL wouldn't have had anything to use on them.

Great cars still well in awful times. By "don't like" I meant I don't like the styling and probably wouldn't buy one. I know they make a great car, best car I have ever driven, and the inline 6 is great, perhaps better than their V8. The 5-series drives so well I'd consider it even though it is ugly and has iDrive. Luckily the Jaguar XF came along and is better. RWD Impala. A $26-35k rear drive Impala to go against the 300C would be great, and they would have a big advantage over the front drive Maxima and Avalon.

I paid $18k for a 2.5 year old, 26k mile Aurora that stickered for $39,960. I capitalized on poor depreciation. Actually, if the Aurora's interior was in the G8, that would solve the G8's biggest problem. Then they could take the supercharged Aurora V8 from the Shelby Series 1 and replace the Silverado engine, and the G8 would be looking good. Lamar, I've driven the E39 and E60 5-series, best cars I have ever driven, but the styling and iDrive don't do it for me. I haven't driven a G8, but I wouldn't buy it because of the interior.

I don't like BMWs, but they are the best driving brand of cars, they are the benchmark. GM compares every performance car they have to BMW, but there is more to a BMW than 0-60 time, or skidpad number, there is the feel of the road, intangibles, and build quality. The M5 in its 5th model year still sells without a rebate, the CTS and G8 already have rebates after 1 year. The G8 is typical poor product planning by GM. If Zeta wasn't overweight, and they developed an American looking sedan with great styling and gave it an interior suited for America (better than the Malibu LTZ's) they could have had a new Impala that would have been a success. Instead we get an Aussie retread that is selling even worse than the GTO did.

There are many good cars for $40k, and the G8 isn't one of them. The interior is horrible, and it is slower than a Camaro, GTO, 335i. People can buy an Infiniti, Cadillac, or BMW for $40k, why buy a Pontiac. The M5 at $85k has the same top speed as the ZR-1 at $120k. I wouldn't buy an M5, but it's still the performance sedan standard that every other brand aspires to. No other automaker wishes to be like Pontiac. Personally, I want a Jaguar. The G8 was outsold by the 7-series last month, and that is the old model with no reason to buy it since the 09 model comes out shortly. The G8 isn't selling well, and probably half the 1,000 they sold were V6 models that go 0-60 in 7.5 seconds, which isn't really a true performance car.

This is a good idea, it saves them $7 million a year and they need to save wherever possible. I never liked the deal in the first place, and he made little or no impact on sales, since Buick sales have dropped every year since they signed him. They need to cut every celebrity endorsement, cut the private jets and cap executive pay if they want a bailout.

Slower than a car from 11 years ago is not a win for the G8. Pontiac is beyond savable, they should be working on the BTS and a new Impala instead.

The E39 M5 does the Ring in 8 minutes 28 seconds. E39 is a better performance comparison.

That is a good time, but if lapping the Nurburgring at low cost is what you want, an E39 M5 is faster than this thing and goes for about $26,000 used. Why does Pontiac compare the G8 GXP to the E39 M5 anyway, are they bragging that in 2009 they can do what BMW did in 1998? They could have put the STS-V engine in the G8 GXP and at least made it somewhat special, rather than recycle the 6.2 pushrod that is in multiple Chevy and GMC products. The Camaro SS can out perform this car for $8000 less, so I don't see where the "value" is in a $40,000 Pontiac. My main problems with the G8 are interior fit and finish (Cobalt level at best) and the Aussie styling. The GTO flopped because it wasn't designed for the American market, this car is selling 1,000 units a month for the same reason.

Agreed. But Hyundai has more cache sadly.

In any other industry, if the CEO oversaw a 95% drop in stock price he'd be gone. I don't know why the shareholders and board haven't thrown him out yet. Time for new leadership and they need to go outside the company to find a CEO, Lutz or Henderson will just bring more of the same.