The Detroit News is reporting that Presidential Task Force on Automobiles (PTFOA) is ready to float some trial balloons—I mean, announce part of its master plan for “saving” the U.S. auto industry. The News reckons the PTFOA will place the cart before the horse, revealing its bailout strategy for the domestics’ suppliers sometime this week. Then they’ll unveil the new new bailout arrangement to fund GM’s new new new new new new new turnaround plan and, believe it or not, Chrysler’s mythological recovery strategy. Meanwhile, Saturn’s keepers are busy pre-stretching the limits of credibility.
Speaking to Automotive News [sub], Steve Girsky, “long-time industry consultant leading GM’s task force” (so many task forces, so few tens of billions), claimed he’d had informal talk (casual dress Friday?) with competitors interested in acquiring Saturn’s brand/dealer network. Girsky declined to name which automakers have talked to the group.
If that doesn’t smell to high heaven, how about the plan Girsky outlined for the all-too-credible news org.
The spin-off would offer car manufacturers an opportunity to build vehicles in under-used GM assembly plants or provide a ready-made U.S. distribution network for their products, Girsky said.
The spin-off could count on Saturn’s current vehicle lineup through 2011, Girsky said. Ideally, the new company would want to begin bringing in additional product from GM or others before that time, he said.
They would all sell under the Saturn brand. To keep a family resemblance for vehicles possibly coming from a variety of automakers, the new company could have light design capability, he said.
Here’s the kicker:
Several carmakers already market vehicles made by competitors, Girsky said. Chrysler LLC, for example, is making Volkswagen AG’s Routan minivan.
When your plan for a brand’s salvation is modeled after a single product that fell flat on its face in the marketplace, disgracing all concerned, you might as well close up shop and go home. Well, if it weren’t for that big, fat, taxpayer-funded consultancy fee.
This just goes to show you that if you want to “con” and “insult” people’s intelligence, then go into “Consultancy”.
I still reckon that GM would have been better off, packaging Vauxhall/Opel, Saturn and SAAB (complete with intellectual property) as one unit and selling it off.
It would give any potential buyer a global luxury brand (SAAB), three “everyday” brands which cover the globe and a global network of dealers. Essentially, a global auto footprint.
Because of the value of package, GM could have commanded a higher asking price (I reckon $5bn+ would have been reasonable). The Chinese or Indians would have thought strongly about it.
This would solve GM’s problems of too many brands and give them a cash injection. The only drawback is, it wouold limited GM’s global reach, but to be honest, they need to go back to basics (i.e concentrate on the North American market and expand again).
It would give any potential buyer a global luxury brand (SAAB), three “everyday” brands which cover the globe and a global network of dealers. Essentially, a global auto footprint.
Unfortunately, it’d also make the potential buyer beholden to the Gordian knot of GM’s intellectual property structure. There’s no way that would end well: either GM would end up with it’s best engineering beholden to a competitor, or the new buyer would spend years in court trying to sort out who owns what.
This is essentially the problem with parting out Opel right now. Who, exactly, owns the Epsilon chassis? What about the Antara’s Heinz-57 heritage? The Ecotec powerplant?
On the bright side, GM seems to be scaling back Opel’s engineering involvement in favour of GM-DAT, so perhaps in a few years this would be feasible. If GM is still around.
If they spin off Saturn, I’d suggest renaming the Astra, Vue, Aura and Outlook as the Ranger, Pacer, Corsair and Citation…
What a stupid idea. GM needs to have as many dealers as possible buy cars from them today and in the future and announcing that Saturn will go away certainly does not help their situation. What they need to do is chop every possible expense from the corporate structure and put money into making and marketing of their products. GM is a bloated corporation, bloated with to many managers who have nothing to do and do not add value to the company. It does not cost them any more money to build a Saturn than anyother vehicle now that all Saturn products are made in plants that make other GM products. Number of dealers and brands are the least of their problems. They have to sell cars!!!
“What a stupid idea. GM needs to have as many dealers as possible buy cars from them today and in the future and announcing that Saturn will go away certainly does not help their situation. What they need to do is chop every possible expense from the corporate structure and put money into making and marketing of their products. GM is a bloated corporation, bloated with to many managers who have nothing to do and do not add value to the company. It does not cost them any more money to build a Saturn than anyother vehicle now that all Saturn products are made in plants that make other GM products. Number of dealers and brands are the least of their problems. They have to sell cars!!!”
Even if it means building cars they can’t sell? Why spend valuable money on brands that very few people want? They should be putting all of their efforts into products that move and not products that just sit and take up space. Saturn, Hummer and Pontiac need to be gone right now! Buick and GMC can be looked at later.
The question is — are Saturn owners more loyal to the buying and service experience than they are loyal to their cars?
My qualitative experience with Saturn owners is that they are not exactly gear heads or car people — they want transportation appliances.
So — assuming that Saturn doesn’t sell a rebadged Sebring…
Maybe?
Roar, didn’t you hear about a twice market capacity compared to need in the world wide auto market? Who do you think are the prime offenders of having too much production capacity? GM &; Chrysler could just close and the production would be soaked up by the rest of the World producers. How much longer are these dinousours going to throw all of the stuff against the wall and see what sticks? Apparently the answer is as long as someone bankrolls them. When is the US govt going to ask GM and Chrysler, how many units could you sell within 5% of retail price? How many dealers do you really need to sell less than 20% for GM and 10% for Chrysler, of the US market? Will we have a war quick enough, so that they can build the tanks etc. needed to win before the US Govt goes broke feeding the elephant? These are the questions that must be asked. Why does chrysler already say, even with the next loan (their second helping) they will be out of money in July? When we know some of these details, we will probably want to march on DC in protest to the give away.
I think the end is very near for Saturn. Our local Saturn dealer also has (BAD LUCK) a Pontiac-GMC-Buick store; a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep store; and (finally some GOOD LUCK) a Hyundai store.
Haven’t seen TV ad one time for Saturns; only Pontiacs (in the AM when I turn on the local TV station for the weather forecast; it’s about the only time I put the cyclops monster on).
This morning, instead of trying to have the high pitched hawker trying to push off more Pontiac G6s on the unsuspecting public, reality “bites” and the Saturns were finally advertised.
“$22,000 Saturn Auras for only $15,000!”
My wife just looked at me as if to say “yeah, they’re screwed.”
Another way to say “wow, they really are screwed” is to look at the number of Saturns sitting at the dealership vs. Hyundais.
They’ve got 68 Aura’s and 11 Sonatas. In other words, the Sonatas are moving (I’ve been looking because we’re coming up to the time when my wife’s Sonata lease is up); the Aura’s – not so much.
Why don’t they just badge everything they own as GM? Who needs to deal with all the bad insinuations that the name of saab or saturn gives an already reluctant buying public ?
If they were to start a fresh sheet and from now on only release “new and improved” GM cars then at least people will know these cars are post bailout produced and should therefore be more mpg efficient etc. as per the promises they no doubt had to give prior to getting funds ?!!
i.e If its a GM Volt in the USA, call it a frikkin GM Volt everywhere!!!
Steve Girsky doesn’t have any better ideas of what to do or how to do it than most of us here do. His talent is getting paid and getting listened to. Good for him, bad for anyone stupid enough to play along.
Saturn will only sell rebadged cars from other brands?
Right, because that worked so well for Isuzu. And that is working so well right now with the Aura and Outlook. And the entire Mercury lineup of rebadged Fords would also make a great foundation for a new “independent” car company.
The 2000 Chevy Prism and 2000 Toyota Corolla were the same car, built in the same factory by the same workers, but compare current prices. You can get a Prism for about $3k, but the Corolla twin goes for $5k. The rebadged version is simply less desirable.
Most customers want something authentic, and they will pay more for the real thing. An entire brand of rebadged copies is not a winning strategy.
Proving once again that anything GM tried to do with Saturn could just as easily have been done with GEO for a lot less money, time, waste and stress.
And again: no one is buying anything. Damn, cut the BS.
So if you assume that the people who buy new Saturn’s will buy some other new GM product then fine it makes little sense to keep them open. But I do not think that is what will happen. The area I live in, which is in the top 15 for population in the country, the Saturn Aura is the 9th best selling mid sedan in the market class of 19, Vue is 4th just behind CRV and Escape, Astra is the 2nd best selling vehicle in it’s class behind Mazda in a class of 11, Outlook is 11th of 23 in it’s class and the local Saturn retailers delivered over 3000 new last year, these people would not go buy another GM product and it does not cost GM any more to make a Aura than a Malibu. The issue is the corporate expense and most/none of this is not needed.
That’s pretty much the spin GM would like you to believe: everything’s just fine and the Astra and Aura are smash hits.
The Astra sells so well there won’t be a 2009 model because they’re still trying to move the 2008s.
The Acadia outsells the Outlook.
And Chrysler is # one in Canada.
Same lipstick. Different pig.
KatiePuckrik:
“I still reckon that GM would have been better off, packaging Vauxhall/Opel, Saturn and SAAB (complete with intellectual property) as one unit and selling it off.”
YOu know I have been mulling this over in my tiny brain about what should be done about GM and this morning I remembererd that at one time in GM’s history they were in danger of being broken up because they controlled so much of the market. Then I realized that today the problem is the opposite. They are too big for the market share they have. But the solution is the same. Break them up into smaller pieces. How about Caddy/Chevy, Buick/Pontiac/GMC, and Opel/Saturn/Saab/Holden. For a period of years they would use the current platforms they have and even share factories. Then as model cycles progress they would become more independent. This would give younger managers the opportunity to shine. There can’t be that many deadbeat managers to infect all four new companies. Each company would have to, after a predetermined time, sink or swim on their own merits. Some of them WILL fail. But two or more will be successful and some part of GM will survive. The only thing I can’t figure out is how to separate GMC and Chevy trucks.
The main reason that Chrysler sales here in Canada are up over the other Detroit three is that they have given large rebates to purchasers, some people never consider what brand they buy, as long as it runs, they could care less and are not thinking of long term reliability either.
General Motors actually raised there Prices here this year and they keep pushing the Korean built Aveo and Wave as “great cars” Its a crazy world we all live in isn’t it?