What critics don't understand is that the best thing GM has is its dealer force. You kill the dealers if you kill such well-entrenched nameplates as Pontiac and Buick, and you kill GM. It's that's simple.Read the whole thing, it is a good analysis of GM's bad position. However, Flint does not have any advice for GM on what to do, other than to keep moving towards a rear wheel drive platform.
What will the dealers sell if GM keeps losing market share? Won't the dealers get hammered either way?
2 comments:
So GM is trashing its future technology for the hopes of saving its bottom line in the present. It sounds like a cost cutting nightmare. At least for their cars. The trucks seem to be getting the longer end of the stick with this news. But if that’s where GM is making the money, so be it. But the trucks and SUV’s aren’t going to be the king of the road forever. Remember, the Chevelle SS went from a super car in 70 to a smog-car in 72. The industry changed overnight. What happens to GM when SUVs become an anvil around their neck? Hopefully they can take this and use the cash from the short term SUV sales and use it to fund future hot cars.
Seems to me that the only hope for GM to save Pontiac is to make it into something unique, maybe by offering a full line of diesels or something similarly out-of-the-ordinary (http://angryengineer.blogspot.com/2005/03/generals-dying-breath_16.html).
But I still don't know if that's enough, and I certainly don't know how to save both Buick and Pontiac. I think one of them needs to go, dealerships be damned. Sure, GM's dealer network might be wonderful, but what's it worth when they've got nothing unique to sell and are located on every streetcorner? This ain't Starbucks, folks.
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