Hey Cool Car Fans,
It’s not often that I weigh in on what automobile manufacturer’s do with their brands, but GM has me slightly ticked off and they should have you a bit steamed as well.
GM, formerly known as General Motors, but now referred to by many as Government Motors, after taking $50 billion dollars of tax payer money, can’t seem to figure out how to sell one of their brands, in this case Saab.
They’ve had a number of offers on the table and they were not good enough for GM, mainly because they still have to be involved with Saab during a transition period, but instead they are talking about closing the Saab brand down altogether. As you will recall they already did this with Pontiac and Saturn.
You may not be a fan of Saab, but there are 5,000 people in the U.S. who are employed because of this brand and another 15,000 worldwide. Didn’t the U.S. government give General Motors a whopping $50 billion to save jobs? I think anyone reading this article could run a car company with $50 billion at your disposal. Yet, for some reason GM can’t seem to get it figured out.
Saab has been around for 60 years and there are plenty of Saab enthusiasts who drive the brand and GM’s response is that it’s a money losing brand. No doubt it’s a money losing brand because GM owns the company and if GM knew how to manage a car company they wouldn’t have had to take $50 billion from tax payers to run their company.
However, Ford Motor company that didn’t take money from the government in the bailout offer was able to sell Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin and soon to be Volvo. It just goes to show you, that it’s much easier to come to negotiations with saving brands when you are dealing with your own money instead of someone else’s money. In this case, it’s your and my tax dollars that are paying for GM to play like they are the 800lb Gorilla and they are really acting more like a chimp or a chump.
GM needs to sell Saab and quit screwing around with the brand. What many don’t realize who are not Saab owners is the minute that brand is shut down by GM, their vehicles are pretty much worthless. I’m already seeing it with Saturn and Pontiac where many people won’t even look at buying those vehicles now that GM has blown them up, unless they can get an unbelievable deal. Banks won’t finance them once they are gone either, so they will go the way of the classic car and someday they may be worth money if you have cash or a specialized lender that’s willing to give you a loan.
All GM is doing is passing their losses on to the consumer again because of their own greed and mis-management of their brands. In the meantime, they show us commercials that they are a new car company, but it appears that it’s hard to teach an old dog, new tricks, like how to spin off a car company that you don’t want in your portfolio.
Although, they did figure out how to do it with Hummer, but those negotiations were back in June when they were filing for bankruptcy protection and still trying to figure out, if they had a future (Chinese Company Is Buying G.M.’s Hummer).
For more on this topic, visit Automotive News for details.
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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy
We are starting to see Carfax is making a major advertising push these days telling people that if they buy a vehicle without a Carfax report that they are doomed to Automotive Dealer Hell. Of course, how many people buy vehicles on Ebay and Craigslist now with no recourse like they have when purchasing from licensed professionals? Carfax is a good resource for people, but it’s not the “end all, be all” and sometimes it’s actually wrong. What? A third-party source being wrong?
Unfortunately, especially on highline vehicles like BMW’s, Audi’s, Lexus, Mercedes, Infiniti and others, a Carfax report showing an accident can be the kiss of death! There are many reputable automotive dealers now that will not take a vehicle that doesn’t have a clean Carfax into their inventory. This is because consumers are demanding to see these reports as Gospel and the automotive dealers don’t want to sell someone’s junk either.