How GM can become relevant again

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the trials and tribulations of the American Automobile Industry lately, and I think I have a way for GM to get back on track, start making money again, and increase their sales.

The first step is to realign their brands. Right now, Chevrolet and Pontiac pretty much sell the same cars and are after the same group of people. This needs to change.

Chevrolet needs to drop the Corvette and Camaro (Will explain about that in a bit) and focus it’s energies on being the entry-level family car maker and focus on competing with Honda and Toyota in terms of design and quality levels.

Nothing Chevrolet builds should be more than 12 inches longer than what Honda and Toyota produce, thereby keeping them in the same league size-wise.

Chevy’s Truck division should remain as is, because a truck is a truck.

The Corvette needs to be spun-off into it’s own brand. Current Chevy dealers will need to qualify in order to continue selling the Corvette under a new dealership agreement for the Corvette brand. The qualifications include but are not limited to:

1. No dealer in a city of less than 100,000 people will be allowed to sell the Corvette brand
2. No dealers within 100 miles of an established Corvette Dealer will be allowed to get a Corvette dealership.
3. Any other ideas that might come to mind in order to make the Corvette more exclusive and sought after.

Why do it this way?

The answer comes from my hometown, where the Chevy dealer has 6 Corvettes sitting around and collecting dust in a city of less than 30,000 people, 99% of which could never afford to buy it.

The Camaro is cancelled, but the car gets redesigned and moves to Pontiac where it becomes the Firebird.

Speaking of Pontiac, this brands needs to become the true sports-car company. No engines that aren’t either turbo-charged or supercharged are allowed in this brand. The cars need to look sporty, as if they are speeding down the road even when standing still. They need to handle like some of best sports cars out there, and they need to be priced as such.

Buick needs to be made into the traditional luxury car it used to be, not the slightly screwed up Japanese-wanna-be it currently is. The cars need to have at least 6 cylinder power, with V-8 options, should ride smoothly down the road, and be extremely comfortable. If this means that the median age of a Buick owner is 68, so be it.

Cadillac is doing well as the Euro fighter, but it can do better. Quality and power should be increased across the board, and the cars need to be better aimed at who they are competing with. A smaller Caddy needs to come in under the CTS to compete with the C-Class and 3-Series, while a new STS would compete with the S-Class and 7-Series. V-6s are the smallest allowable engines, while a new V-12 would make a good option in the top of the line sedan.

Saab would continue on as the quirk European car, but should lower it’s aim. Saab should be the entry level European car and aim it’s sights at taking down Volkswagen, not trying to go after BMW and Mercedes and Audi. Let Cadillac handle them.

The Saturn name should be written off as a noble experiment that just didn’t work. The cars, however, would continue on under the name Oldsmobile, and would be a blend of Pontiac’s sportiness and Buick’s luxury. Oldsmobile would be the true American car.

Hummer and GMC would both disappear, their products blended in with the Chevy truck line.

Since Holden, Opel and Vauxhall are not sold in the US, no changes to what they are doing at this time.

So, this is the plan I will implement within General Motors when I take over.

If no one there does it beforehand.