Amen, brother!!
Given that it’s a day for big GM announcements, that means it’s also a day for plenty of opinions.
Every armchair expert with a keyboard will be filling your head with chatter about dividends, job losses and truck production and true to form, I’ll have my own thoughts on GM’s big plans as they might relate to Saab in due course.
But amongst all the stories doing the rounds in the early hours after the GM announcement, this not-really-related story is the one that’s caught my eye the most. It’s from Luca Ciferri, a senior writer for Automotive News Europe (subs reqd):
GM should pull Cadillac out of Europe and focus on Russia
Times are changing and smart carmakers need to adapt.
A quick change of course for General Motors could be to pull Cadillac from Europe and concentrate on Russia.
Russians like Caddies. Judging by sales numbers, western Europeans don’t…..
…..
The story goes on to tell the sales tale of Cadillac in Europe, and a sad tale it is. Caddy sales in 2007 were barely in the black over 2006. Sales in 2008 are once again in the black, but by 46 units only on a year-to-date basis.
The headline says it all, really. Cadillac is a lame duck in Europe, where GM already have a premium brand that’s sold globally and in need of a product and marketing boost.
Kill Caddy in Europe and invest in Saab. You know it makes sense.
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Especially in view of this Businessweek report:
Russian Auto Market Now Europe’s Largest
Wow, and from Automotive News no less. Nice article. Always nice to be able to say “I told you so”…
“Kill Caddy in Europe and invest in Saab.”
If they truly are evaluating every brand and re-visiting the capital spending budget, it seems like an obvious decision.
It would probably take 10 times less money to make Saab profitable in Europe than it would to build the Cadillac brand there.
Now that the most profitable segment of their business (trucks & suvs) aren’t selling, the new most profitable segment has to be cars over $25k. The market is falling right into Saab’s lap, hopefully GM figures this out.
And as part of GM’s new focus, their first order of business should be to green light the 9-1.
It is the obvious choice, of course - GM has Saab, an already established premium brand ready to attack Europe with.
Unless the General’s midium term plan is to sell Saab and hence the push to establish Cadillac as their global premium player.
Caddy was a answere to the problem of having choosen a weak brand-strategy for Saab.
Or simple, to a unsucessful attempt to re-position Saab as a luxury/premium brand after the first attempt missed in the late 80s.Or even more drastic, the target group GM-Saab was aiming at never existed and could not be created (Wagoner/Lutz! Do not believe your PowerPoint corporals!). The point is, the Wallenberg realised that quite early (They had enlisted the right corporals). But who blindfolded you?
Back to Caddy: Yea, in Russia, masculine pre-post modern typs of people may stay exist, like in the Americans. The right folk for a Hummer or Caddy, provided right fuel prices.
But still, Wagoner/Lutz and their corporals have some home work left: What to do with Saab?
I would move forward, communicate/admit failure with the existing brand-strategy and start from scratch. New start, new take off!
Wagoner/Lutz, is not my job to do this for you and your corporals but you have to do it! You had to do it yesterday! I hope, it is not loo late…
The problem is, I think the current strategy is to integrate each subsequent generation of Saab with Opel more and more. The two are under GM Europe and the plan was to make Saab the premium arm of Opel (and therefore likely the premium arm of Saturn in North America and the premium arm of Vauxhall in the U.K.). Unless something’s changed this is still the course they’re on. Have you noticed that there’s less and less of Saab and more and more of GM Europe as time goes by?
Soon Saab will be to Opel as Lexus is to Toyota, Infiniti is to Nissan, and Acura is to Honda. I’m guessing this will become obvious in 2012 with the intro of the next-gen 9-3, but perhaps it’ll be sooner with the intro of the next-gen 9-5.
But… if this is indeed the plan it only makes sense to give-up on selling Cadillacs in Europe. How much money has GM spent trying to push a product in a region where nobody wants it? I’m guessing just taking the money spent on the BLS they could have afforded to increase the quality of the interior in the 2008 9-3 (the universal complaint EVERYONE has with the car).
I would not mind if Saab becomes to Opel as Lexus is to Toyota — Lexus makes very good cars for their target market (people who want luxury cars but who do not want any involvement with/feedback from their cars).
Doing that, however, would require GM to exhibit brand discipline it has never been able to achieve in the past.
I agree with Gripen and Greg A.: Saab on the front end of the price and feature point for Opel/Vauxhall/Saturn, but with character, not appliance appeal. It makes economic sense, and the model works (see GM Canada).
Has anyone else noted that the latest Buicks (Lucerne and Chinese), Saturn Aura, and Opel Insignia all have the same rear door line? Chevy Cruze, too? Are these models converging. Maybe GM does “get it” that they need Euro models to be a major part of their new standard fare world-wide.
Hmmm, SaabOpel.
Hopefully, it would have more of Saab.
Really! Where is that link? How is this not your full time job? Your the man Swade! I really like the cars/concept links above! The Aero X page is great! Does anyone know where I can find the calendars? I thought they were under Downloads but it’s been a while since I’ve checked!
Hmmmm.
Wierd things happening in comments.
Hey that one isn’t supposed to be there?
I have to agree that pushing Caddy into Europe is not the best idea. GM should be concentrating more on the developing markets in Russia, Asia, and Latin America. Europe already has a bunch of entrenched manufacturers that tend to be protected by their respective governments (mostly Germany and France). And the European car market is either mature or in decline so there isn’t much market share to be carved out there. GM should use the success of Buick in China as a lesson and try to emulate it elsewhere.