General Motors: three ways for the future

Kill Saturn, Resurrect Opel

Saturn was a great experiment. It was General Motors proving that they could provide exactly what people were looking for in the Japanese brands. The original SL and SC lines of sedans and coupes (basically the same car with different body styles and engines) was compact, inexpensive, fuel-efficient and reliable. I owned a first generation and loved it.

But then something happened. While the rest of GM’s car brands began catching up to Saturn’s lesson, Saturn lost its identity. The SL’s angular and almost aggressive design was inverted into a round and cute design in the second generation. By the time the Ion died in last year, the company had fully It went from a different kind of car, to your daughter’s college car.

Now Saturn is getting big help from Opel. The Astra is a sporty and angular car that is compact, inexpensive, fuel-efficient, reliable and EUROPEAN. The VUE is also direct from Opel (although built by Daewoo.) And if we keep our fingers crossed, arguably the best sedan in all of GM’s family, the Opel Insignia, will make it to these shores as a Saturn.

The biggest problem for Saturn is that its cars are being overlooked, and because many are imported, it is a smaller profit margin. But the reason most people don’t look at Saturns is because they don’t know that most of it’s lineup is imported. German cars are hot sellers. People love BMWs, Mercedes, and Volkswagens, not only because they have sportier characteristics, but because they also carry that image. This is a prestige that GM had built-in and needs to exploit.

This is the perfect time to cash in on that perception. Kill Saturn and bring back the Opel name that’s been dead in the states since 1975. Saturn is the perfect set up. Its network of stand-alone dealers will be enough to distance Opel from its domestic cousin brands. Advertising can feature the idea that the cars are purely German but the profits support an American company. It’s the perfect set up for, “The Guilt-Free German Driving Experience”.

Watch out Volkswagen.

Miracle Platform

In 1999 Nissan was circling the drain. Carlos Ghosn came in and turned the company around within a few year with what was called the Nissan Revival Plan (NRP). A cornerstone of this was to decrease the number of platforms while increasing the number of cars. GM has the first step, it has a handful of good car platforms, but it uses these platforms for the same type of cars. Now is the time to invest its part of the $25 billion in loan guarantees in making a few more exciting cars.

Lately it seems some cars are getting delayed for cost-cutting sake. That’s the exact wrong approach. Its time to fight tooth and nail for every customer by offering amazing cars that owners can still afford to finance.

Nissan has two main platforms it uses for cars in the states the FF-L front drive and the FR rear wheel drive. These cover a lot of territory: the FF-L is on everything from the Quest minivan to the Maxmia sedan, and the FR underpins everything from the 350Z to the Infiniti FX SUV. It is one of the best lessons in cars. Both platforms are heavier than they need to be and are not the best for any application, but instead they are the best for all applications. For example, the 350Z is a little heavier than it needs to be, but that means it tough enough to be used in the FX with much less modification. Multiple kinds of cars on one single platform. If GM adapted this kind idea, it would not need to kill off rear-wheel drive cars because it would just be able to use the economies of scale from a crossover platform.

Serious Specialty Cars

True car enthusiasts were not happy when there was not a Z28 Camaro. No one is blaming GM, it’s hard to sell a big V8 today at a profit. So he’s the solution: screw profits!

GM may need all the money it can get it hands on, but it also needs good press. Why not drop the biggest engine it can find into a Camaro (it would be even better if they re-badged it a Pontiac Trans-Am) and sell them for cost. Make only a few hundred examples because there will always be a few people that can afford a car that is a guaranteed instant classic.

So now with stories of layoff and loss, which will inevitably happen across the industry, there is also some cool product stories to throw into the mix.

I know there are definite flaws in my ideas. If you have a better solution, it’s time to suggest it because the American car companies need our suppo