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Chevrolet is the flagship company. In Durant's formation of GM, he intended a car for everybody. The main line is Chevrolet, which features a few performance cars, a lot of family cars, and a focus on the middle class.
Buick is the first company Durant opened. For heritage reasons, it has to stay. If Ford went out of style, Ford wouldn't cancel it. GM needs to revitalize the company some more with a hard-hitting supercar designed by Buick. This would produce new interest in the brand. Buick also needs to build a luxury muscle car. Buick's audience seems to be above the middle class, but not quite exclusively upper class drivers.
Cadillac is GM's luxury brand. It needs no improvement. Since GM plans on ending the Northstar V8, look forward to an LS7 XLR-V.
Pontiac is directed toward middle class buyers who seek performance cars and see the Chevrolet brand as too broad. Pontiac makes some of the same cars as Chevrolet and sells them using a more performance-oriented approach because they don't have to sell to soccer moms who want minivans. Pontiac should continue to go RWD with high horsepower in all their cars. Pontiac should introduce an AWD car to compete with Subaru.
Saab is a unique segment of GM. It fills the same role as Buick in the lineup with less name recognition. To keep this brand alive, GM should style it more like BMW. If Saab can compete directly with European brands, it will create a better image for GM as a whole.
Saturn needs to get back those dent-resistant panels. Apparently, several models, if not all of them, do not have dent-resistant panels anymore. That made their cars light and fast for their output. Saturn tends to market safety and should stick to that, with the addition of their recent "rethink" advertisements. The introduction of the Saturn Sky was genious.
Hummer needs to compete with both Land Rover and Jeep to be successful. If GM doesn't want to hand all their competitive SUV sales to other brands, they need to keep a high-profile SUV brand around. Hummer needs to produce more platforms with lower production to build demand for their new models. They should have a response for the Wrangler, the Liberty, and the Range Rover in addition to their current models to more directly compete with opposing brands.
GMC is a Chevrolet copy. It has made some cool trucks in the past, but it is redundant in the sales world. While there may be some backlash for losing GMC, the trucks are not selling. People demand Hummer for style. People demand GMC for the same reason they would buy a Silverado. GMC is unnecessary.
Daewoo has the same reputation as Geo. These cars are considered to be the lowest quality and bring down the GM name. GM should sell Chevrolets and Saturns where it sells Daewoo.
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