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I read that General Motors is expected to post a big 1st quarter loss for fiscal year 2005. GM has already dropped Oldsmobile. There are rumors that another badge may be dropped. Either Buick Pontiac Saturn or GMC. Any insights?

 
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I dont really know, but I would have to guess that GMC would be the one that they drop if they do. they are just rebadged chevys, except for that envoy xuv. all their other lines (buick, pontiac, and saturn) have all had new models come out this year, so it will be some time before they would drop another brand, as far as im concerned. GMC would be the first to go.

 
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hopefully they will drop all badges very soon!

 
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GM isnt really putting anything spectacular out right now they need to step up their game especially with pontiac. Maybe the solstace willl bring in some good numbers?

 
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Gm is just going out of style. But im surprised its happening to all of their different sub-car-companies! Wow they are really sucking right now. And ford is no better since they are recalling over 3 million vehicles now.

 
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Yup the recalls are hurting Ford a bit - I think for their sales they should start ignoring or possibly make TSB's instead of recalls like alot of other companies do. Because alot of the recalls are nothing major (well not all of them) Ford also has all their other owned companies making them money as well though Ie Mazda etc.

Also the new mustang that has come out is kicking *** in sales and there is new plants doing extra work just to keep up with the demand - I hear performance with them is pretty damn good (GT)

 
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I've even heard that Cadillac owners have complaints of the type that shouldn't be at that price level. I have also heard that the best GM car in overall terms may right now be the Impala.

 
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they still make Buicks?

 
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if they do tank, it will affect everyone financially. GM provides millions of jobs, and is a blue chip stock. I hate gm crap, but economies are totally dependant on GM.

 
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no economy is totally dependand on GM. And as with all other horrible companies the US gov't will bail them out!

 
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GMC will probably go first. IMO, chevy simply has to many cars in their line up that are competing for agianst eachother. I mean they have 9 cars and 7 SUV's. I think you will soon see chevy cutting soem of their own model out, I mean they still make the cavlier, after the Cobalt is out.

 
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That's true, but the government should bail them out. If GM goes down, the government loose lots of tax payers, hence they get less money and actually loose money because they will have to probably pay welfare to half those people. And if those jobs go under, the economy as a whole will suffer because of a decrease in spending. So really the government is protecting it own interest, they want us to work and pay taxes. They just need to stop spending so much over seas.

 
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I believe they will drop the legendary Buick...It will be a loss for a lot of people, personally I have nothing against Buick. I hope all those domestic-import immitation should really be dropped because it is kind of disgusting seeing american car being build similar to jap car's shape

 
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^^^ the only thing that make me think otherwise is that they just came out with a Buick that has an all new motor and blah blah blah, but I think they are trying to save the Buick line with this new one, if it fails I think Buick line will die with this new car.

 
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I do know one thing though, before walmart became as big as they are now, Genral Motors was the largest contributor to the Gross National Product. Still believe they are like number three or something. Who wants a buick or Olds anyway.

 
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GM is hurt greatly by the fact that they were the one number employer in the US for all those years. You see, all those workers they used to employee are now retired and they have to pay their retirement checks and healthcare. GM payed $9 BILLION in healthcare costs last years for all past and present employees. Part of their plan to increase profits is to trim that number by increasing the co-pay of their UAW employees from 9% to the 23% of their salaried employees.

 
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i like imports.

 
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dropping saturn would be the best thing they can do in my point of view. Sales have slumped in the last few years on saturns. They will never drop GMC as a brand, or pontiac... GMC is their signature brand, and pontiac's sell like hot cakes. No if they dropped a few models in their lines, that may help.

They need to do something drastic to their current line up, like they are trying to do with pontiac and chevy. But they need more. I would drop the aztek and a few of the many slow selling gas guzzler suv's. Just my opinion though.

 
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Saturn was supposed to be the Honda fighter of the 90's but they're still spewing cars that are sub-par... In fact, they even use a Honda engine in their lineup to make up for GM's shortcomings... GMC will drop the Envoy because it isn't selling well, so I could see them dropping GMC all together.

I see that Caddy is doing well overseas, esp. in China, so they will just keep getting better, but the DTS is STILL a DeVille with the new look, they should really address that if they want their entire line-up to do well because it is their halo vehicle and BMW and Merc take their heavy hitters the S and the 7 quite seriously. The Caddilac XLR is ok, but I personally think its a bit pricy, I mean they will make a more performance oriented SL AMG killer that will be priced well, but pricing hasn't been announced yet so that could still determine how well that sells.

Buick is doing well, the only thing that they have to do is bring in more younger people because a lot of people in the same market tend to look at other makers first. They're trying to be Lexus competitors and are aiming for VERY soft, unlike Caddy.

Chevy and Pontiac are doing ok, both of them have new sedans and coupes. Pontiac in my opinion has the better designed G6 and whatever they name the coupe. While Chevy has sharp looking Cobalt and Corvette on their side. Saturn is the oddball. I don't know what will go well for them untill they bring out the Saturn Sky.

Hummer is moving downmarket and getting more shares. H3's are probably a move to save gas and get more vehicles because the H2's are doing so well compared to H1's.

They'll probably pull Isuzu out of the US but that will just be because they don't supply anything good to Isuzu. Isuzu does sooo well becuase of its diesel engines overseas...

 
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Buick is still popular with a lot of people over 50 so GM could probably get another 30 years out of that brand. Same with Caddy. I think Pontiac still has potential, but it is slipping away. Sometimes I wonder about GMs marketing strategies. They put out a lot of hype about a new model coming out. Then they leak the name let's say G6. Then the next thing before it is really on the market, they give a 100 to Oprah to give away for free, and then another dozen to Survivor to give away for free. Before the car even gets a chance is has an image of being mass market junk that GM can afford to give away for nothing. You won't see Honda or Toyota doing that. Or even Hyundai.

 
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i couldnt understand why they dropped oldsmobile... when people were just starting buy up their cars (at least in my area i see alot of Aerios)... they should have gotten rid of GMC and Buick... never built the pontiac sunfire (same car as cavilier) or Aztec (what were they thinking).... what GM needs is to do is build cheap american muscle cars... cars that sell for under 25K that make more than 300hp... they could do it if they tried

the new GTO was a mistake... and now they have to try and sell a car that 10K higher price than a new Ford Mustang and now i hear that a new camaro is in the works.. they better sell them for cheap

oh and another thing American car companies should start doing is sell there cars at more set prices (what i mean is dont set prices at 15K then offer 3K in rebates... just sell the car at 12K).. they would get more sales if they had a low priced car from the get go and not confuse/**** off buyer with rebates sales every other month when the dont make sales quotas