I am a Saturn girl and my dad is a Saab man, so we were both a little worried when General Motors was looking to shed both brands. I am on my second Saturn—I purchased my adorable 3-door Astra just last year. My father has two Saabs in his garage and should receive commision as he has been responsible for several sales simply from his enthusiastic reviews of said vehicles. Point being, we wondered what would happen to our beloved brands if no one stepped up to the plate. It seemed a shame that GM couldn’t leave well enough alone and had to keep procuring more and more car companies that eventually became unsustainable.
Relief came to us in the form of a sale of Saturn to Penske Automotive and Saab to a company called Koenigsegg. Good to know that someone saw the value in maintaining the intergrity of those brands. (Apparently the Chinese have absorbed the burden of the Hummer brand as their role in the auto industry grows.)
So, it seems, as of today, that all of GM’s fast footwork has (for now) saved the company. I say ‘for now’ because it remains to be seen if they learned anything from this debacle. “It is the smaller, leaner, tougher, better cost-focused GM,” said George Magliano, an automotive analyst, “but they still have to deal with the problems that they faced longer-term.”
It is expected that later today, GM (also considering changing its name) will make a show of newer, more efficient models including rechargeable electric cars, but their current model line-up will remain unchanged for now. It is great that they were able to break a record for a company of their size to emerge from bankruptcy, but at what cost? It is sad that this ‘new dawn’ includes cutting another 4,000 jobs (as well as 450 top execs to balance it out.)
Even with all of their losses, CEO Fritz Henderson believes they can “be profitable again even if the U.S. auto market stays at a depressed level of 10 million vehicles sold.” Mr. Henderson must have a magic wand hidden up his sleeve or maybe he is just that good. As Toyota remains ranked as the top global automaker (ousting GM from that spot in 2008), General Motors is going to have to work at warp speed to convince consumers that they are, indeed, a different company; one focused on building cars that will at least equal if not outlast Toyotas and Hondas.
As nice as it would be to see an American car company back on top, I’m afraid we all might be driving hovercrafts before that happens again.
