Chicagoland

It's more important to make profits for GM to pay off the bailout. No company can exists selling cars to rental fleets at losses to 'keep plants going'. "Where did the non core brand customers go?" I see alot of Kias in Avis, National and Budget lots at OHare Airport, so all the G6's were replaced with those. Let Korea get loss leading rental sales.

Yes, keep the GM brands in the A. Sloan order. But, SAAB is not GM owned anymore, and they will eventually not use GM designs. But, either way, it's no big deal how it's listed.

It's actaully doing something for the real world, not follow Japan. No need for badges to please old car hobbyists. 0.8% market share of Ford Motor Co.? Time for euthenasia!

The S series was expected to sell without changes and was 'good enough' for GM's 1990's managers. Same with the Cavalier. The thought process was that small car buyers "don't care about quality and are cheap buyers". But if they don't like the car after owning it, they are gone for life from GM.

'The new Ion will be a huge hit and Saturn will be reborn' Look you well that worked out!

Required reading for any Pontiac fan is these topics on www.atewithmotor.com: 1953-54 Pontiac 1964 GTO 1967 Firebird It wasn't always 'muscle cars' for Ponhco, and the competition between GM brands helped it go BK. A Pontiac dealer stealing a Chevy buyer with a Sunfire or Grand Am with huge rebates lost $$$ overall. GM has to get back to making a steady flow of profits before any 'niche' brand can be created. Here are GM brands that died in the Great Depression: Oakland, Viking, Marquette, LaSalle Should all of those come back as well?

FYI: Those GM box dealer signs date back to the late 60's, not the 80's, and are at 90% of dealers since. The one in the pic above is an original Olds sign, with the red backgrounds for dealer name. When the last Olds logo came out in 90's, then all GM signs had black backgrounds for dealer name. All GM divisions had a brand name for their used cars. Most well known is Chevy's "OK", which is still used. Olds dealers' used cars were called "Value Rated", Buick was "Quality Checked". Darn, I can't remember Pontiac or Caddy's, ;(

I come from Buick family and the Invicta [ick] was never remembered as a 'storied name' as Electra or Wildcat. It sounds like a computer generated name or a pharmacutical. LeSabre now means 'Depends', 'Geritol', or 'Life Alert', i.e. geriatric drivers. Also, LeSabre was never the top of the line or a performance car. [No one cares about the FWD Type T] Also, nobody under 75 wants one these days. So, RIP. And LaCrosse is also the sport played world wide, not just a town in WI.

Wow, there were still some left over Grand Prixs, a whole 3 of them sold! G6 sales are up!! Actually, fleet managers love to grab leftovers cheap. The US Navy base where I work just got in a few new G6's, can tell since they have the new fascia. They have spoilers too, just like the last Achievas. BTW: I've seen 2004 Aleros with Military plates on them a few years ago; must have got them in bulk.

It's not technically a rebadge, since there is a Caprice in Saudi. [And it is not a 9C1, that was just an old code #] Anyway, if more Volts are sold to up the CAFE #'s, then maybe they can sell more Caprices.

Dont know if anyone has one of the Toyota's under the recall, but my folks have an '07 Avalon. Step-dad checked and the drver floor mat hook is broken. This may be the root cause...

I'm glad the new LaCrosse is doing OK. I've seen quite a few without rental bar code stickers, and driven by under 60 y/o people! Only saw one rental LAX so far, but it still stood out.

Someone wondered about getting Saturn parts at other GM shops. Well, the S series is old enough that junkyards have plenty to pick over. L Series? SOL, those are getting crushed as fast as Chevy Vegas did. But Saturns from past 4 years share many parts with Chevy/GMC/Buick [Aura, Vue, Outlook, Relay] or can be obtained from Opel [Astra].

I think the Ion's whole design turned off Saturn buyers more than just dropping plastic panels! It was a mess. I'd say Ion is top of the 'What killed Saturn?' list, next is the L cars, and then the expensive SUV's.

Sourcing cars from Renault-Samsung was dubious, and how could Renault compete with itself [Nissan]? So, Roger Smith's 'pie in the sky' is finally put down. And all the money spent on the "Saturn Project" could have helped the rest of GM since 1985!!!

MI did not need another closed GM plant, period.

" [Zeta] It's built as a Chevy for the mideast" Where gas is pennies a gallon!!! The V8 Zeta gets 13 city, a pure hog. Get real, it is dead, and it isn't coming here. Why don't you move to Saudi then if you have to have that gas hog so bad?

Fusion is kicking Malibu's rear, GM has to step it up and forget about rental sales, old timers' tastes, and plasticy interiors

One problem with Cadillac is the fading DTS [DeVille] customer base. Current 60-somethings buy small SUVs, compacts, mid sized cars. They are not the 'floaty boat', column shift, bench seat driving generation who have bought their last new cars. They need a good D class car to reaplce both STS/DTS, and move forward. Also, a good C class car, and those that don't think a Caddy should be this size, too bad, it's the real car world now. It ain't 1959 or even '99.

2002 Neon was the last Plymouth. And, Packards last cars were re-badged Studies. GM hit an iceburg like the Titanic, and really couldn't save all the brands.

Well, most of those were from GM engineering, and they would give items to Pontiac and Olds as 'experiments'. Some of the above really didn't work too well. Hidden wipers get covered with ice/snow. And, the first window antennas had poor reception. Pontiac did well when GM had 50% market share and could differentiate cars better. After they started pouring $$ into UAW contracts and Roger Smith's wacky ideas, then cost cuts showed in products.

Pontiac started slumming it when the Canadian Pontiac dealers demanded the Vega cloned Astre. Then we got it and then T1000... we know the rest.

A good suggestion for "Jeopardy!" Contestant: I'll take GM for $800... Alex: The answer is... Contestant: I say 'Why did GM go bankrupt?' Alex

Three words on why this dream won't happen: United Auto Workers. More likely, tooling will be shipped overseas for cheap labor to build new Saturns. Even if Pontiac name was sold, it would be re-badged cheap imports, not new GTO's, etc.

The crying Pontiac dealer undercut the Chevy dealers, and GM lost $$$. The years of Sunfire vs. Cavalier are over.