what the hell were GM thinking?

First, they buy Saab and turn a qaulity car maker into just a brand, and
plan to use it's factory to make "Small European" cadillacs in Sweden.

The it suggests that it might make Saabs in the Opel factory in
Russelheim because all the Saab engineers will be building Cadillacs.

Then it badges a Subaru as a Saab to get the youth market, and makes at
the Subaru plant too, because they own a stake and because they can.

So it ruins Saab by making Cadillacs that are really Saabs, and Saabs
that are really Opels/Subarus (and not the best of either), when
Cadillacs have never sold well in europe even when they were avialable.

And they bought Daewoo, because Daewoo have always licensed
Opel/Vauxhall european GM designs 2 generations out of date anyway, and
the company was having trouble.

But look what they have done now.
http://www.chevrolet.co.uk
The first ever official Chevy presence in the UK, and look what cars
they choose to put the badge on. It is sick.
--
"Sorry Sir, the meatballs are Orf"
The poster formerly known as Skodapilot.
http://www.bouncing-czechs.com

In article <vzlVd.669$uk2.164@fe03.lga>, nospam4meplease@nospam.net
says...
> Dang, no corvette and no pickup...Thanks god I'm American.
>

believe it or not, before there was an official Chevy presence, you
could buy order a Camaro or a vette from any european GM dealership
(generally Opel(most of europe)/Vauxhall(uk only)). Now they have a
presence, it looks like it might not be available, although I guess they
would still order one.

Doesn't do the brand much good globably though if europe only see Chevy
as badly built low budget Korean GM castoff with a badge though does it.
--
"Sorry Sir, the meatballs are Orf"
The poster formerly known as Skodapilot.
http://www.bouncing-czechs.com

"Sleeker GT Phwoar" <carl.robson@bouncing-czechs.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1c8fed7e4d9f07a598ab8f@news.individual.ne t...
> First, they buy Saab and turn a qaulity car maker into just a brand, and
> plan to use it's factory to make "Small European" cadillacs in Sweden.
>
> The it suggests that it might make Saabs in the Opel factory in
> Russelheim because all the Saab engineers will be building Cadillacs.
>
> Then it badges a Subaru as a Saab to get the youth market, and makes at
> the Subaru plant too, because they own a stake and because they can.
>
> So it ruins Saab by making Cadillacs that are really Saabs, and Saabs
> that are really Opels/Subarus (and not the best of either), when
> Cadillacs have never sold well in europe even when they were avialable.
>
> And they bought Daewoo, because Daewoo have always licensed
> Opel/Vauxhall european GM designs 2 generations out of date anyway, and
> the company was having trouble.
>
> But look what they have done now.
> http://www.chevrolet.co.uk
> The first ever official Chevy presence in the UK, and look what cars
> they choose to put the badge on. It is sick.
> --
> "Sorry Sir, the meatballs are Orf"
> The poster formerly known as Skodapilot.
> http://www.bouncing-czechs.com

Well the strategy isn't working. GM is loosing market share faster than
anybody, including Ford. At least that is according to reports released
yesterday (and a string of reports before that one). It's always
interesting that GM management seems to blame auto sales as being poor in
general, yet Toyota, Nissan Honda, Chrysler (and others) say auto sales are
better.

It is known as economies of scale. The new small Caddy to be
offered in the EU will be a Cadillac design, not a Saab, only it
will be built in the Saab plant. The Saab plant is much cheaper
to operate than the GM plants in Germany and it is currently
under used.

Saab sales are higher than ever since they were bought out by GM,
but the Saab division still looses money every year.

Suzuki sales were up in the US by 30% in 2004, their best sales
year ever. They are built by GM in the Daewoo plants in Korea,
not Japan, since Japan does not allow foreigners to own a
Japanese company. Ask Boone Pickers, he learned the hard way


mike



Sleeker GT Phwoar wrote:
>
> First, they buy Saab and turn a qaulity car maker into just a brand, and
> plan to use it's factory to make "Small European" cadillacs in Sweden.
>
> The it suggests that it might make Saabs in the Opel factory in
> Russelheim because all the Saab engineers will be building Cadillacs.
>
> Then it badges a Subaru as a Saab to get the youth market, and makes at
> the Subaru plant too, because they own a stake and because they can.
>
> So it ruins Saab by making Cadillacs that are really Saabs, and Saabs
> that are really Opels/Subarus (and not the best of either), when
> Cadillacs have never sold well in europe even when they were avialable.
>
> And they bought Daewoo, because Daewoo have always licensed
> Opel/Vauxhall european GM designs 2 generations out of date anyway, and
> the company was having trouble.
>
> But look what they have done now.
> http://www.chevrolet.co.uk
> The first ever official Chevy presence in the UK, and look what cars
> they choose to put the badge on. It is sick.
> --
> "Sorry Sir, the meatballs are Orf"
> The poster formerly known as Skodapilot.
> http://www.bouncing-czechs.com




Sleeker GT Phwoar wrote:
>
> First, they buy Saab and turn a qaulity car maker into just a brand, and
> plan to use it's factory to make "Small European" cadillacs in Sweden.
>
> The it suggests that it might make Saabs in the Opel factory in
> Russelheim because all the Saab engineers will be building Cadillacs.
>
> Then it badges a Subaru as a Saab to get the youth market, and makes at
> the Subaru plant too, because they own a stake and because they can.
>
> So it ruins Saab by making Cadillacs that are really Saabs, and Saabs
> that are really Opels/Subarus (and not the best of either), when
> Cadillacs have never sold well in europe even when they were avialable.
>
> And they bought Daewoo, because Daewoo have always licensed
> Opel/Vauxhall european GM designs 2 generations out of date anyway, and
> the company was having trouble.
>
> But look what they have done now.
> http://www.chevrolet.co.uk
> The first ever official Chevy presence in the UK, and look what cars
> they choose to put the badge on. It is sick.
> --
> "Sorry Sir, the meatballs are Orf"
> The poster formerly known as Skodapilot.
> http://www.bouncing-czechs.com

And just how much market share do you suppose they'd get if they brought to
the European market vehicles that got 15-20 mpg like their full-sized
pick-ups and SUV's? How well received do you think GM would be in a place
that averages somewhere between $5.00-7.00/gallon if they decided to bring
over full sized Caddy's and Buick's? Sub-compact fuel efficient cars (which
for whatever reason they don't produce here in the US) are exactly what they
need to bring into Europe first just to get a toehold. This is exactly what
people in urban/suburban areas are driving, and if they brought in anything
that gets less than 30mpg then all the press they would ever get from that
point on will be bad. I ain't no marketing guru, but just basic common
sense tells me this is a good common-sense start, but you can't be so dense
not to realize that it's only a first step. Not everything they do is
wrong, even though it may not seem that way to the traditional GM-haters.
It's the same business model many Asian and European auto makers use over
here - start small for a few years then expand the line-up gradually. It's
workable, affordable, and can be changed easily as time/needs/opinions
change.

Cheers - Jonathan
--
Jonathan A. Race
Lieutenant, EMS Supervisor
Orange County (FL) Fire Rescue Department

(This message may contain personal opinions and/or information not related
to my employment or employer)
"Sleeker GT Phwoar" <carl.robson@bouncing-czechs.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1c8fed7e4d9f07a598ab8f@news.individual.ne t...

Snip
>
> But look what they have done now.
> http://www.chevrolet.co.uk
> The first ever official Chevy presence in the UK, and look what cars
> they choose to put the badge on. It is sick.
> --
> "Sorry Sir, the meatballs are Orf"
> The poster formerly known as Skodapilot.
> http://www.bouncing-czechs.com

That may be true but GM still sells more cars than any other
manufacture. The also sell more trucks, although Ford sells the
most of single brand trucks, where GM has two brands. The reason
domestic are loosing share is the pie is being cut into many many
more pieces than when they commanded nearly 50% of the market.
Fifty years ago there were basically only four manufactures
selling cars and trucks in the US. Only 10% of which were light
trucks. Today there are more than 120 models sold in the US and
over 50% are trucks, not cars. Toyota sells the most of one
brand car, the Camry, but the F150 sells at a rate nearly double
that of the Camry. The Silverado and the Ram outsell the Camry
and the Explorer sells as well as the Camry. GM and Ford own the
truck market, with even DerMopar selling more trucks than all the
other foreign truck manufactures combined. GM and Ford sell more
cars and trucks in the US than all of the other manufactures
combined, as well. If you are going to divide the pie among more
manufactures every year, as is happening in the US, ones piece of
the pie will continue to get smaller even as the pie continues to
get bigger. In 1978 the total number of vehicles sold was around
nine million, today it is more than twice that many.


mike hunt

But they do "have 78 seat variations that, quite frankly, you&rsquo;ll
never need or use."