Earth to GM: The Stupid, it Hurts!

New CAFE standards are going to be 36 mpg.

Probable direction for oil/gas costs during and after recovery is up and then way up.

And then there is the overall environmental issue which will mean more smaller vehicles with less internal combustion (directly) powering them.

The brands GM is keeping are the most profitable based on the high profit margin of the SUV and big truck: Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC and Buick (Buick?!?).

Caddy and Chevy make sense in all manners. They are flagship plates. Chevy covers the spectrum from the small Aveo to the massive Suburban to the quintessential Corvette. Cadillac has less cachet than it used to but still can compete with Mercedes, Lexus and Audi.

GMC is a bit more iffy. The label is only big-ass trucks and a forward thinking individual might see that brand, like Hummer, as one that could nose dive in the coming years. Unlike Hummer, GMC does do big business in fleet sales (things like moving vans and sales to fire depts and more), so it does have that side that could well keep it alive despite likely plummeting consumer sales.

But Buick? Seriously? About the only thing I can figure here is that they are assuming that the Obama health plan will be so good that there is going to be a booming market for sales to the over 80 crowd in the coming years, but even that over 80 crowd will be increasingly people who eschewed the Buick label (along with much of the rest of the big 3), and an unlikely source of revenue. Maybe the government buys lots of Buicks? Or maybe Buick is profitable because they only spend about 50 cents a year on R&D? I'm pretty sure that the Buick design team discussions go something like: "We'll bring back the fender portholes so old people will remember how they used to be!" and then a few years later: "Now we will remove the fender portholes because most people think they are silly!"

They are ditching Saturn and Pontiac--brands that have great future potential--and keeping Buick. Yes, GM is bound to fail again. It is precisely this type of ass-backwards thinking that has led to their going over the cliff while Ford, Toyota, Mazda, et cetera are suffering but surviving. Of those two dying brands Saturn probably has the best potential and will likely be purchased or spun off somehow and end up more successful in the long run than any of the kept brands save Chevrolet.