Word: saturns
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After decades of mostly good times, being in the car business is going to be a wretched experience for the next few years. Chrysler may not even be at the next show. GM may not show up with its Hummer or Saturn brands. If domestic car sales keep dropping at 40% per year, the 2010 show may be four used Fords on display in the Javits parking...
...Should GM go into bankruptcy, the plan would involve forming one company around bad assets, such as Hummer and Saturn, and dumping the retiree health-care liabilities into it. That company could be sold off or wound down. A second company would comprise the better performing Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, Pontiac and GMC brands. That ongoing firm could be partly owned by the bondholders, the UAW and other creditors...
...However, Saturn spokesman Mike Morrissey insists that the expensive ads for brands on the chopping block do make sense. "We had been holding back on our advertising. We thought the time was right," says Morrissey, adding the NCAA Tournament has long delivered a young, affluent audience favored by carmakers. "We're very much alive," he says. (See the worst business deals...
...course, many Saturn employees and dealers hope for more than a sales boost. They want a white knight. "I've felt for more than a year that GM could not support the Saturn brand the way it should be supported," says Jay Cimino, a Saturn dealer who operates five Saturn Dealerships around Denver and Colorado Springs. "If we were spun off to the right people, it would be great," he adds...
...could possibly buy or adopt Saturn? Private equity firms are facing big losses, and the painful experience of Cerberus, which bought Chrysler, has not gone unnoticed. But Morrissey insists there are still options: "We think we have some very interesting opportunities for Saturn," he says. GM's critics have argued for years that the company had too many brands and the return on the investment was negligible. However, Saturn did succeed in proving car dealerships could have friendly customer relations and a good reputation for customer service. Because of that, Cimino says, the Saturn dealer network could serve as ready...