General Motors

[grslightng02]

General Motors has a profile for each of their target markets for each brand.
Cadillac of course for those with the deep pocket book and desire for sporty and luxurious. Buick is the step just below (affordable luxury) and every once in a while with an "Automobile to light your fire!" Pontiac has leaned more towards it's muscle car/sporty car side lately. Chevrolet supplies the affordable family cars, trucks, and our one time sister car Corvette. GMC puts out the trucks for utility and heavy duty purposes.

Saturn (having previously owned one) was a dissappointment for owners and GM and they have recently moved toward buyers wanting the more Euro car by taking Opels and simply slapping on some different labels and trim packages i.e. the Saturn Sky and new Opel GT.

Saab... well what can we say... they're safe?

And Hummer seems to have been all the rage with the military and with every soccer mom wanting an SUV on Steroids.

What GM is most likely going to face is a cut back of models within each brand name that are not selling as expected. More to the point with gas prices having gone from around $1.45 a gallon 7 years ago to now over $4.00 a gallon, GAS GUZZLing SUV's are being sold and traded in, and the new guzzlers are not selling.

All car companies are are feeling this squeeze, not just GM. And actually I saw on the news that GM having so many models getting 30+MPG they came in first place recently, showing the least amount of losses in sales, with Toyota coming in behind GM showing almost twice as much loss.

Just as the gas crisis and smog regulations of the early 1970's saw the end of the muscle car era, the high prices of gasoline today are seeing the end of the gas guzzling SUV's, Trucks, and guzzling Sedans.