Jerry Flint rejects call for GM to dump brands

Popular automotive columnist Jerry Flint said this week that he disagrees with the suggestion by Jerry York that GM should kill-off two or more brands. He says, "First, York probably doesn't understand what's happening to Saab. It's being turned over to Opel, the German arm of GM. Future Saabs will be variations of Opel cars built in German factories. One day the Swedish Saab plant probably will shut, too. So the cost of this operation is being drastically reduced. [...] Hummer is doing well with the H3, too, and that could grow from the 33,000 sales in part of last year, say to 50,000 or more. [...] Saturn has four new models coming: the Sky roadster this spring for excitement (it's built off the Pontiac Solstice platform) will be the first. [...] Buicks still has problems. The new Lucerne sedan is in a tough market and the new Buick crossover still is 18 months away. But that's no reason to kill a famous name."