general motors

(oh, no, I bought mine six months ago - their loss was since the start of the year)

Ford sees profits fall to $1.2bn

General Motors: 'We need to talk.'

It's their 'fuel technology dialogue,' y'see.

r.i.p. pontiac

DETROIT — According to a source at General Motors, the company will announce next Monday its new "faster, deeper" reorganization plan, which will likely include a death sentence for the Pontiac brand.

Inside Line called Tom Wilkinson, news relations PR man for General Motors, who said: "There's nothing I can share with you at this time. Keep your eyes on our media site. Officially, nothing has changed with Pontiac's niche-brand status, until you hear differently."

The one-time "Excitement" division and creator of legends such as the GTO and Firebird was relegated to "niche" or "specialty" brand status by General Motors in its first viability plan in December of last year.

The company toyed with competing proposals to either turn the brand into GM's version of Scion or to make Pontiac a very focused purveyor of performance cars based around the critically well-received G8. But ultimately, Pontiac was chosen as the easiest to kill since it was cut from GM's self-defined herd of four "core brands," Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick. Most Pontiac franchises have already been combined with Buick and GMC.

Apparently GMC and Buick vehicles sell pretty well, but are they really necessary? Should be Chevrolet and Cadillac. That's it.

It was Chevy, and now it's not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/automobiles/10chevy.html

Folks, there are bad ideas, and there ones that are legendary in their badness. Unfortunately for General Motors, it would appear that the automaker may very well be lobbying for its own wing in the Dumb Idea Hall of Fame. The New York Times reports that a memo distributed to workers at the company's headquarters earlier this week instructs them to cease referring to the Chevrolet brand by its long-standing nickname, Chevy. Going forward, only Chevrolet is to be used. The reasoning? So-called branding consistency. If you're thinking, "That's insane," well, we don't blame you.

It gets better.

The Times further points out that the memo, signed by Chevy marketing vice president Jim Campbell (you see what we did there) and Alan Batey, VP of Chevy sales and service (there we go again), uses Coke – Coke – as an example of what GM is trying to achieve with this approach. It would seem that the powers-that-be at the RenCen are oblivious to the irony that Coke is, of course, shorthand for the company's formal name, Coca-Cola.

In a nutshell, we feel that the Coke comparison GM uses in the memo is ultimately rather apt, given that the idea of memory-holing "Chevy" as part of some absurd branding exercise seems destined to be a failure on the level of New Coke. GM's got its work cut out for itself, regardless. As of right now, Chevrolet.com has 5,480 "Chevy" mentions on it according to Google. GM.com? 1,730 more. That Chevy is inextricably tied to Chevrolet is a reality GM's marketers are apparently divorced from.

Not sure what's so surprising about this. GM expects that people will still use 'Chevy' as an affectionate nickname, but officially they will only use the formal name. You won't see the word 'bimmer' anywhere on the BMW website etc.

Also discussed here:
Chevy pwned over SUV ads

"discussed"

G.M. Says Chevy Memo Was ‘Poorly Worded’

^^deliciously Nixonian denial - "our previous statement has been rendered inoperative"