GM: the anti-brand builder
Nice going GM.
Destroying Pontiac and Oldsmobile, once iconic brands on the American landscape, and Saturn, a fresh idea with lots of potential, weren’t enough. Now it seems due to your utterly irresponsible management of Saab, it too is being scrapped. So utterly valueless have you made it, GM, that you can’t even sell it to the lowest bidder. Now you are forced to take it out behind the barn and shoot it.
Remember when Saab was cool? It was a car you noticed and got you noticed. People who drove them were cool. We all remember the kids in high school and college who drove the Saab beaters. They drove their rust and torn upholstery with pride. It was exotic, but in a confident and subdued way. It was Swedish. Those feelings were strong. They easily overcame its hard-to-maintain, expensive-to-fix reputation. Saabs weren’t for everyone.
Then GM bought it and it quickly morphed into every other car, both in design and the image it promised its owners. Nice.
GM only has two iconic brands left: Corvette and Cadillac. Somehow they have survived relatively in tact (although I know a few Corvette fans who would argue, quite adamantly, to the contrary). Bets on how long GM will take to bury them too?