Next Dead American Company?

moostang104314 · 08-17-2004, 03:41 AM

After hearing Oldsmobile will leave the automotive world, I was wondering what other people thought the next American car manufacturer to die would be. I think it would be Buick, they're only market is for old-people, and they don't seem to be growing too much. Either that or Mercury because you can just buy a Ford for the same price and Mercury's are ugly. Anyway, what do ya think?

SuperJew · 08-17-2004, 04:13 AM

my vote goes for Buick - Mercury is apparently in the middle of a "renaissance" or something to revitalise its image.

mischa · 08-17-2004, 07:01 AM

Mercury and Buick need to pull a Cadillac. I'm not into modern american autos, but the recent cars have impressed me (visually, haven't driven any yet) such as the chrysler 300 and CTS. I think Buick... no mercury ... it seems like neither have anything going for them. I bet their fate is almost decided already, it's just up to when they'll tell us

MaChao · 08-17-2004, 07:56 AM

Aren't they all owned by GM or Chrysler anyways?

If so, I think they should all merge into two or three big companies or something.

moostang104314 · 08-17-2004, 10:22 PM

What do you mean? Oldsmobile was part of GM and it died. And if you mean Ford, GM, and Chrysler join, that would be totally retarded! There's way too much competition, they'd never even think of joining eachother!

If I understood your comment differently, correct me.

thunderbird1100 · 08-17-2004, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moostang104314

After hearing Oldsmobile will leave the automotive world, I was wondering what other people thought the next American car manufacturer to die would be. I think it would be Buick, they're only market is for old-people, and they don't seem to be growing too much. Either that or Mercury because you can just buy a Ford for the same price and Mercury's are ugly. Anyway, what do ya think?

Really I believe Buick will be the next to go. It has absolutely NOTHING going for it other than the Regal being VERY reliable. That's just not enough to hold one company up. Mercury is going through a revival right now and we'll see how it goes...Will it be just another Marauder? Or will it actually be breathed new life?

Ki2AY · 08-17-2004, 11:27 PM

if both go, i wouldnt mind....

ChrisV · 08-18-2004, 08:20 PM

Mercury has been upper trim level rebadged Fords since 1939. It's been working for them for almost 70 years. A little late for teenagers to make decisions about them now.

Buick has been traditional american semi-luxury sedans for the same amount of time (with a few musclecars thrown in for good measure). Again, their target market is pretty big. It ins't teenagers, again, but it's retarded to market everything by what teenagers like.

thunderbird1100 · 08-18-2004, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisV

Mercury has been upper trim level rebadged Fords since 1939. It's been working for them for almost 70 years. A little late for teenagers to make decisions about them now.

Buick has been traditional american semi-luxury sedans for the same amount of time (with a few musclecars thrown in for good measure). Again, their target market is pretty big. It ins't teenagers, again, but it's retarded to market everything by what teenagers like.

Would you NOT agree Olds was almost on the EXACT same level as Buick and Mercury? I'd say they are. So who's not to say we can't judge?

lutz · 08-18-2004, 10:29 PM

GM is looking to its enemy number 1, Toyota (with Lexus). It's simply cheaper to let a marque dying than to keeping it up any longer. GM wants to be efficient and fit for the general competition, because it's General Motors. Joking apart....because of its bean counting philosophy. Just making money without innovations, quality improvements and longtermed goals -- it isn't the miracle cure at all.

DSMer · 08-19-2004, 04:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisV

Mercury has been upper trim level rebadged Fords since 1939. It's been working for them for almost 70 years. A little late for teenagers to make decisions about them now.

Buick has been traditional american semi-luxury sedans for the same amount of time (with a few musclecars thrown in for good measure). Again, their target market is pretty big. It ins't teenagers, again, but it's retarded to market everything by what teenagers like.

Could'nt agree more. Oldsmobile probably fell for the same reason that GM stopped making Camaro's. None the less, you can't just say Buick and or Mercury is the next to go. Most cars that Mercury and Buick make are'nt generally appealing to young teens because thats not their intentions. Aside for a few exceptions. Anywhos, I'm sure GM has other intentions than just randomly dropping car makes.....

Voda48 · 08-19-2004, 05:14 AM

Plymouth was suppose to phase out like 6 years ago........ they are still around and kicking, although not very hard. I don't think Olds will be gone for long (hopefully) But who knows

ChrisV · 08-19-2004, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thunderbird1100

Would you NOT agree Olds was almost on the EXACT same level as Buick and Mercury? I'd say they are. So who's not to say we can't judge?

No, I wouldn't. Why? GM had 5 basic lines from Chevy to Cadillac. Ford has 3, from Ford to Lincoln. Buick and Olds filled the same role: more expensive than the base levels, but less expensive than the top level. With one gone, the other has that role to itself.

Mercury has always been the stepping stone to Lincoln, and fills the role of both Olds and Buick. It continues to serve that purpose. Buick and Olds could have been combined, or one could go. So Olds went.

The fact that ytou can't see the larger picture is why you can't judge. You simply don't have the experience for it. And you refuse to learn what you dont' know about the industry before making statements about it.

ChrisV · 08-19-2004, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voda48

Plymouth was suppose to phase out like 6 years ago........ they are still around and kicking, although not very hard. I don't think Olds will be gone for long (hopefully) But who knows

Plymouth doesn't exist anymore, either, though DCX is talking about reviving it for much the same reason. But it probably won't happen.

MaChao · 08-19-2004, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moostang104314

What do you mean? Oldsmobile was part of GM and it died. And if you mean Ford, GM, and Chrysler join, that would be totally retarded! There's way too much competition, they'd never even think of joining eachother!

If I understood your comment differently, correct me.

Well, like ChrisV said, I am young and don't have the experience for it, but that doesn't stop me from making a potentially retarded suggestion. But that does serve as a warning to the rest of you.

From what I see, I'd say the biggest domestic companies are Ford, Chevy, Chrysler, Dodge, and Pontiac. Now I'm not 100% positive on how GM is related to all of them, but I'd say GM either owns a couple of the companies, has some sort of contract with them, or just has a ton of shares in multiple companies.

What I meant was since GM plays such a large role in all the big and small companies anyways, why don't they combine some of the smaller companies (Cadillac, Buick, Mercury, GMC, Lincoln - the ones I can think of so far).

There are a few that shouldn't be combined, because Cadillac and Mercury does fairly well and I guess you'd have to keep the Lincolns for prestige. So what I'm suggesting is merge the small ones with each other or merge them with one of the big ones.

lutz talked about general competition - even though I understand, I don't know if that works so well in GM's favor all the time. When the no-names (such as Buick and Mercury) are competing with the big names (such as Toyota, Ford, BMW), the no-names are forgotten quickly in the car-buying process.

I think it would work better to merge companies and focus more on innovation and produce a less number of models, but a larger number of them.

And as a side note, ChrisV - maybe marketing everything to teenagers wouldn't be such a bad thing. I think one of the reasons why the smaller companies are doing so poorly is because of their image. I bet if you asked young people what they thought of makes like Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Lincoln, I think most of them will mention words such as "old," "outdated," "ugly," or just "not cool."

Those companies mainly appeal to a different generation. So give it another 25 years and they'll all bite the dust anyways. The young people are the future and early opinions like that are hard to change. If [the companies] can get [the young people] while they're young, then they'll be setting themselves up longer.