GM Denies Plans to Scrap Pontiac, GMC

The struggling American manufacturer GM stepped forth yesterday and denied reports which surfaced about its plans of ending franchise agreements of poorly performing dealerships as well as getting rid of Pontiac and GMC as part of its new survival program. According to Mark LaNeve, company's sales chief, nothing has changed since the "February strategy".

"The strategy we laid out for you is still the strategy," LaNeve was quoted as saying by Autonews. "Are we working it, tweaking it, examining every aspect of it? Yes, but nothing has changed with our strategy. Reports that GMC is going away are just unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue," LaNeve added.

The February strategy the official refers to stated that, indeed, GM will only focus on four core brands: Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC. As for Pontiac, the plan said it would become a marginal and much smaller brand for the company. Hummer, Saab and Saturn are still up for sale.

"They're not pressuring us to give up on anything. Buick and GMC are very profitable brands, and we have plans to make them even more profitable," LaNeve told the source.

As we said, LaNeve's response comes as a result of yesterday's reports that GM decided to give up on some of its "bad" brands. Pontiac and GMC were the most likely targets, the latter being the only one with some chances to being kept on the manufacturers portfolio. As you can see, even if LaNeve denies plans to scrap GMC, Pontiac is conveniently omitted from the picture.

The dealerships on the other hand, all of the 1,700 of them rumored to be closed by June the 1st, are still in a predicament. Even if GM says it will not close the "poor-performers", it is unlikely they will be kept on board given their weak results.