Saturn, Saab and Hummer Future Still in Doubt

The short history so far: General Motors received a $13.4 billion in December from the Bush administration and was asked to provide a viability plan to the government by February 17. In other words, the American automaker has to demonstrate its viability and to convince officials that it has the ability to become profitable in the next years. In order to achieve such a goal, the company has to cut costs in almost every single sector belonging to every brand it currently owns. General Motors said it will rely more on its so-called “core brands”, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC, while Pontiac will become a niche brand with one or two models in the whole lineup.

But nobody knows for sure what's going to happen with Saturn, Saab and Hummer. Not even General Motors, as some sources familiar to the viability plan told Autonews. And unfortunately, this may push the aforementioned brands close to collapse, the same source wrote.

Recent rumors claimed General Motors aimed to sell Saturn to various companies that could absorb all dealerships and production lines but, according to Autonews, no one was actually interested. Moreover, GM was even attempting to sell the brand to dealers and include it in the Buick-Pontiac-GMC channel, as the aforementioned source wrote, but the two parts didn't manage to reach an agreement. At this time, Saturn's future is still in doubt and General Motors may decide to kill the brand in the near future, the source added quoting a GM insider.

GM confirmed last December it was looking for a buyer for its Swedish struggling brand Saab and, despite the fact that it managed to find an interested party, no agreement was reached at that time. However, the American automaker may now attempt to help Saab run on its own using funds provided by the Swedish government. As we previously wrote, Sweden agreed to support domestic car manufacturer but insisted it does not intend to buy a stake in any of the struggling companies.

Hummer on the other hand was listed for transfer last summer but, due to its difficult financial situation, a deal was almost impossible. According to Autonews, GM wants about $500 million for Hummer despite the fact that most analysts claim such a price is way too high for a struggling brand.