GM Leaves Bankruptcy: Where Do the Brands Stand?

In the tumult of GM’s lightning-quick journey through bankruptcy, you may have lost track of what will happen to all the individual brands. Therefore, here’s a quick and handy guide to where each brand currently stands as the new taxpayer-owned GM emerges from Chapter 11.

Saturn: Purchased by the Penske Automotive Group, which owns NASCAR and IndyCar racing teams, as well as the U.S. distribution arm of the Smart car brand. Saturn’s five models will become the property of Penske but will still be built by GM on a contract basis. According to reports, GM will continue production of the three best-selling Saturn models for the next two years: the Aura, Vue and Outlook. It will discontinue the Sky and Astra. By 2011, GM will stop producing Saturn vehicles, and Penske will have to find a new manufacturer — possibly Renault Samsung Motors of Korea, according to Automotive News.

Saab: Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg led a consortium to purchase the ailing brand from GM. The deal is contingent on $600 million of financing from the European Investment Bank to be guaranteed by Sweden. The deal is supposed to close sometime in the third quarter of this year, but analysts have questioned whether Saab is big enough to survive regardless. It sold only 93,000 cars last year and has been unprofitable for a long time.

Saab Sale Official; Four New Models Coming

GM has reached a tentative agreement to sell Saab to Swedish sports car company Koenigsegg. The deal will be partially funded by the European Investment Bank and will keep the Saab product line moving with current GM technology.

GM spokesman Tony Macrito confirmed that Saab will release four new models over the next 18 months. The first will be the Saab 9-3X, an all-wheel-drive version of the company's entry-level sedan and wagon. It goes on sale later this summer.

The next-generation 9-5 sedan is in its final stages of testing in Sweden. The 9-5 wagon will also be released at a later date.

Surprisingly, the 9-4X crossover (above), which seemed almost ready for production last year, has no firm release date outside the 18-month timetable. But it is still "moving ahead," Macrito said.

The sale should be completed by the end of the third quarter of this year, GM said. 

GM Finds Buyer for Saab

It looks as if GM will unload Saab, its underperforming Swedish premium brand, to Swedish supercar-maker Koenigsegg, in conjunction with a group of Norwegian investors. This marks GM’s third move to rid itself of a non-core car brand, after its proposed sales of Hummer to a Chinese machinery company and Saturn to Penske.

Sources told The Financial Times that Koenigsegg made “the best overall offer,” though no details are yet available other than word that the deal will be completed sometime early this summer. GM has pledged $500 million in assets and cash for the new company.

The Swedish supercar-maker sold just 18 cars last year, but it wants to apply its high-end know-how to a high-volume car-manufacturing operation.

Saab hasn’t turned a profit since GM bought a stake in it back in 1990. Sales peaked at 133,000 units in 2006. Perhaps Koenigsegg will have better luck.

Koenigsegg Set to Buy Saab (Financial Times)

Will Consumers Miss the Old GM? Not Likely

There’s been a lot of talk about “good GM” and “bad GM” and what the closure of Pontiac and sale of Saturn, Saab and Hummer will mean to the new company. We thought we’d recap the impact GM’s restructuring will have on car shoppers.

General Motors remains the largest producer and seller of cars and trucks in the United States, already selling 777,785 vehicles this year, through May.

Nearly one of every five cars purchased in the U.S. comes from GM through the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Saab, Saturn, Hummer and Pontiac brands.

Pontiac will be shut down completely by the end of 2010, with Saab, Saturn and Hummer expected to be sold off.

Those four brands combined have 18 nameplates on sale. Together, those models comprised 2.4% of the new-car market in April. That’s a drop of about 1% from the same time last year (3.6%).

GM Assurance Plan Covering Equity, 9 Months of Payments

Earlier this morning Ford announced its new assurance program covering up to 12 months of payments if a new-car buyer loses his source of income. Minutes ago, GM announced a similar plan. It covers up to nine months of payments of $500 a month, and it will cover any negative equity in your vehicle if you trade it in on a new GM. The program starts Wednesday and runs through April 30.

What does that last part mean? As far as we can decipher from GM’s brief press release, if you buy a new GM car today and after 24 months of ownership you trade it in for a new GM car, GM will pay the difference if you owe more than the car is worth. There is no mention of a cap on this amount, and we will update this post as soon as we learn of one.

This equity protection requires any owner to have paid off half of the term no matter the length. So if you have a six-year deal you must pay through 36 months before trading the new car in to qualify.

GM is launching a website for the program at gmconfidence.com, but the site is not yet live.

What GM, Chrysler Bailouts Mean to Consumers

Later this morning, President Barack Obama will speak about the government’s role in restructuring GM and Chrysler. At midnight last night, the administration released a number of statements about the future of both companies. Here is what we’ve been able to decipher in those statements, and what it means for car buyers and owners.

Saab Files for Bankruptcy: What it Means to You

Saab filed for bankruptcy protection in Swedish court today. An official statement from GM says operations in the U.S. will continue normally as the brand begins a move toward becoming an independent entity, meaning it will no longer be a subsidiary of General Motors.

Swedish law doesn’t allow for bankruptcy protection unless “there is reasonable cause to assume that the purpose of the reorganization will be achieved.” That means the company should survive the reorganization process and is looking for both private investment and funds from the Swedish government in the new independent company. Saab spokesman Jan-Willem Vester said the move is a positive one.

“We’re excited because there is no longer uncertainty,” Vester said. “This brings clarity [to the company’s future].”

GM stated in documents filed with the U.S. Treasury Department that it expects the spinoff of Saab to be completed by Jan. 1, 2010.

There are 228 Saab dealers in the U.S.; 71 are stand-alone shops while the others share space with other brands, from both GM and other nameplates. Vester stood by the company’s statement that it plans to continue U.S. operations as always, including warranty work. The U.S. is the company’s single-largest car market.

Breaking: Saab Files For Bankruptcy

UPDATE: Read our full report.
Saab filed for bankruptcy protection in Swedish court today. An official statement from GM says operations in the U.S. will continue normally. We assume that means sales and service but we are waiting to hear confirmation from GM and will have more to report later this morning.

GM Loosens Credit Restrictions

In a rare instance of seeing an immediate impact on consumers from federal bailouts, GM’s financing arm, GMAC, will lower its credit requirements from a credit score of 700 to one of 621 to secure car loans. Last week, GMAC restructured to become a bank, then secured $6 billion in aid from the government just yesterday.

This should help GM dealers who had been looking to secure alternative ways of providing credit to buyers, including an agreement with Midwestern credit unions. The new requirements will go into effect immediately.

So, if you’ve been salivating over GM’s Red Tag Sale prices but have sub-700 credit, now’s the time to take a test drive.

Source: GMAC

GM Adds More Cash Back to Red Tag Sale

As car sales keep on plummeting, carmakers continue their year-end sales. GM’s Red Tag Sale has been going for almost a month now, and today the company upped the amount of cash back offered on a number of 2008 models still on dealer lots. 

All the deals focus on trucks and SUVs, and we found many 2008s in our local Chicago inventory for most models. Rebates range from $5,000 to $10,000 cash back. 

For the speed demons out there, you can get a 390-hp Chevy TrailBlazer SS, originally priced at $32,900, for $23,338 after the cash back and Red Tag discount. If you can find that much horsepower in a new car for that kind of cash anywhere else, let us know.

A full list of new cash-back incentives is below. Red Tag Sale prices are not included; go here to check exact prices in your area.