Given that Saturn, Opel (plus Vauxhall in the UK)and Saab are all sold to different people, how will this work?. Saturns (especially) are reworked Opels, as are Saabs to a large extent. Also, Opel did the latest GM platform used by the newer range of SUV's, plus the engineering for the latest GM smaller cars. And of course Opel did the work on our Pontiac/Saturn sports car.

Given that GM had finally started to leverage global platforms, what happens now that they don't have access to that engineering any more? And where does Penske get his next Saturn from? I don't think they have the volume to support their own totally free standing R&D - the adoption of Opels instead of designing new model Saturns would seem to prove that. And Saab will have the same problem.

It does not seem to me they any of it has a very bright future.

I think all of the engineereing outsourcing (even within the same massive company) is part of GM's problem. If they want to make a new Chevy (or whatever) they have to get Opel to design the frame, then wait for Buick to develop the engine, then decide if they want to go with shocks from Holden or Hummer.... They're paying 10 different groups of people to do what used to all be done under one roof in Detroit.

I'll admit that using common parts on every GM reduces production costs, along with R&D costs at the beginning, but at some point during their globalization they reached the point of diminishing returns. Instead of easing on the brakes at that point and pulling things back towards Detroit, they mashed the gas and became the world leader in overhead costs for production.

I hope everything works out for all of the different divisions, MY JOB kinda depends on it. I work in a tire plant, we send a good bit of our production to GM plants. Just this week we're ramping production back UP to 50% of our max capacity. My fingers are crossed.

Chewy,

Problem is Detroit knows little about engineering small cars, IMO. So, GM wisely outsourced them - Kia for the little ones, and Opel for the bigger ones.

I did my engineering training with Austin in England. Then part of BMC. Then the government got involved and started making decisions. Truck production was moved to a coal mining region where the pits were closing to deal with unemployment. They forced mergers ending up with the British Leyland mess. The Longbridge plant where I worked was like Ford's Rouge plant - an almost completely integrated production facility with 100k plus employees, with everything from forges and foundries to final assembly, plus all the HQ functions, now no longer exists.

As a result of those government imposed mergers and management changes, etc., the whole lot went totally broke - Ford rescued Jaguar and Land Rover. The old Longbridge plant site is to be redeveloped apart from a small piece left with a few hundred people to assemble cars from a Chinese company.

I am just having a bad case of deja vu all over again....