The year 2010 was a rough road for the automobile industry especially the big 3 from Detroit. I can’t recall a year that we have lost more established brand names in such a short time period. Some had been around for decades and others only a short time. Through this it seems that the big three have turned the corner (at least for the moment). Here are the brands we lost this past year.
- Hummer – Though these behemoths of the road were a hit when they first came out. Even the Governator Ahnold had one. When gas reached the four dollar mark a few years ago sales tanked and never recovered since. They became a symbol of wastefulness. General Motors tried to find a buyer but it wasn’t meant to be.
- Mercury – Even though Ford has turned a profit lately this brand will not be apart of it’s future. The writing had been on the wall for awhile with no new models in the pipeline. It had just become a place to market upscale Fords anyway.
- Pontiac – This was brand that jumpstarted the muscle car wars in the 1960’s with the GTO. We also enjoyed watching Burt Reynolds run bootleg Coors beer from Texas to Georgia in his black & gold Trans-Am in the late 70’s. It seemed they were trying to make it into performance brand with the sharp G6’s and G8’s but it was too late.
- Saturn – This quirky brand was a relative newcomer. It started of as a brand meant to fight the imports. It seems as if they started out with a great idea and then designing and building a car became an after thought. They turned into a brand with no identity and were slow to redesign.
I hope that the domestic brands have seen the light. They took a huge hit because for a long time the focus was on the highly profitable SUV market. More economical sedans cars were but a mere after thought. Import brands though improved there cars and were slow to join in the SUV race. They never forgot though that their bread and butter was with cars. When the gas prices spiked they were in a better position to change with the market. Domestic brands were caught with their pants down and had to figure out how to get gas guzzling SUV’s off their lots. Let’s hope 2011 is a better year for the big three.
