There continues to be good news and some bad news on the automotive front. The great news for GM is that they posted their largest quarterly profit in six years for the second quarter of 2010. This is after a profitable first quarter.
The not so good news is for Saturn, Pontiac, and Mercury dealerships. These brands are going the way of Edsel, Oldsmobile, and others and that is the road to extinction. This, however, is an epic time in the auto business where the deck is being reshuffled in order to compete for market share.
The Big 3 are fighting back and one of the strategy is reducing the number of brands. It appears that the number of models might be expanding under each brand but the consolidation makes sense.
The implications for the rest of our economy from the auto industry are enormous. Let's hope that the progress continues.