Feedback: What Happens to My Car if the Brand Dies?

Good point from a viewer to the automaker story I hadn't considered - what happens to the owners of cars whose brands get scrubbed?

Here's his email to me:

I agree with those that say make the unions concede a lot. But, Idon’t feel very well when I am paying almost  $500 a month on GM saturn Aura; a European Opel GM car built in Kansas City that is almost worthless after 1-1/2 years of ownership, and only 7,200 miles on it.  I bought this car because it had great reviews, good quality, etc.. loaded, all options , the out the door price was close to $ 30K.  Anyway, recently, I went to the dealer for some scheduled maintenance.  While there, I thought about trading it in for a less expensive, better gas mileage Astra.  Well, because at the time back in August, we were paying such high prices for gas, they offered me $ 11K for a trade. My residual value in four years is supposed to be that, not after 1-1/2 years. Now, GM wants to throw Saturn under the buss along with Pontiac. My car will be worthless.

Excellent point.  Lost in all the talk about GM, Ford and Chrysler dumping brands such as Saturn, Saab, Volvo, Buick or Dodge is the aching question of what happens to the millions of these cars currently on the road should some of those brands be given the axe.

As this viewer is painfully learning, an already weak resale market will likely take a huge tumble for those cars.   Who wants to buy a car that is no longer sold or supported from the manufacturer.   Specialty parts for these cars will dry up due to lack of production, and with that any hope of selling the car for more than pennies.   No one will buy a car you can't fix.

The hapless Edsel and Studebaker come to mind, but more recently Oldsmobile provides a test case.    Randomly picking a 2003 Oldsmobile Aurora shows that automobile.com rates resale value as "poor" and the car can be had for the low single digits.

If the government wants to help the weak housing market with artifically low interest rates (see my last post), perhaps considered in any "bailout" for the automakers should be some price relief for frustrated consumers left holding nearly worthless vehicles.