Quote:
Originally Posted by stick076
Killing GMC just shows how dumb the people at GMI are. The brand is the second best selling brand at GM. It only sells trucks and a typical truck buyer is the most stubborn car buyer there is. It has basically 5 products (Savana isn't really a retail seller, more commerical) and sells over 500k vehicles. If GMC is gone, 500k sales are gone. Oh how we forget the past with Oldsmobile.
There is no need to kill GMC, Buick, or Pontiac. There does need to be an elimination of overlap from within the dealerships. Treat the entire dealership as one brand. Giving GMC the Acadia with the Enclave right there was not a good idea especially considering that Chevy didn't get anything.
With Escalade sales crashing, keeping Hummer around may not be a bad thing. It could keep Cadillac looking more like a performance luxury company by selling any of the trucks as a Hummer.
Saab makes money everywhere except the US. It should be a European brand that brings cars into the US like Audi, BMW, etc. If they stop worrying about what the typical US buyer wants, they will sell more cars.
Saturn is out there on its own and lost. Could Saturn and Saabs sell side by side? If Saturn were just Opels with a different badge there would be a nice GM dealership of truly European cars.
Chevy, Cadillac/Hummer, Buick/Pontiac/GMC, Saab/Saturn. That would make 4 "brands" instead of 8. This way there is a mainstream brand, a luxury brand, an uplevel brand, and a European brand. Work on eliminating overlap within brands but not between. Each brand would need to have a full lineup or close to it. This way there is no expensive brand elimination, customers are happy, and dealers are happy as they have a wider range of product with less vehicles.
|
I love your passion my friend and I hope that GM can figure out a way to make all its brands viable.
But my agrument against GMC wasn't because I hate the brand or anything like that. It's merely because that GM is in the situation its in and needs to let go of some of its brands to survive.
I know GMC is GM's 2nd best selling brand - but as I stated earlier, I dont know how much longer this will be the case. Yes, they build great products, but as people shift from trucks and SUVs to smaller passenger cars, GMC sales are likely to dive. This doesn't mean there will still be those who want to buy from the brand - but only that there wont be enough of them to justify GMCs existance when you have a Chevy division selling the same product.
And it will also mean that focus and investment will move from GMC and their lineup to Chevy, Buick, Pontiac, et al.
In a real way, GMC has done such a good job of being the "Professional Grade, Truck Division" it has essentially locked itself in the eyes of the public. There will never be a GMC "Sunfire" or a GMC "Impala" or any other passenger car - which means that in the eyes of the car buying public, its identity will always be associated with SUVs/Trucks/etc and that may not be the best place to be as gas prices continue to influence vehicle sales.
However, as I stated in the first post, I think that GM could save the GMC brand by focusing not on mass-market retails sales, but only selling medium duty trucks, etc.
It may not be the most elegant solution, but still think the idea has merit for GM to eliminate a retail brand, while also trading on the GMC nameplate for commerical/professional products.
Just my two cents...