GMI Exclusive: Some GMC Product Programs Bite the Dust

[Krafty]

Well, fwiw, you can add one to the count of Acadia sales -- I bought one today. This is my first GMC ever but I did a thorough comparison of all my alternatives and believe this is a superior vehicle for our family. It would be nice to know they keep investing in this platform and, who knows, maybe we'd replace it with a GMC but I'm not committed to brands and so the GMC brand matters little to me. I care what's best for my needs at the time. Since we drive our vehicles 8 years minimum, resale doesn't matter much. I'm doing a 7 year, 160km warranty for the peace of mind. Good luck GMC!

[SierraGS]

Originally Posted by viral

Take a look at the 2008 Sales Chart.



While it's true that the Traverse will most likely be the volume leader, that's a weak argument since it is made in a different plant. Of the three made in the SAME plant, the Acadia has outsold the other two Lambdas combined. Why would you kill the most popular and profitable Lambda on the market?

Lambda Sales:
Acadia: 111,034
Outlook: 47,808
Enclave: 51,043

Something else about the Acadia, what Lambda do the thousands of current Yukon, Yukon XL and even Safari Van owners look at first when considering replacement? GMC Acadia

The Acadia has a clean euro look to it compared to the Enclave, both are attractive but appeal to different buyers and is why they have been in demand in spite of sharing the same dealership.

GM has to get away from slashing successful models to "get to an internal goal" or whatever the reason they made this decision.

Instead of playing with brands they need to look at models on an individual basis and place them strategically with one of the (8) brands, this will save billions in hassle and lost customers/market share. It is very enticing to run some numbers and see cost savings in the short term and get overconfident that "we will make it back", the auto market is more competitive today than it was when GM dropped Olds and all the more difficult to "Restructure and rebuild". GM can accomplish the same cost savings SHORT and LONG term by taking a long hard look at it model lines and diversify them as much as possible with minimal cost and maximium profit and cash flow.

[T'Cal]

This Buick/Pontiac/GMC idea is crazy. The Pontiacs are little more than trim options on the Chevy cars and the GMCs are just Chevy trucks with different grilles. Just call them all Buicks and sell them all as near-luxury models, between Chevy, which will continue as the value leader/performance division, and Cadillac, which will continue as the high-end luxury division. The Chevy products will go toe to toe with VW, Toyota, Nissan, Kia, Honda, Ford, and Dodge and the Buicks will do battle with Lexus, Infiniti, Hyundai, Acura, Lincoln, and Chrysler. Cadillac will be the high-end European fighter (Porsche, BMW, Mercedes Benz, etc.).

[T'Cal]

Originally Posted by Krafty

Well, fwiw, you can add one to the count of Acadia sales -- I bought one today. This is my first GMC ever but I did a thorough comparison of all my alternatives and believe this is a superior vehicle for our family. It would be nice to know they keep investing in this platform and, who knows, maybe we'd replace it with a GMC but I'm not committed to brands and so the GMC brand matters little to me. I care what's best for my needs at the time. Since we drive our vehicles 8 years minimum, resale doesn't matter much. I'm doing a 7 year, 160km warranty for the peace of mind. Good luck GMC!

It sounds like you bought an extended warranty. Although I rarely opt for them feeling they are a waste of money, I probably would buy one if I purchased an AWD/4WD vehicle since the cost to repair their systems is high. Many people who buy a 7-10 year extended warranty don't realize they are paying for the difference between the standard factory warranty and the extended one. For example, if the standard warranty is 5 year/60k miles and you purchased a 7 year/100k mile extended warranty, you really bought 2 years/40k miles worth of coverage. Also, does it have a deductable? If so, they can add up. Like with insurance, the lower the deductable, the higher the initial cost. Is the extended warranty bumper-to-bumper? Many are powertrain only, so you're not really fully covered during the extended period. Is the extended warranty a factory one or from an independent company? Some aren't transferable and some require that you bring the vehicle only to certain locations, perhaps even only to your dealer. Lastly, many buyers don't realize that the price of these warranties is negotiable. Buyer beware! Do your homework.

When I get a salesman who gets pushy about my "need" to have an extended warranty, I throw it right back at them saying, "I guess I have more faith in your product than you do. I think your product should last 100k miles without a major failure. But, you know your product better than I do. I guess I should be concerned. Maybe your product isn't worth it afterall. Maybe I should be looking at Ford or Toyota instead. At least, that's what you're telling me." They always drop the subject after hearing that.

[ChevroletRevived]

Originally Posted by Krafty

Well, fwiw, you can add one to the count of Acadia sales -- I bought one today. This is my first GMC ever but I did a thorough comparison of all my alternatives and believe this is a superior vehicle for our family. It would be nice to know they keep investing in this platform and, who knows, maybe we'd replace it with a GMC but I'm not committed to brands and so the GMC brand matters little to me. I care what's best for my needs at the time. Since we drive our vehicles 8 years minimum, resale doesn't matter much. I'm doing a 7 year, 160km warranty for the peace of mind. Good luck GMC!

Congratulations on the Acadia!

[rvj]

Originally Posted by texassierradude

Because that makes too much sense.

While the Fanged appearance of the Silverado's front end is too repulsive for me to consider owning, I fell in love with the same year of Sierra and purchased it on the spot. If GM quits making the Sierra's I would not consider buying the silverado when it's time to buy again. It just does not appeal to my eyes. I think the Tundra's spawning Carp front end is quite ugly also, but I like it better than the Silverado's front end. Although I prefer to buy GM I won't drive something ugly. I think the sales figures of GMC are too high to consider cutting it yet.

[RedVee8]

Keep GMC.
Plus make it a world brand in the area of commercial vehicles, proper work trucks. Filling the area that Isuzu was filling for GM.

[SAngelo]

I've been thinking about this and it will probably be my third post in this thread. I don't have a definitive answer for GMC, Hummer or Saab but I would lean towards just trimming and not ending, because it cost alot of money to do that. The GM core brands I think should look like this.

Saturn cannot be a standalone brand anymore, because of the lack of brand recognition. Only Chevrolet should standalone.

- Move Saturn into the Cadillac dealers with Saab and Hummer and you can have a full line of Astras, the Vue, the Sky and get rid of the Outlook create a lamda minivan. The Aura I love but if you add this, it interferes with the Saab 9-3 Epsilon. If you sell Saab then you can keep the Aura and call that the European Epsilon.

Chevrolet - Full-line up and standalone. The only question is the next Impala.

BPG - Pontiac should have the G8 and add another Holden the Monaro and call it the GTO I would only keep the G6 if it becones a smaller RWD sedan to the G8. If not get rid of it. The solstice should stay, its rwd and it can be the sister of the Sky sold at another dealer. Buick should add the Epsilon II Lacrosse/Invicta but advertise it as a luxury lexus fighter. I would also bring the Holden Park Avenue here and get rid of the Lucerne. With these two sedans and the Enclave, Buick is fixed. As you can see BPG are specialty cars. GMC can stay because they sell so well but they can cut down on the vehicles here too. Maybe get rid of the car based SUVs (hate to lose Acadia) but we cant have overkill on platforms which leads to cannibalization. I will add more later. Please comment all, I want opinions !!!!

[samkung]

Originally Posted by SAngelo

- Move Saturn into the Cadillac dealers with Saab and Hummer and you can have a full line of Astras, the Vue, the Sky and get rid of the Outlook create a lamda minivan. The Aura I love but if you add this, it interferes with the Saab 9-3 Epsilon. If you sell Saab then you can keep the Aura and call that the European Epsilon.

Dont need to create another minivan, Opel has one in Europe, just bring it over

[PA Dweller]

Originally Posted by samkung

Dont need to create another minivan, Opel has one in Europe, just bring it over

Yea but the Zafira is smaller than mini-van's sold here, I think that is the point he is trying to make. Don't matter anyway, mini-van's don't sell well anymore.

[jamiepeterson2]

All this talk about cutting one brand or another is ridiculous! Because GM can't do that without going through Chapter 11, and no way is Rick going to allow that. There are too many other viable options at his disposal.

With only $6 billion in the coffers to last until the end of the year, raising cash is more important than cutting an open wound. GM needs to pull up its socks and raise about $9-15 billion to shore up its financial position. The sale of Hummer and Saab would only bring in about a billion or so altogether. Hardly worth the effort. Closing Saturn would cost about $400 million, but reduce expenses considerably. Closing any other GM brand is out of the question, as GM does not enough resources to do so.

Consolidation, reinvention and trimming the product line will be the likely outcome. The four channel manufacturing and delivery system proposed by Rick Wagoner is now DOA. Two channels would have been more prudent: Cadillac-Chevrolet & Buick-Pontiac-GMC. Methinks however that the current market slide will force GM into a single sales network: "everything under one roof". Therefore it will become necessary to merge 1500 BPG dealers with 3500 or so Cadillac-Chevrolet dealers very soon.

CADILLAC should trim its line-up to the STS, CTS, XLR and Escalade. All RWD and all hybrids.

CHEVROLET should provide all mainstream cars and trucks. GMC would remain as a Commercial Division of Chevrolet Trucks. You can't kill either truck division without losing a large number of customers. SATURN would be reinvented as the new moniker for the Chevrolet Volt. HUMMER could remain active on a smaller scale to offer something unique for the discriminating buyer, but they should all be hybrids for image sake.

PONTIAC would rebadge Chevrolets but add turbo engines, sport suspension, bucket seats, sports trim and spoiler.

BUICK would rebadge Chevrolets but add turbo engines, AWD, sport suspension, and luxury interiors. SAAB would provide 9-3 and 9-5 normally aspirated variants for the Buick Apollo and Century.

The cost of producing such a line-up would be more affordable for GM at the present time. Also this way none of the brands are lost and can be revived easily if the need arises. The rebadges have their own unique 'feel' that differ them from Chevrolet as well.

GM can and should dispose of GMAC/ResCap which would raise far more capital than selling of brands could. GM also has $6-9 billion in untapped liquidity available as well. If necessary GM could postpone contributions to the UAW VEBA account temporarily. So there are better options rather than killing brands which really is a stupid idea all around. Maybe Coca-Cola should kill off Sprite because it doesn't sell nearly as much as Coke Classic??? Dumb, soooo dumb.

[M_RABID]

So Chevy gets a rebadgeed Lambda, and GMC gets the shaft.
How stupid. It wouldn't be the first time... GMC had the original Suburban. They ran side by side with GMC and Chevy Suburbans for years, then GM decided they needed to build more brand recognition and changed the GMC name to Yukon XL. I don't know what came first, Blazer or Jimmy, Sierra or Chevy Truck (Silverado was just a trim level, like Cheyene.)

GM needs to slow down for a minute and let people get used to the new, higher fuel prices. Let the alternative fuels and new propulsion systems settle into the market place. Is it really smart business to go hacking and slashing at your products all willy-nilly-like in a knee-jerk reaction to recent market trends that can change overnight?

SOMEBODY NEEDS TO BREATHE INTO A PAPERBAG!

[96_impala_ss]

Originally Posted by 61BelAir

Blatant rebadge? Have you looked at the Silverado and Sierra lately? Seriously I don't understand how people can say the two of them look alike. The front fenders, grille, hood, and bed are all different.

The reason why people say its just a rebadge is because most people dont spend the time to look at the details of the car. Yes the GMC version has a better grille, fenders, etc than the Chevy counterpart.. BUT no one thats not buying it cares. I realize that Chevy trucks and SUVs are different in bout exterior and interior. But those driving and buying their yawnmobiles dont care to look. They look and say "oh, its a GMC Yukon. It's a Chevy Tahoe in another brand. Its such a gas hog. Im glad i bought a Toyota Sequoya."

by the way i like how the Toyota Sequoya looks like a..............


Yukon/Tahoe

wait wait

and it gets wore mpg than a Yukon/Tahoe

but back on the topic at hand, no GMC wont be killed. Like it has been said in this forum before GMC is vital to GM. Yes rite now its screwed with the sales but what goes up must come down (gas prices), and there will always be people that will buy their product just like theres people who do or buy things knowing how the economy is now.. what that may be varies from person to person. Besides, most of us know if GM does kill another brand its Oldsmobile all over again. Maybe even worse.

Maybe right now GM (hopefully) is thinking of a way to create a Proffesional grade CUV. Like a Zeta CUV that can tow half or more of what the SUV offerings do. Likely knowing GM?? NO. Most likely theyre just stalling with GMC.

[vam29]

"the Acadia has outsold the other two Lambdas combined. Why would you kill the most popular and profitable Lambda on the market?"

Not True! The Acadia is being subsidized, as is the Outlook, with a cheap lease interest rateof 5-5.25% whereas the Enclave rate is 8%. If all things were equal, including production, it wouldn't even be close. The only people I've seen who are buying Acadia's and Outlook's are those that can't find an Enclave or need a lower payment. I would imagine the new Chev also gets a 5% lease rate.

[viral]

Originally Posted by vam29

"the Acadia has outsold the other two Lambdas combined. Why would you kill the most popular and profitable Lambda on the market?"

Not True! The Acadia is being subsidized, as is the Outlook, with a cheap lease interest rateof 5-5.25% whereas the Enclave rate is 8%.

Regardless of the reasons why one chooses an Acadia over an Enclave or Outlook, the fact remains that the Acadia HAS outsold both of the other Lambdas combined. So you stating "Not true!" and quoting lease rates doesn't change the sales numbers. It might justify them to you, but it doesn't change them