October Sales: GM

[Geotpf]

Originally Posted by CmicasatheGreat

Just being optimistic my friend.. something that is in low gear around here most of the time.

As for the Saturn Aura.. yeah it would be nice if it set the world on fire, but today's Saturn is actually making a profit... the Saturn of old did not. And Once again... SMALL DEALER NETWORK, and no 4cylinder = less sales.

Saturn at the end of 2004 Sales were 212,017 for all of 2004...
Saturn Sales at the end of Oct 2007= 206,790 with 2 months to go averaging 25K per month...

This time making money off of every sale.

Now that's a Saturn that can stick around.

I'm a firm believer that the Aura should get the redo the moment that the Opel Vectra does with EpsilonII underneath. I also think that Saturn should be merged with Saab with Saab as the upper echelon car for the group. Make the 9-3 (as it seems they are) a Audi/BMW competitor, while Saturn goes head to head against VW, Nissan and Mazda

Saturn L Series (same size of car, same dealer network, and usually considered a dud, sales wise) sold 80,615 during Jan-Oct 2000, as compared to the Aura selling 50,487 during Jan-Oct 2007.

It looks like Saturn's sales will be up only marginally in calandar year 2007, despite going from three products in model year 2006 to six products in model year 2007. Thier sales have been down for several months now, and will probably be consistantly lower from now until the indefinite future, with all that all-new product now aging, and the low selling hatchback Astra replacing the higher selling sedan Ion.

[Geotpf]

Originally Posted by windvale

Same thing that was wrong with the VW Phaeton...absolutely nothing.

But people balked at paying 80K for a VW, and I'm not sure that Saturn dealerships are attracting the kinda folks that are looking to spend much more than 18K or so on a car.

Just my thots...

This is the correct answer, methinks. Outlook sales are not exactly setting the world on fire, especially considering the Acadia and the Enclave (especially the Enclave) are.

Saturn's no haggle pricing doesn't work on vehicles more than about 15-18k, and nobody wants to pay more than that on something that has a Saturn badge anyways-but GM can't make a profit off of Saturn unless they have products above that range. Kind of a Catch-22 in terms of profitability. You'll note that the only other brand that has no haggle pricing (Scion) only sells products in that price range-and they are sold at normal Toyota dealers, so the lack of sales volume and high priced products isn't a problem for them.

Saturn was a dumb idea when all they sold was Corolla-clones, and it's a dumb idea when GM attempts to move it upmarket and fails. There is no profit there-never has been, never will be.

[lio45]

^ (both posts)

Please don't say that. There are some people around here who absolutely don't want to hear that GM has been throwing good money after bad for 15+ years with that brand... you don't want to offend them.

[Geotpf]

Originally Posted by lio45

^ (both posts)

Please don't say that. There are some people around here who absolutely don't want to hear that GM has been throwing good money after bad for 15+ years with that brand... you don't want to offend them.

I truly believe GM will kill Saturn in three to four years (at the time all thier currently new products would be due for a redesign). Well, at least they should.

Now, what they should have done in the first place was make Saturn a sub-brand of Oldsmobile, like Scion is to Toyota now or Geo was to Chevy in the past. If they did that, they could have kept it being Corolla-clones only, and it would have worked and maybe even been profitable, like Scion is for Toyota, and they could have kept Oldsmobile as well with the combined sales volume. Elsewise, they shouldn't have bothered creating it in the first place, and spent the money on thier other brands. Of course, this is a Roger Smith boneheaded decision in a long line of boneheaded decisions from him.

[Lichtronamo]

I'm a huge believer that GM would be better limited to only Chevrolet, P-B-G and Cadillac. The other brands are of marginal value at best and simply take resources for development, marketing and features away from what would otherwise be a strong core.

There's no reason that Chevrolets can't be tied closely with Opels and Holdens as "global platforms" and would probably be better prepared to compete with Honda, Toyota and Nissan for it.

Within the P-B-G group, Pontiac can target the Infinit/BMW type of car with Solstice coupe/roadster, an Alpha based G6 and Zeta based G8, Buick the Acura/Lexus with a mid-size fwd car and full-size rwd car and with GMC providing high end CUVs, SUVs and trucks to complement the car offerings within the joined showroom.

Cadillac should (and is) focused on a full range of premium products including cars, CUVs and SUVs.

[newclasshero]

Originally Posted by minnfang

Sales of the SRX are up quite a bit. Maybe people are noticing the great new interior in the SRX when they come in to check out the CTS.

Goood call... that was a beatifullly executed MCE and much needed. I can't help but think that the CTS is drawing people in to the showrooms that will buy one of Cadi's other products.

[TriShield]

Originally Posted by Lichtronamo

I'm a huge believer that GM would be better limited to only Chevrolet, P-B-G and Cadillac. The other brands are of marginal value at best and simply take resources for development, marketing and features away from what would otherwise be a strong core.

The less brands, the better.

GM's core business is Chevrolet. Cadillac is also of value too. Everything else is not and simply wasting resources to keep franchised dealers happy. GM would be in a better position if they only had one or two brands to feed. Imagine how nice Chevrolets and Cadillacs would be with that much investment.

[GMC-70]

Originally Posted by TriShield

The less brands, the better.

GM's core business is Chevrolet. Cadillac is also of value too. Everything else is not and simply wasting resources to keep franchised dealers happy. GM would be in a better position if they only had one or two brands to feed. Imagine how nice Chevrolets and Cadillacs would be with that much investment.

Do you really believe that eliminating brands is going to result in better product? There is a business case for these brands--thats why they exist. Most of them have been around for 75 years and there is no need to Oldsmobize any other brands. Reduce some of the offerings yes---not every divsion needed a minivan--Chevy would have been just fine with the Uplander---but would it have been better if the SV6 and Buick weren't offered---I'm not so sure. I just don't think that eliminating brands is going to automatically result in better products for whats left.

[Ach]

C/K Suburban(Chevy)
8,317 6,938 15.3 70,867 60,810 16.5

Yukon XL
4,764 4,243 8.0 38,798 36,543 6.2

I love it - the big boys are still doing well!

Wow-110K of those big trucks sold and, the year isn't over-that's quite a profit center.

Thanks... I find it amazing that people always talk trash about STS sales yet it has consistently sold in similar numbers to the GS and Infiniti M, some months... especially after the MCE, surpassed them. It has always beat the A6 and absolutely KILLED the RL. Yet they are not considered sales disappointments...

The MCE STS is just gorgeous in person, I saw one on the highway and I stared so much I almost hit the guy in front of me...I like it even better than the CTS.

[ksr]

Originally Posted by Geotpf

Saturn L Series (same size of car, same dealer network, and usually considered a dud, sales wise) sold 80,615 during Jan-Oct 2000, as compared to the Aura selling 50,487 during Jan-Oct 2007.

The L Series was a sales dud from the start.

But because of that, GM basically ran a fire sale on the car almost from the time it was launched.

While the L wasn't a great car, it really wasn't a bad car. And with the deals you could get on it the last two years (at least) it was in production, it was one of the greatest car deals on the planet. Those cars, which were good driving, roomy family vehicles, were going out the dealership doors for a song.