Comments on: Chevy, Hummer On The Rise In Europe; Early Frost Reported In Hell.

By: hal

hal — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:35:13 +0000

According to this article from Businessweek Russia has overtaken Germany as Europe’s largest car market: http://tinyurl.com/6p47eq
23% Growth from Daewoo/Chevy is impressive but Russia is booming (41% Growth) and I wonder is GM even maintaining market share there? Also this growth is coming at the lowest end of the market. I bet BMW and Benz are cleaning up in Russia but GM just isn’t competing at that end of the market.
Maybe they can send some Buicks from China?

By: ScottSowers

ScottSowers — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:57:56 +0000

Here be your global economy and weak dollars tilting the playing field.

By: B.C.

B.C. — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:48:09 +0000

Romanian automakers?

Bad news!

What?

The Dacia Sandero! It’s been delayed!

Oh no!

Sorry, couldn’t help it …

By: dwford

dwford — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:10:28 +0000

This just suggests we view GM and Ford in their totality instead of just focusing on their NA woes.

By: GMis4GoodManners

GMis4GoodManners — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:59:30 +0000

This (well, except for the hummer) doesn’t surprise me at all. The Euro Chevy Lacetti (sold here as a Suzuki Forenza) – while far from the refinement of a BMW 3 series – is a decent, inexpensive, and highly reliable car. How do I know? I have one – it’s the car I drive 100 miles a day to and from work in – not the kind of high-mileage I would want to put on a $30,000 + car. It now has 72,000 100% trouble-free miles in less than 3 years, and still looks showroom fresh (there is zero fit and finish wear). And as far as depreciation – this is a car I will use for commuting until it drops dead, which – based on current wear – will probably be around for at least another 72,000 miles, so who cares about depreciation! It’s as reliable as my refridgerator, and to be honest, just about as attractive, but the 8 speaker sound system on such a cheap car ROCKS! And that’s what a lot of “car people” simply do not get – Some cars are bought for the sole intended purpose of getting from point A to point B as cheaply and as comfortably as possible.

By: menno

menno — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:19:18 +0000

Chevrolet as a marque replaced Daewoo in most of Western Europe and the UK, and in a couple of markets, locally manufactured Daewoo products made by local companies (such as RoDae in Romania and UzDae in Uzbekistan) were still allowed to manufacture the cars they’d tooled up for but the designs are now static and getting stale, while GM set-up Chevrolet dealerships in most of these countries selling later variants and sharpish prices.

In other words, business as usual for GM.

The high irony is that now that the world is figuring out that one of the cheapest places to build cars is Romania, and that RoDae wants to sell out, last I heard Ford was looking to buy up the factory. Don’t know if a deal went through, or if the deal is dead. Of course, Ford would have to actually have some money to spend, and that could be the problem.

The old Daewoo Matiz 3 cylinder 800cc cars are manufactured both in Uzbekistan and in Romania, as are the (1980’s Opel based 1980’s “Pontiac LeMans”) Daewoo. Can’t think of the model name.

I think that the Matiz is also built in Ukraine (ZAZ) and Poland (FSO, owned by ZAZ), and also the Lanos which was discontinued elsewhere in about 2003.

GM practically “stole” most of Daewoo’s South Korean and Vietnamese operations for a song and tap-dance about 5 years ago, and bought the rest of the South Korean operations 3 years ago, in partnership with SAIC (China) and with Suzuki as a small share-holder.

Suzuki have been selling some of the GMDaewoo cars under the Suzuki brand in North America but I heard this was going to stop soon.

By: JT

JT — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:18:27 +0000

Sales of the real “America’s Brand” HUMMER are up a staggering 29 percent on the year so far. Of course, that’s a not-so staggering total of 1,325 HUMMERs sold.

Remember, you (they) put money in the bank, not percentages. The reverse calculation shows that the increase to 1325 came from a previous sales total of about 1025 cars, or 300 more.

Those 1325 sales represent roughly a 0.00094% [ninety four one-hundred-thousandths]market penetration based on the EU’s 2007’s annual numbers.

Sliced yet another way, the 1325 sales represent 49 cars in each of EU’s 27 member countries. Not a lot by any standard.

/JT

By: Ingvar

Ingvar — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:37:08 +0000

I wonder how much Daewoo sales in western europe tanked? Anyone got any figures?

By: chalmers

chalmers — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:30:47 +0000

Yeah, of course, year-on-year sales are AWESOME! Chevy as a brand has only existed in Western Europe (I can’t speak for the East) for a few years as an established automaker.

0+245K = A LOT!

By: CarShark

CarShark — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:25:51 +0000

@psarhijinian:

LOL. What makes you think they can do that?

By: psarhjinian

psarhjinian — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:58:20 +0000

This is akin to their growth in China. It’s a good thing in that it’s broad-based, bread-and-butter growth, but it must be sustainable and/or reasonably profitable.

Eventually, all markets mature. GM has to prepare for that, and not just gorge at the trough.

By: Ingvar

Ingvar — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:46:57 +0000

No, they are not crazy for Chevrolets. They are crazy for cheap korean imports costing less than the Golfs and Focuses. Imagine what that means to brand recognition and core values?

By: nudave

nudave — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:37:14 +0000

So – from this we can conclude that GMNA would be sitting pretty if:

1. They only sold cars made in the Eurozone or Korea.

2. They disposed of all NA design and manufacturing facilities.

3. They consolidated all dealers into “GM” dealers and the former brands (Cadillac, Chevrolet, etc.) become individual models.

If they survive, this might just be really close to the truth.

By: AJ

AJ — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:27:21 +0000

What a great story! Good for mother Russia. Well they are allowed to drill for their own oil there. ;)