April Sales: GM Considers Truck Cutback

You don't want to do that - it brings people into Buick dealers and gives them the opportunity for more business. The perception is that GMC is a cut above Chevy, true or not.

@Zackman GMC is "professional grade" but has no unique vehicle or line to its name. All its vehicles are also Chevrolets. GMC also sells Chevy based crossover SUVs (the new minivans). How does that fit in the "professional grade" brand? GMC is also to sell a small Scion competing box (IIRC called the terrain) which will even confuse people more (like how Jeep has trouble with the patriot / compass). I see the benefits outweighing the drawback in closing down GMC (folding into Chevrolet as no GMC model is unique). GMC is such a small amount of sales overall but require GM to spend millions extra in brand advertising / promotions, maintaining dealers who are on the same block as the Chevy dealer, etc. By adding a GMC trim level on Chevrolet trucks - you can still sell a premium "professional grade" Chevy pickup (the old GMC). I know people who will only buy a GMC truck and not a Chevy - but he is few and far between (why sell to such a small niche and waste millions every year when you can fix the problem by simplifying your structure now).

@Zackman For some reason can't edit my comment. This is the same problem as GM had with Hummer. It had to spend millions on promoting its brand, it made the H2 and H3 based off of GMT platforms but at least gave them significantly different sheet metal and interiors. However since the brand was dependent heavily on truck sales - when gas prices went up Hummer was devastated. Since they now had separate dealers nationwide with little to no sales the project was a complete failure. History is teaching us that niche markets with high costs to maintain separate dealer networks and branding / marketing is too costly in a maturing automotive market.

Zackman, it's probably true to some degree that there are buyers who walk in intending to buy a GMC and leave with a Buick. Or leave with both. But you could argue the same thing with Cadillac and Buick -- Buick intenders leaving with a more expensive Cadillac. To me, now is a good time to ax GMC because gasoline is on a permanent climb. It's simply a matter of channel and advertising efficiency. And there's nothing "professional grade" about a GMC over an equivalent Chevy. Just marketing smoke and mirrors.

@Zackman jaje, The I don't see many if any standalone GMC dealers. All the ones I have seen are partnered with Buick. It doesn't take much to make the trucks GMC from Chevy. A few nicer materials, higher margins make the trucks worth while. Selling SUVs gets tricky with Buick and GMC, but it seems to work. The Terrain, Enclave and Acadia sell like hot cakes. I think the brands are ok when paired together. I don't think you want to have Buick and Cadillac in the same sales channel. I think that would be bad for Caddy. Not quite as bad as trying to sell an Accent in the same show room as an Equus, but it isn't a good thing either.

GMC does a fine job of moving premium station wagons at excellent price points. Only a moron would suggest to get rid of GMC.

SVX pearlie - does this make me a moron b/c I suggest so? So GM's surviving right now with GMC selling nothing unique except higher level trim vehicles than the trucks and crossovers they are 95% based on. What about 20 years from now and the millions spent maintaining a different brand for something so similar to what they already sell. I recall from case studies similar companies who run inefficiently slowly succumbing to market forces b/c they couldn't adapt. Does this make me as much as a moron who also suggested folding in Hummer, Saab, Pontiac, Saturn, and Geo? Did you see any value in closing or selling off these other brands that were also rebadges? Am I a moron b/c I see GM making the same issue with GMC and Buick. GM seems to be giving Buick a lot greater latitude and doing a much better job differentiating their products from its platform mates. An analogy I see, Buick is to Chevy as Acura is to Honda. However with GMC I see so much product overlap with the Chevy trucks and suvs - that's millions spent each year letting people know there are Chevy and also GMC trucks. Efficiency is not great gains all the time - it is also making small changes for the better over time and sacrificing short term sales or profits for long term survival a thing GM has done very poorly for decades. I see the history of these brands but history is not enough to spend the money it takes to keep a brand name alive that is 95% the same under the skin as a platform mate under the mother brand. This moron will shut up for questioning GM's management and marketing decision making b/c we all know they must be beyond reproach after having such a successful quarter (let's conveniently forget the previous 5 years).

@SVX pearlie If the GMC version looks and feels different to the customer, then it's not the same. In the case of GMC, a lot of people made your argument at the time of GM's bankruptcy, and the fact that GMC moved a lot of trucks, had a well-established identity, and generated a lot of profit pretty much made things a non-brainer for keeping. The GM model is to have a base for volume (Chevy) and premium versions for big profit (Buick & Caddy). Buick won't have pickup trucks, nor Caddy, so GMC stays from that standpoint as well. Finally, 20 years is a long time. Looking back 20 years, it's obvious that Saturn should have been the Olds (sub)compact, and Hummer should have been a GMC SUV. And Saab should have been let to die on its own. Of course, 20 years ago, we also had Mercury, Plymouth, even Eagle... New GM is still a big seller and seems to have done a good job of cutting back. But realistically, GMC simply can't be cut without fundamentally changing the entire GM concept. And, given that historically, the GM model worked for them for decades, the few years that it didn't are proportionally small. Given that New GM is consistently profitable, they deserve to be given the benefit of the doubt that their model works. The companies that come to mind not platforming are small, niche, and very expensive (BMW, Benz, Porsche). In the mass market, consider VW/Audi - they're platformed similarly, but look and feel different. Or pretty much any other set of platformers in the industry. Lexus / Toyota or Ford / Lincoln for example.