Cadillac Dealers Unhappily Jump Aboard Project Pinnacle

A large-scale culling of Cadillac dealers won’t come to pass, but that doesn’t mean franchise owners are giddy about joining the automaker’s controversial Project Pinnacle.

An overwhelming majority of the brand’s 925 U.S. dealers have opted to sign on to the program, ignoring company president Johan de Nysschen’s last-minute buyout offer to 400 low-volume locations.

According to Automotive News, the automaker’s September 30 enrollment deadline passed with few buyout takers. In total, the dealers signed on to Project Pinnacle represent 98.7 percent of the brand’s sales volume.

Dan Creed, Cadillac’s vice president of sales operations, told AN the remaining dealers are “very small stores” with a total volume of 150 units per month.

Project Pinnacle rolls out on January 1 and aims to reshape how Cadillac sells its vehicles. Dealers would be slotted into five tiers based on sales volume, each offering different levels of customer perks. Compensation from the automaker would be tied to sales performance. de Nysschen believes the new approach will bring Cadillac in line with its luxury competitors.

Naturally, dealers would need to spend more to offer the perks, with fewer guarantees of stable funding from the automaker. This sparked a backlash from some dealer groups, including the California New Car Dealers Association, which wrote to GM CEO Mary Barra in the hopes of delaying the roll-out.

That association’s president claims dealers felt strong-armed into joining the program out of fear for their businesses.

Brain Maas told AN that the situation felt “like a Soviet election,” claiming that most dealers likely signed up “under protest.”

Under the program, the brand’s lowest-volume dealers (less than 100 units per year) can choose fifth-tier status. While it means less money spent on customer perks, the dealers would lose the ability to stock vehicles on site.

[Image: © 2016 Matthew Guy/The Truth About Cars]