For those that haven't seen the press release:

http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayS...27&docid=53947

The brands that will remain are Chevy, Buick, Cadillac, and GMC. I get the first three -- value, uplevel, and luxury. No big deal. Why GMC? Everything they have is redundant, including the new Terrain (it's Theta, same as Equinox). More importantly, why GMC and not Pontiac?

Oh well, at least Pontiac gets to last a year or so longer than Saturn/Saab/Hummer.

 

Because it's profitable. Plain and simple.

 

And Pontiac wasn't? Are there numbers to back this up somewhere?

 

"Pontiac's problem was not sales, GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson indicated during a conference call Monday. In 2008, Pontiac was the company's third-best selling brand behind Chevrolet and GMC and sold twice as many vehicles as Buick, a brand that will apparently survive the changes at GM.

The problem for Pontiac has been profitability. GM doesn't generally break out profits by brand, but Buick and GMC, which are sold in dealerships alongside Pontiacs, are more profitable, Henderson said."

http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/27/auto...ion=2009042711

 

Most of Pontiacs sales were fleet. I bet the reverse is true for GMC.

 

GMCs are pretty much just higher-priced rebadged Chevy trucks. They don't cost too much to change from Chevy to GMC, and they're priced higher.

1. Make Chevy Truck.
2. Rebadge Chevy as GMC.
3. ??????
4. Profit!!!!

 

GMC is the uplevel of Chevy on the truck side. Also, I believe Buick dealers would need GMC to survive as well. Also, GMC dealers would need Buick to survive.

One thing they need to be careful of is Acadia/Enclave problems. Both great vehicles, but both on the same lot leaves me scratching my head. Buick almost needs a Terrian/Equinox like vehicle, but it shouldn't be in the same show room so there is some conflict there. While I don't know what the long term solution will be, I think it is something that will need to be fixed.

Pontiac wasn't profitable and directly competed with Chevy. I don't think there is much of a place for brands that compete with each other in the new GM.

 

GMC is the best selling division after Chevy. If gas was $5 a gallon I bet GMC would be on the way out too.

What doesn't make sense is BPG dealers are now just going to be BG. Buick is going to need the Regal and Astra ASAP.

 

It makes no sense to me either.

Especially if many dealers end up becoming consolidated dealers where GMC is sold under the same roof as Chevy... rebadged models sold side by side.

 

I never understood the point of GMC period!

 

Charge people more money for essentially the same product as Chevy's trucks.

 

Well lets see here . . . people have been b*tching about the interiors and the features in most of the GM line for a while and GMC addressed many of those issues adequately enough to get people to buy. Think about how Infiniti, Lexus and Acura got their start. It was like that, only for their trucks. What's so hard to understand?

 

GMC's interiors are only marginally better than their Chevrolet counterparts IMO... and I mean marginal in the slightest sense of the word in most cases. Usually the ways in which they are better is something GM could have just as easily done to their Chevy model but just wanted to save a bit of bling for the GMC version to be special with.

 

Exactly. And even if you wanted to charge a premium for it, then all you had to do was make it a Silverado Denali or whatever you want to call it. People will pay a lot of money for a Chevrolet, and can even feel like they have gotten something exclusive. Z06 / ZR1 owners are a prime example of this.

 

I'm not arguing that at all. I think that it's has mostly been a gimmick, but people are obviously willing to pay for it. Just look at some of the reviews from the late 90s and early 2000s; they basically say it's nothing more than a lux'd out *insert Chevy version here*.