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GMC is for Professionals such as the owner of a large landscape company or remodeling company while a Chevy is for the average person such as carpenter, plumber, drywaller/taper, farm hand, etc.
Never once did I suggest that the average import buyer would drive a Buick. Buick will NEVER achieve sales anywhere close to what it had in the 60s through the 90s. This is a fact and if you measure success by sales alone than Buick will never be successful. Buick is now a niche player that is trying to carve out a piece of the market occupied by lower end Lexus models and Acura models as well as the usual domestic competitors. Cadillac and Saturn are proof that you can change the image of a brand over time in spite of the claims to the contrary. It might take Buick until the end of the decade but it can be done.
It does seem there's selfcompetition. The Accord and Acura models from Honda overlap some but have some differention; the Avalon, ES, and Camry have similar beginnings and overlap. But they are marketed heavily as being much different than they are. Yet there is some differentiation with addons.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
You cannot be serious. Anyone who cares to look can see how a Camry XLE and Avalon could compete with one another. Same goes for all the other pairings I mentioned. I'm sorry but you are losing credibility if you continue to argue that other manufacturers do NOT have product overlap. I guess you believe the TSX and Accord don't overlap either.
Check the G6's sales, dont take my word for it. There is no evidence that the Aura is sinking the G6. Remember, the G6 offers a coupe and convertible as well as a base four cylinder model.
The only guy I knew with a Mercedes was a doctor who had two of them in his garage. Other than that, anybody who was anybody had a Cadillac, Lincoln, or Imperial. Audi was a very rare slightly upscale VW. The only guy who had a BMW was this weirdo college professor who wore a beret, a tweed coat, purple scarf, and sandals over navy blue socks.
Hyundai didn't show up until I was halfway through college and was almost as awful a joke as the Yugo.
If you are continuing to say that Saturn is doing poorly this year I fail to see how the numbers support you.
Good job on twisting my word as usual here, 1487.
Buick is now a niche player that is trying to carve out a piece of the market occupied by lower end Lexus models and Acura models as well as the usual domestic competitors.
Why can't GM do that with the existing Caddy and Saab lineup? Is it really worth it to sustain an EXTRA brand in order to capture that small piece of the market? :confuse:
Good point.
How about a list of all the duplication of products throughout Honda/Accura and Toyota's multiple lines..
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Time's a changing.
Okay, then enlighten me what's the need to sustain such a huge lineup if Malibu/Aura can take care of the total combine sales of Malibu/Aura/G6/LaCrosse? :confuse:
GM has tons of Buick dealers and phasing out Buick would be very costly and do nothing. Caddy is going RWD and Buick is likely to remain mostly FWD/AWD. Buick will always offer more affordable options than Buick and Cadillac needs to be going upmarket, not downmarket.
2nd, the data proves that Saturn is not taking sales from other GM products.
3rd, G6 should be more performance oriented. There is an issue with this overlap because G6 is not performance oriented enough. Hopefully a RWD version is coming and will differentiate it.
And similarly, I'm sure there are people who would have a preference for the Malibu, while others would have a preference for the G6.
As for product overlap, well it's always been there. Probably has been since way back before the Great Depression, when GM decided to fill the gaps between their various divisions with brands like Pontiac, Viking, Marquette, and LaSalle. The difference, is that when you're good at your marketing, you can get the buyers to see a perceived need for all those overlapping products.
When you're not so good at your marketing, people just get on internet forums and complain about product overlap. :shades:
There is no way Saturn could replace the volume of Buick and Pontiac in the short term because Saturn lacks dealership coverage. They do not have enough outlets to replace those two brands.
Thank you Mr. Chrystal Ball.
It's always just over the horizon for GM isn't it?
The 240Z when it came out was to be aspired to. Datsun 510 of about 1970 vintage is revered for it being a cheaper BMW 2002 (which followed 1600 and was suceeded by 3 series). Depends on one's circles on how they looked at Toyotas and Datsuns in their early years here. A number of my friends had these brands and I and others with American brands at the time were "looked down" (friendly) and kidded for driving Detroit iron. Others in our circle had German, British and Italian marques. Had exposure to great diversity of brands, models and persons with open minds about trying different things.
GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co., South Korea's third-largest automaker, said today it plans to invest $3.2 billion (3 trillion won) in coming years and will look into expanding factories to meet rising demand.
"We will make the same volume of investment that we have made for the last four years," Michael Grimaldi, GM Daewoo's CEO, was quoted as saying by a company spokesman.
GM Daewoo spent about a total of 3 trillion won, or $3.19 billion at current exchange rates, from 2002 to 2006 on new car development, production facilities and research and development.
The spokesman said GM Daewoo might expand its factories to accommodate increasing demand, although details of the investments, such as a time frame, have not been decided yet.
GM Daewoo expects its sales to rise about 20 percent to 1.7 million to 1.8 million units this year, after the company sold 1.53 million units, including kits, last year.
The number represented a 32 percent increase from 2005, due to solid sales in Europe, North America and emerging markets such as Russia, China and India. GM Daewoo exports about more than 80 percent of its output.
Ponder this: Pick the GM model from your list that you like best and ask yourself "Would they sell as many if that were the only model available?"
Here's one benefit - instead of having one sick brand and one dying brand, GM now only has to worry about one sick brand that is at least showing some signs of life.
1487: GM has tons of Buick dealers and phasing out Buick would be very costly and do nothing.
GM has been merging the Pontiac-GMC and Buick dealer networks for some time, and has made considerable progress on that front. Thus, if it has to discontinue a brand, it can do so with much less expense, as the dealers still have something to sell.
People focus on Buick as the most vulnerable brand, when in reality if one brand does go, it will be Pontiac.
Buick's U.S. sales, however, were down nearly 15 percent in 2006 to about 240,650. GM's effort to cut low-profit sales to rental car companies, as well eliminating aging models such as the LeSabre sedan, accentuated the drop.
Think again. Amid an oil-fueled boom, scores of well-known U.S. corporations are notching impressive sales in Venezuela. This nation of 26 million people is entering the fourth year of a robust economic expansion and, despite sour relations with the United States, consumers are gobbling up American cars, appliances, fast food and shampoo.
Few manufacturers are doing better than General Motors. The automaker last year sold a record 92,000 cars and trucks in Venezuela and expects to reach almost 160,000 this year. "The industry is going really fast. Today, I have a waiting list for every single product," says Ronaldo Znidarsis, 42, GM's local managing director.
GM, which has sold cars here since World War II, literally can't make vehicles fast enough to satisfy Venezuelan buyers. Its local plant, housed on "General Motors Avenue" in an industrial district near this city's airport, added a third shift in 2006 and is running flat-out producing more than 20 models.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
GM is now making money and hopefully will continue to do so here in NA. BUT, and that is a point many seem to forget, GM continues to gain market share in other markets. GM just overtook VW in China and I really doubt that Toyota, a japanese company, will do very well there in the short term.
http://china.seekingalpha.com/article/29954
Lexus, on the other hand, is still seldom seen in China despite doing so well in the US and rivaling their German counterparts. One big problem is that they just do not produce locally in China. Even their low-end ES or IS series cost significantly more than BMWs and Mercedes lines of the same quality level.
If Lexus really wants to catch up in China, then they need to both produce in China and import here. Considering how well run Toyota is and how they are beating up GM (GM) and Ford (F) in the US, I have been surprised at how poorly they are doing in China compared to other foreign counterparts. Smart investors will look at the future manufacturing capabilities of the car producers to see whether or not they will be able to take market share. The automobile companies that have wisely invested in product lines in China will be the big winners in China’s booming sector unless they built too much and have overcapacity.
Anti-Japanese Rhetoric
As I interviewed drivers about what car to buy, I realized that a large part of Toyota’s or Nissan’s (NSANY) problems in China come from nationalism. As we saw recently with Japan’s Prime Minister’s Shinzo Abe’s shameful words about Japan’s sexual enslavement of thousands of women in Asia during World War II, Japan’s Government and its crazy ultra-nationalists constantly destroy Japan’s business interests throughout Asia.
I usually do not like to jump into politics in my columns, but it needs to be said in this case – unless Japan completely fesses up to its horrible wartime record during World War II as Germany has done, Japan’s business community will be hit hard in Asia. I won’t even enter into the much more compelling moral arguments.
When we interviewed drivers in Shanghai, they overwhelmingly told us not to buy a Japanese car because the “Japanese are evil.” Investors should not underestimate the level of hatred most people in Asia have for Japanese. I used to live in the Philippines and Korea and the hatred is as palpable there as in China because Japan does not acknowledge its horrendous actions. Regardless of what political regime runs an Asian country, Japan is uniformly hated in Asia.
This profit in 2006 was with only partial cost cutting completed thru out the year. In 2007, hopefully there will be less negative one time cost (GM has already "paid" for the future closed plants and buyouts in 2006) and with the cost cutting from 2006 fully done and more to come in 2007 GM should (unless gas goes to $3.50/gallon and/or a real recession with huge loss of vehicle sales for all makes) easily clear $5 billion. They are aiming for $2.2 billion in cost reduction for 2007. Of course a long UAW strike which shuts down the plants can also throw a wrench into this number.
GM reduced structural costs in North America by $6.8 billion in 2006, exceeding its target of $6 billion, and remains on-track to deliver the previously announced $9 billion of annual structural cost savings in 2007(versus 2005 structural cost levels).
Is $5 billion enough for a the $207 billion in revenue? NO, they should be doing better. But again this is a very competitive market and few are really making huge profits as a percentage of revenue.
SHANGHAI, China --Toyota, on course to overtake General Motors as the world's biggest automaker, is well behind in the world's fastest-growing market -- and one where GM is thriving: China.
But on Tuesday, Toyota hopes to take a key step toward catching up when it rolls out its first made-in-China Camry, the best-selling model in the United States.
The launch, from Toyota's new 3.8 billion yuan ($475 million) factory in Nansha, near the southern city of Guangzhou, symbolizes the automaker's newfound ambitions for China, which is about to surpass Japan as the world's second-largest auto market.
Virtually unscathed by political friction that erupted into anti-Japanese riots last year, Toyota and fellow Japanese automakers Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co., are pushing ahead with billions of dollars in new investments.
Until recently, Toyota's cars were viewed as pricey imports. But the company's reputation for reliable, fuel-efficient cars is boosting its appeal among economy-conscious families, who are more sensitive to fuel prices than the government and corporate buyers who once dominated the market. The company's sales surged 55 percent last year.
GM spokesman Dee Allen said the company is aware of Toyota's plans in China and sees the Japanese company as a tough competitor in any market.
Chinese consumers seem largely unaffected by ongoing tension between the Beijing and Tokyo over a range of issues, including Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to a Tokyo shrine that honors the dead of World War II, including war criminals.
Brand reputation trumps politics, says Zhang Xin, an auto industry analyst at Guotai Junan Securities.
"What customers care about is quality and price," Zhang says. "Japanese cars are economical, not gas-guzzlers. And their appearance appeals to us; perhaps because we are all Asians we have something in common in terms of aesthetics."
All the Japanese cars are selling really well," says Zhang of CSM Asia.
Like many analysts, he believes Toyota's late start is not much of a handicap given the company's strong reputation for quality and its systematic approach to acquiring market share.
"Toyota will jump to No. 2 if not No. 1," he says.
This is more of an objective article. The one you posted seems a bit subjective to me. If I were GM I definitely wouldn't underestimate TOYOTA. They have a lot of money that they put to good use in capturing market share.
Loren
The Honda first effort in USA was kinda bizzare. That said, they ran, the little thing ran. It was not safe by any means, and I would not own one. The door were lets say, not the best for safety. Of course the difference is that Honda cars improved with time, as the American cars went downhill. They listened to the customer and changed every year for the better. Subaru first cars shipped to the States were basically toys. Kinda cute little things.
Kinda sad how US companies, with years of experience in building cars for the American roads got so far behind. How does one start a race a half century early and finish a day late and a dollar short? Looks like GM is playing the catch up game a bit better than Ford, so in that respect there is hope. New product, as in really NEW product to the market ASAP will put more pressure on Ford, and help siphon off some sales from foreign car makers.
Loren
Well it would if it was the best of all wrapped into one. If they take say the Malibu, add the 3.6 V6 as standard, with the nicer interior, why would you want for an Aura? If they did not have the Aura or the G6 out right now, and they made a perfect Malibu, why would it not sell? A BMW3 doesn't require a bunch of body styles to sell well. If you are talking volume over quality and design, well yes, the more the merrier. The foreign makes are going to win the volume ways anyway, unless GM sells a lot of Korean and China made cars as GM here in the states. GM has too many of the same car and truck with different bodies or badges, and too many engines to keep track of. Make a few good ones and keep it simple.
The New Malibu is going to look better than the G6, so there goes the sales. And the Aura? I guess one could say it is a more Euro look. Same car though. XR is the fun one, BTW.
Loren
Well, that IS one more young-appealing car than Buick has.
The rest of the lineup is for the AARP crowd and yet no one complains.
The RX is their most popular model and is exceptionally popular with affluent moms in their 30's. Again, nothing like Buick. Admire Toyota for finding a niche that sells an awful lot of cars that cost >$40K typically optioned.
Buick is ONE brand in GM's arsenal and I fail to see why people think Buick needs the same customers as Chevy and Saturn.
The question is - do GM customers usually buy up to Buick from Chevy, Pontiac, or do they buy other brands? With fewer divisions at Honda or Toyota, buyers can repeat buy the same nameplate without having jump like Cobalt>>G6>>Lucerne>>STS. With Toyota you can buy Yaris>>Corolla>>Camry>>Avalon and they all say Toyota on the badge.
GMC is for Professionals such as the owner of a large landscape company or remodeling company while a Chevy is for the average person such as carpenter, plumber, drywaller/taper, farm hand, etc.
We don't want to know who they're *for*, we want to know if they're *different*. A blue ipod might be for the guys, and a pink one for the girls, but they're the same product.
http://www.carspace.com/autoobserver/Albums/Saturn/saturn_xshop.gif/page/photo.h-
Wos, perfect sense!! Because iPod has two different models they get twice the volume. Oh sure, it probably would not be double because some guys would have to buy the pink ones and vice versa, but sooner or later a competitor would come out with a better match to the customer and start to steal sales.
Yea, he actually talked to people in the streets.
I guess I am not sure which report would be more correct but I see that CSM is based in Hong Kong while CMR is based in mainland China.
I also have just read a lot about how upset China is because the Japanese government still refuses to acknowledge their atrocities to the people of China.
I just had a Chinese friend (over here on temporary assignment) over for dinner and I did not think to ask about this. Next time I see them I will ask what they think.
I do not doubt that Toyota will make inroads into China. But they are way behind and will have a tough road to hoe to become a volume producer in the short term. Give them 10-20 years and they may become a player but by then who knows what will be happening in China?
My point as well. I'd be willing to bet that GM sells more mid size FWD cars than Toyota does this year. This, all because consumers have a choice. If that weren't true, then Toyota would've never come out with Scion. Scion gives people shopping an alternative for compact and sub-compact cars. Do they hurt Corolla or Civic sales? Maybe? But, more than likely they give shoppers looking for a compact car just one more choice when they walk into Toyota dealerships. My spreadsheet shows that sales of the Corolla AND all 3 Scion offerings went up from 2005 to 2006. Where did those sales come from? (BTW, 11/06-Saturn sold 4,200 Auras, and G6 sales dropped by 3,800. However, Malibu sales TANKED by 6,500 and Lacrosse dropped by 1,000.) What does that prove? Saturn obviously diddn't take all those sales. My guess, a bad year for GM. My prediction; when the '08 Malibu comes out as well as the RWD G6 and the gussied up Lacrosse sales of all will increase. Why, fresh faces on the scene!
Well I'm glad you have it all figured out. Since the G6 is soing well and the G8 is on the way next year it seems kind of unlikely that Pontiac is close to being phased out. As long as GM can have GMC/Pontiac/Buick dealers I dont think they plan to kill off any of those three brands. Those three brands are essentially one brand akin to Chevrolet and Saturn.
Why is it you think that only GM platform mates can steal sales from each other? Do you think the new camry could steal avalon sales? Do you think the Avenger will rob the Sebring of sales? How about the '07 Highlander vs the RX350?
It doesn't? The 3 series have 4 body styles and three engines. The diversity of its model lineup is one of the reasons the car is so successful.
"The New Malibu is going to look better than the G6, so there goes the sales."
That is your opinion, I think the G6 looks pretty good. Both cars are attractive, but they do not look alike. Not everyone who likes the G6 will like the Malibu. Plus as I said before, the G6 offers coupe and convertible. The G6 also offers (for now) the 3.5 V6 with 224hp which the Malibu lacks.