Can't speak for everywhere, but in Greenville SC and Columbia SC, the Hummer dealerships had their own specially-designed buildings and car lots, apart from any other model.
Now, whether or not they were included as part of another dealership business/entity/corporation, I can't say. But, I can say without any doubt that the marketing intent was to imply the dealership was independent of any other model, and was advertised on the TV and radio as such. It was always "XXX Hummer", never "XXX Hummer, Chevrolet-Buick", etc...
In Bellevue WA, there was a Hummer-only building like that. Kind of ridiculous, but it worked out well - Hummer went under around the same time the local Caddy dealer lost their lease, so Caddy is now in the building.
The buildings in SC were rather gaudy, massive chrome structures, which I guess the designers thought might be along the same lines as the vehicles being sold from their locations...
Would you have considered Volvo a 'division' of Ford? I didn't...saw it as a foreign make they handled. A division to me means designed, assembled, and marketed in North America...Chev, Pontiac, Olds, Saturn, Buick, Cadillac--each of which were often sold in their individual dealerships, hundreds that way, Ford, Mercury, Lincoln were divisions (Lincoln-Mercury one division with two makes of cars); Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth, similarly.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
For me, Volvo and Mazda's association with Ford made me far less likely to consider a Volvo or Mazda, and that effect on me lingers somewhat even to this day.
For instance, Mercedes just doesn't interest me as the infection of Chrysler lingers. The stench is hard to get rid of
'15 Audi Misano Red Pearl S4, '16 Audi TTS Daytona Gray Pearl, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
Didn't know you were talking world-wide. Let's stick to North America. Was Hummer ever sold at stand-alone dealers? Not in my experience. Same with Geo.
OK, perhaps I should have said "brands" instead of "divisions". And yes, worldwide if it's part of GM.
I have to believe that recalls of cars still under warranty would fall under 'warranty costs'. That 400K recall of Cruzes is unfortunately probably part of that number.
I still like the Cruze.
Matter of fact, Ford's dismal quality ratings of late wouldn't keep me from buying one if I've liked them in the past, like the current product, and have a good dealer.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
"Its overall performance soundly beat Wall Street expectations,
This is what the market cares about - did earnings best expectations this quarter.
I have a stock that once beat all the analysts expectations soundly except for one - and the stock took a beating that day. It didn't matter that all indicators were up. The market concentrated on one thing - an increase in marketing expenditures.
Ford will improve as the learning curve for MyFord touch improves. This is a matter of customers learning things. People have a hard time giving up buttons and knobs.
I predict this dip will be temporary, especially as others adopt similar tech (Entune for Toyota, UVO for Kia, etc).
I've always liked these Lambdas and a neighbor and a friend just picked up a couple of these.
Neighbor got a CPO Traverse in granite metallic. Handsome color. 2nd neighbor to buy one of these, though the other one drove it to California when they moved.
Life long friend also picked up a new Enclave, 2012, leather plus navi, dual moonroof (nice), backup cam. $42k but lacking exactly nothing. Pretty sweet ride. Pearl white with 19" rims.
He's a little self conscious about being too young for a Buick (in his eyes), and also felt like they splurged too much, but the wife pushed for it, and helped pay.
They got a 9 year warranty with something like 85k miles, since they do few miles per year, and financed it for 6 years. So it will be paid off and they'll still have 3 years left on the warranty, not bad I suppose. That is a long loan, though.
My grandparents actually bought the very first new Vega our dealer got in...a '71 dark green cheapo sedan, one-barrel, 3-speed, pumpkin-colored interior with rubber on the floor. I remember seeing it the day the dealer got it (I about lived there at the time, despite only having a bike as mobility). They went from a '67 Impala Sport Coupe to this! Theirs was one of two Vegas in the showroom on Vega introduction day in late '70--Vegas were introduced separately from the rest of the new '71 Chevys. The other was a lime green hatchback automatic with Custom interior...much nicer, but Grandpa said he tried out the back seat and hit his head in the hatchback.
They only had 6K (yes, that's right) miles in six years, 'til Grandpa stopped driving. It sat out all the time, and in NW PA, but only had the slightest beginning of a bubble on top of the LF fender in around '75. The Chevy dealer 'repaired' it for free. No rust around the windshield. I was lobbying for the car, but they ended up selling it to my aunt who lived about an hour away. Her husband said he had to replace the fuel filter twice en route home! I occasionally have dreams that they're still alive and I go to visit them and that Vega is in a garage near the house.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
If you have a pressing need to know something, perhaps. They probably use all that stuff to fact check all the editorial side stuff. We often have more entertaining reading in the forums, probably because we get a bit loosey-goosey with hard data.
Even I can't defend the Vega except to say it was about the most attractive subcompact car on the market at the time.
My Grandmom traded her super-reliable black 1964 Chevrolet Biscayne sedan for a mustard colored new 1973 Vega. Even as an eight year-old kid, I could see this was a sloppily built car. There were a lot of cheap and ill-fitting hard plastic bits, the headliner was this perforated particle-board stuff that looked like it was warped in one corner, and it was cramped and uncomfortable in the back for my six year-old brother and I. Many is the time when brother and I sat in the back while Grandmom was at the Chevy dealer complaining about one malady after another to the mechanic with the hood of the Vega raised. Grandmom should be nominated for sainthood as she tolerated this turd for 7 years before replacing it with a new 1980 Chevrolet Monza that turned out to be a much better car. The Vega? It was scrapped and the junkyard gave her a generous $75 for it!
I thought it was a long wheelbase Buick Encore, from the look of it, but looks like it's actually a stretched Cobalt platform (new Cobalt, not the predecessor to the Cruze).
The fed there is supporting loans for autos so more than you might expect.
Car sales have outpaced infrastructure/roads improvements, so congestion is the big problem. That's why even a 7 seater like the Spin gets a tiny, fuel efficient engine.
Cost is less than half what an Equinox would cost (imported).
Money may well have been made on the Vega model, and cars like it and the Pinto, but the dissatisfaction they created in the buying public had to go a long way in tempting formerly loyal big-3 buyers to take a look that the arriving Japanese competition.
There's no real way to quantify it, but I'd bet good money that if all the aspects could be compiled, cars like the Vega and Pinto were indeed money making profit centers, but major league money / sales losers for GM and Ford over the long run.
Hell, in the '50's, warranties were 90 days or 4,000 miles!
I definitely remember when GM reverted from either 3/36 or 5/50 back to 12 mos./12K miles, for the '71 model year. My Dad was miffed.
Even into the '80's, I think that's all they were, with powertrain being 2/24--at least at GM.
GM warrantied Vega front fenders after 12/12, and as mentioned previous, for '76 and '77 models warrantied the engine for 5 yrs./60K miles, which nobody else did then.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
Comments
I've seen Hummer dealers that were separate from other GM brands. I don't know how wide spread they were, but I've seen them in large cities.
Regardless, IMO, Hummer was definitely marketed as its own division. I don't know about Geo other than I've only seen them sold at Chevy dealers.
Not a GM on the list.
IIRC, GM wanted stand alone showrooms for Hummer like so:
Now, whether or not they were included as part of another dealership business/entity/corporation, I can't say. But, I can say without any doubt that the marketing intent was to imply the dealership was independent of any other model, and was advertised on the TV and radio as such. It was always "XXX Hummer", never "XXX Hummer, Chevrolet-Buick", etc...
"In 1999, Volvo sold its car division Volvo Cars to Ford Motor Company for $6.45 billion." (Wikipedia)
For instance, Mercedes just doesn't interest me as the infection of Chrysler lingers. The stench is hard to get rid of
OK, perhaps I should have said "brands" instead of "divisions". And yes, worldwide if it's part of GM.
Had the exact opposite association for me and I remember seeing Volvo's reliability scores go up after Ford got them.
The results are in:
General Motors 3Q profit falls 12 percent on Europe losses, North America warranty costs (Washington Post)
"Its overall performance soundly beat Wall Street expectations, pushing up the stock price in Wednesday premarket trading.
Excluding one-time items, GM made 93 cents per share, easily beating Wall Street expectations of 60 cents.
That drove GM shares up $1.05, or 4.5 percent, to $24.33 in premarket trading."
Only in America can falling profits juice your stock value.
I still like the Cruze.
Matter of fact, Ford's dismal quality ratings of late wouldn't keep me from buying one if I've liked them in the past, like the current product, and have a good dealer.
This is what the market cares about - did earnings best expectations this quarter.
I have a stock that once beat all the analysts expectations soundly except for one - and the stock took a beating that day. It didn't matter that all indicators were up. The market concentrated on one thing - an increase in marketing expenditures.
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121011/OEM/121019952/toyota- -recaptures-corporate-loyalty-leadership-ford-is-top-brand&cciid=email-autonews-- daily
Remember Edmunds found that the complaint rate for SUA was twice as bad for Ford as it was for Toyota up until Nov 09.
I predict this dip will be temporary, especially as others adopt similar tech (Entune for Toyota, UVO for Kia, etc).
That's huge, actually.
In reality poor reliability has far more "veto" power than good reliability will ever sell cars.
Neighbor got a CPO Traverse in granite metallic. Handsome color. 2nd neighbor to buy one of these, though the other one drove it to California when they moved.
Life long friend also picked up a new Enclave, 2012, leather plus navi, dual moonroof (nice), backup cam. $42k but lacking exactly nothing. Pretty sweet ride. Pearl white with 19" rims.
He's a little self conscious about being too young for a Buick (in his eyes), and also felt like they splurged too much, but the wife pushed for it, and helped pay.
They got a 9 year warranty with something like 85k miles, since they do few miles per year, and financed it for 6 years. So it will be paid off and they'll still have 3 years left on the warranty, not bad I suppose. That is a long loan, though.
Traded in a Chevy TrailBlazer so loyal to GM.
They only had 6K (yes, that's right) miles in six years, 'til Grandpa stopped driving. It sat out all the time, and in NW PA, but only had the slightest beginning of a bubble on top of the LF fender in around '75. The Chevy dealer 'repaired' it for free. No rust around the windshield. I was lobbying for the car, but they ended up selling it to my aunt who lived about an hour away. Her husband said he had to replace the fuel filter twice en route home! I occasionally have dreams that they're still alive and I go to visit them and that Vega is in a garage near the house.
My Grandmom traded her super-reliable black 1964 Chevrolet Biscayne sedan for a mustard colored new 1973 Vega. Even as an eight year-old kid, I could see this was a sloppily built car. There were a lot of cheap and ill-fitting hard plastic bits, the headliner was this perforated particle-board stuff that looked like it was warped in one corner, and it was cramped and uncomfortable in the back for my six year-old brother and I. Many is the time when brother and I sat in the back while Grandmom was at the Chevy dealer complaining about one malady after another to the mechanic with the hood of the Vega raised. Grandmom should be nominated for sainthood as she tolerated this turd for 7 years before replacing it with a new 1980 Chevrolet Monza that turned out to be a much better car. The Vega? It was scrapped and the junkyard gave her a generous $75 for it!
It obviously had some appeal - look how many of our families owned one.
I guess it disappointed a lot of people by not meeting expectations.
I think we still talk about it several decades later because these small cars (Vega, Pinto, Pacer) opened the door for imports as alternatives.
Today, the Cruze, Dart, and Focus are fully competitive cars and shouldn't create disloyalty the way those older cars did.
Seven years, almost two million sold.
http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2012/06/new-chevrolet-spin-is-mpv-version-of.html
I thought it was a long wheelbase Buick Encore, from the look of it, but looks like it's actually a stretched Cobalt platform (new Cobalt, not the predecessor to the Cruze).
Unlike explaining 5 trillion dollar tax cuts, the math on this one is easy.
That's over 250,000 sold per year! Pretty good!
I wonder if GM made any money on the Vega considering how much warranty work they must have spent.
GM has to make cars for plebes, too.
Not to mention, given the socio-economics of Brazil, someone who is buying that Chevy is the relative equivalent of a new AMG buyer here.
Reminds me of the Buick Encore a little, with an awkward wheebase stretch.
Hers has a tiny 3rd row and is flex fuel. Funny - it makes more power on Ethanol vs. gas.
What percentage of the population there could afford it, though? That's what I was getting at.
Car sales have outpaced infrastructure/roads improvements, so congestion is the big problem. That's why even a 7 seater like the Spin gets a tiny, fuel efficient engine.
Cost is less than half what an Equinox would cost (imported).
You're being charitable. I'd call it ugly.
Probably. Remember warranties were only 12/12 back then.
There's no real way to quantify it, but I'd bet good money that if all the aspects could be compiled, cars like the Vega and Pinto were indeed money making profit centers, but major league money / sales losers for GM and Ford over the long run.
No, I don't remember 12/12 warranties.... you've just dated yourself :P :surprise:
It's okay, not everyone can by young and energetic
I definitely remember when GM reverted from either 3/36 or 5/50 back to 12 mos./12K miles, for the '71 model year. My Dad was miffed.
Even into the '80's, I think that's all they were, with powertrain being 2/24--at least at GM.
GM warrantied Vega front fenders after 12/12, and as mentioned previous, for '76 and '77 models warrantied the engine for 5 yrs./60K miles, which nobody else did then.
V8 Vega
Circle dub can expect a check back from Kia for probably close to $100 or so.