When GM announced the Traverse, they insisted the new Chevy was different enough from the GM's three Lambda-platformed CUVs that it wouldn't cannibalize sales. It looks like they were right; there won't be anything left to cannibalize. GMINsidenews is reporting that neither the GMC Acadia (the best-selling Lambda flavor) nor the Saturn Outlook (the worst selling) will make the cut. That'll leave only the Buick Enclave and the Traverse to carry the Lambda Gen 2 banner. GM's answer to the slow-selling Honda Ridgeline, the Lambda SUT (due in 2011-2012) will also lose the GMC variant; the Chevy SUT will be GM's only entry in the almost-but-not-quite-a-pickup-truck market. All this leaves only one new GMC product in the pipeline: the GMC version of the Pontiac version of the Chevy version of the Theta CUV (Equinox). Clearly, GM's decided to starve GMC to death. The question is: do they have enough time?
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Perhaps GM will “do an Isuzu” and move GMC up to where it may as well be anyway, and that is medium duty trucks. Too late to do heavy duty trucks; they’ve sold that business long ago (more family silver sold early on to keep the lights on), and as for medium-duty snub-nose delivery trucks, the Chevrolet and GMC versions are simply rebadged Isuzu’s anyway! Literally.
(For those of you not in the know, Isuzu is giving up light vehicle sales in No. Am., and concentrating on their snub-nosed medium-duty delivery trucks – badged as Isuzu).
A company in Toyota’s orbit, part-owned Hino, once built rear-engined Renault knock-offs in the 1960’s but once Toyota got part ownership, they rationalized and now Hino is the medium-duty and heavy-duty truck line in the Toyota family.
Trucks being referred to here are REAL trucks – those which work for a living. Not posiermobile pickemups.
Chevrolet already sells real commercial trucks and always has.
There’s no point in doing anything with GMC since it has always sold the same trucks as Chevrolet.
Like Ford there’s no reason Chevrolet cannot continue to serve heavy-duty, medium-duty, commercial and light-duty trucks as it always has.
The US market is squeezing GMC out and frankly there’s no good reason to keep it around anymore, just like most of GM’s other brands.
Even their slogan tells this tale. “We are commercial grade.”
So what’s “commercial grade” about an Acadia?
GMC should sell nothing smaller than a one-ton pickup.
GMInsidenews has been a popular resource for you guys as of late. Finally.
GMC is probably cheap to run and returns nice profits…but if truck sales go away, then the really have no solid business plan. So, after a 100 year run, sometimes it’s OK to let something go.
Uh, didn’t The General already sell GMC’s medium duty truck line to Navistar?
http://www.trucktrend.com/features/news/2007/163_news080401_navistar_buys_gm/index.html
@TriShield:
But you know why I’m not confident that GM will do it? Because if there’s anything I know, it’s that there are GMC buyers out there that (for some unknown reason) won’t buy a Chevy. After the painful (but needed) killing of Oldsmobile led to some buyers jumping ship from GM altogether, GM seems reluctant to let go of any sale, no matter how unhealthy.
Look at the CARS sold per Pontiac and Buick dealer. They live on GMC stuff, so they’ll all disappear together. From my very limited experience, the service from these dealerships is better than at Chevy dealers on the whole, plus they give GM a presence in places, small towns, where the drive to a Chevy dealer is not shorter than to a non-GM dealer. I think it’s another dumb move. Saturn is the creature that should be killed, but what’s new?
Hey! Don’t worry guys! According to Autoblog: “nothing too important seems to have been lost with this decision.”
GMC should live up to its name – commercial vehicles and thrive off of dealer fleet sales for commercial trucks and SUVs.
Chevy versions should be more comfortable and for the retail end of the pickups. There’s really nothing that differentiates GMC from Chevrolet and since that is the case a waste of advertising and research for a rebadged Chevy. GM won’t admit their mistake b/c that means they were wrong – and we all know GM has too much pride and stupidity to be honest anymore.
Stupid decision. The Acadia is a great looking CUV and their best seller. Just call it the Chevy Acadia if you are wanting to get rid of GMC.
Good Lord, I usually defend the domestics, but this is just plain dumb.
eggsalad,
I believe their tag line is “We are Professional Grade”.
daryn:
ok, sure. my point doesn’t change. nothing professional about an Acadia.
figures now that they have driven Buick to near death. must be part of the plan they they won’t tell us about. stupidity isn’t this sequential.
GMC is an expensive grill upgrade to a Chevrolet, nothing more.
Ugh. If you were going to buy a Lambda, the Traverse is the ugliest of them all, with that horrid Chevy grille they massacre everything with. The Acadia and the Outlook were at least non-offensive to look at.
Reason #863 why I never want a single dollar of tax money to bail out these dorks when they start begging before Congress Lido-style.
Hank : GMC is an expensive grill upgrade to a Chevrolet, nothing more.
Even so, it makes sense for GM to keep it so that Cadillac, Buick and Pontiac (for as long they are in existance) have trucks to sell. And for the GMC-only dealers who don’t want to be tied down selling Chevy’s crappy line of passenger cars.
People who keep saying “kill Saturn” are the ones most out of touch – that’s the ONLY GM brand with any value with the people GM lost over the years; and whom GM must attempt to attract at least a little bit if they are to survive.
Yeah, all they have now are SUVs and a couple of mediocre European imports – but that’s still better cars than the rest of them.
I believe their tag line is “We are Professional Grade”.
No, it’s:
“We were Professional Grade.”
Was that true though in the 1960s, `70s, or `80s?
At some point it stopped being true. I remember a time when a GMC was definately more truck then a street duty GM model.
Ever seen one of those old military GMC trucks?
Clearly, GM’s decided to starve GMC to death.
I’m the first person to bag on GM for bad decision making, but in this case, I’m not sure that brand starvation is the motivating factor here.
My guess is that they hope to raise the average price paid for Lambda vehicles at the consolidated Buick-Pontiac-GMC agencies by steering would-be Acadia buyers toward higher priced Enclaves, and allowing Chevy to take the less ambitious customers. It sounds like more of an effort to support Buick and Chevy’s pricing strata than it does to hurt GMC.
GMC is an expensive grill upgrade to a Chevrolet, nothing more.
Yeah, but GMCs are always more attractive than Chevys. Compare the new Silverado to the Sierra, or the Colorado to the Canyon.
Plus, I’m not sure about the customer service at the Chevy dealers.
The problem with the Lambda vehicles is that they are too big and they are styled to look even bigger.
Flash in the pan for sure.
That said, killing GMC first would be stupid. The brand costs almost nothing to keep alive. But, getting rid of the Acadia makes plenty of sense. What the **** is that doing in the GMC line-up in the first place, especially when there is a Buick version sold in the same showrooms.
Saturn, Saab and Pontiac all deserve to die before GMC.
To the Saturn defenders: Saturn has NEVER made a profit for GM and has for most of it’s life been a money looser. It’s target market is EXACTLY the same one Chevrolet should be serving.
What is a SUT? Sport Utility Truck?
Isn’t it time to retire the word Sport?
How about GWDT – Get Work Done Truck or ETRV – Easy To Roll Vehicle or LTWCVTFA in HR – Large Tires Will Cause Vehicle To Float Away in Heavy Rains (applied to Hummers that try to cross creeks).
The brand costs almost nothing to keep alive.
Can you elaborate? How do know this? I can’t help but think that it costs a bloody fortune. Right off the top of my head I can think of:
(1) Dealerships
(2) Advertising
(3) Testing and certification
Those three sound expensive to me.
GMC is an expensive grill upgrade to a Chevrolet, nothing more.
I disagree. I’ve always liked GMC styling (whether a simple grill change or more) better than the Chevy (esp. with the thick chrome center bar – yuck). The Acadia is the perfect example – it has the cleanest, most purposeful design of the Lambdas IMO.
@Dave M.:
But certainly it doesn’t warrant an entire brand, rather than just redesigning the grille?
For God’s sake, GM’s fighting for its life, and what do they do? bring out a FOURTH VERSION OF THE SAME CUV!
The other three aren’t selling well enough, so let’s dilute the brand with v4.0.
They need 2 versions, at the very most. One a Chevy and one a Buick. Basic and Luxe.
Duh.
GMC serves no purpose other than to charge more for the same truck. What’s the old joke? A GMC is a Chevy with lockwashers.
The only reason GMC exists is so that Buck/Pontiac dealers have trucks to sell. Kill it. Now.
OK,
You are at the helm of GM. It’s time to swing the axe. What do you keep beyond Chev and Cadillac?
Ultimately I doubt any other division can survive, but can we determine the order in which they will be cut? I suspect there will be two to three smaller bloodlettings, not a wholesale elimination. This does have the advantage of focusing the minds of politicians, but the disadvantage of alarming potential customers.
Since only the government, and not paying customers can save GM at this point, I think we get a drawn out operatic swoon, not a matter of fact downsizing. After all, at this point the only people whose nuts aren’t in a vice are the clowns running things. Win or lose, they get paid. Absolutely everyone else is playing chicken.
Leave it to GM to kill the best selling variation of a clone… Kill the Outlook, there arent enough saturn buyers who will spend 30k or more on a saturn…