Two weeks ago we published a chart that showed GM’s decreasing passenger car emphasis over the last 14 months. Last Saturday, we showed GM’s annual U.S. sales volume by vehicle type. This week, we’re continuing the GM examination with a look at the brand allotment over the last decade.
Aside from the Chrysler Group, no automaker has undergone such a dramatic restructuring during the last decade. The public face of the GM restructuring, apart from the shuttering of dealerships, congressional hearings, and a revolving door of new faces in the executive’s chair, was the dismissal of a number of brands. Hummer, Saturn, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac were killed off. Saab is still kind of a thing, but not GM’s thing.
In the U.S., General Motors thus became much more of a Chevrolet/GMC company than it already was. Chevrolet’s share of the brand’s U.S. volume increased from 58.9% in 2007 to 71.3% in 2012, for example. GMC was responsible for barely more than 11% of GM sales in 2006, a figure which stands at 18% through the first two months of 2015.
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.
Olds was killed off in 03, so is not part of the last decade of mismanagement, but rather a reflection of mismanagement dating back to the 70s when Olds was the best selling car in America.
Not sure why Oldsmobile was even included. It probably had to be because there were technically still some Olds vehicles sold in 2005, which is when this chart started, but I don’t even–oh, no, wait, it looks like there’s a one-pixel-wide line on the 2005 section. Never mind, I see it now.
Cadillac.
#DaringGreatly @ a stagnant 5% of GM’s total sales even after billions have been injected into the marque, and EVEN AFTER 5 of GM’s other brands (Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saturn, Saab & Hummer) were killed.
The complete and total failure of automotive brands and automotive offerings of the modern era.
#ChangeTheName2Escalade&KillTheATS,CTS,XTS&UpcomingCT6&Sh!tcanJohan
How is that constructive criticism?
Quality over quantity. So it’s a failure that they are building better performing, similar quality, cheaper, cheaper-to-maintain vehicles that then “ze-germans”?
I would like to see the worldwide numbers with Holden, Daewoo, Opel/Vauxhal, etc.
I also wouldn’t mind seeing the same chart with pickups in a separate line.
Great data, Tim,
But I think it would really pop if you used stacked columns. Thanks!
Naah, the current histogram is better for showing changes in share by nameplate. The chart also shows why the perennial “dump GMC” suggestions go unheeded.
GM shouldn’t have killed off Hummer and they should bring that one back. The others won’t be missed.
Depending who you ask, also, if GM had turned the Hummer brand into what Jeep has become, it’s better off as it is. And let’s be honest after the H4/HX, the most likely next model would have been unibody.
AM General will still sell you a complete Hum-vee/mer sans Engine&trans though.
GM’s biggest problem right now? Marketing. They do a decent job at marketing the high performance vehicles, but the new Impala which is the best full-size car out there? Nothing.
That’s exactly right. GM flooded the big three broadcast channels when they owned the audience, but hasn’t been able to get a handle on the internet/cable outlets. There was a time when GM was the sole sponsor for whole TV shows (Dinah Shore Chevy Show, Bonanza), but they don’t have the quality ads they used to produce (See The USA In Your Oldsmobile; Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie And Pontiac; Wouldn’t You Really Rather Drive A Saturn).
It would be interesting to see this chart with out Chevy trucks included. Kind of skews the numbers in Chevy’s favor. In terms of car sales, I always thought Pontiac and Chevy were pretty close.
Also surprising to see how Buick’s modernized lineup pushed it past Cadillac in terms of sales. Who is buying all those Regals?
I cannot understand how Olds was able to go from being the best selling brand in US to a total failure. Is it generational thing or just Honda and Toyota made better Oldsmobiles than GM? Oldmobile was the most strange brand name when I read about it in early 60s (I just learned to read). There was some mystery in how it sounded like Automobile.
Many thought the problem with “Oldsmobile” was the first three letters “Old.”
At one point in the majority of the country each brand had its own identity. Cadillacs (prior to volume at all costs in the 1970s) had an aura of exclusivity, quality, and flash. Buick was for those who could likely afford Cadillac but didn’t want to show off their wealth as ostentatiously. Oldsmobile was the “engineering division” for many years where new ideas (like the hydromatic transmission & FWD) got tested out. Pontiac was performance and a youthful image. Chevrolet was an everyman’s car – a slice of Americana.
GM did many things to stab those brand identities in the heart.
Roger Smith’s disastrous GM reorganization in 1984 basically took away whatever power was left of the individual brand managers. While all the mainstream GM products of that time were getting worse and worse, Oldsmobile’s GM died of a heart attack. I cannot remember his name but he understood the Oldsmobile customer.
From 1985 thru 1990, Olds managers steered the product portfolio from bad to worse and kept trying to change things and put their own mark on it. This included the awful “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile” campaign. Of course a Cierra or Achievable weren’t your father’s Oldsmobile. He drove a good car.
By then the mainstream W midsize cars were way behind Camry, Accord and yes, Taurus. Camry had become the new Cutlass. John Rock came in to shake things up as Olds GM. He kept GM’s B of D from canceling Olds during the 1992 crisis, when GM almost went bankrupt and fired Stempel and the senior Reuss after only two years.
in passenger cars, Saturn was GM’s only bright light then. Rock wanted to echo that separate company’s design and sales ethos. While the Aurora, Alero and others received good initial press, the car action had shifted away from GM and Olds sales tumbled further. Meanwhile, GM doubled down on trucks.
Even the shutting of Olds was comically bad. GM made the announcement in November 2000 just as the new Olds Bravada SUV long lead press preview was happening. Then they updated the Aurora a few months later. Those cars were instant orphans.
Worse, GM didn’t have its shutdown plan for 300 standalone Olds dealers worked out, so they lost another couple billion toget out. Shades of the Fiat hookup disaster.. The brand limped along as rental car fodder another THREE YEARS before the last Olds rolled off the line in 2004.
Alero was not a bad car but quality was lower than competition. Interior had low quality plastics and crudely made, engine had ancient design. Olds interior quality was simply unacceptable. It might be a good car but apparently GM could not build good quality cars for some reason. I blame equally clueless US MBA management and stupid militant UAW. Coming from European market I was stunned by quality of USDM cars and not in the good sense. Anything close to Japanese quality-wise was a Lincoln Town Car (the last boxy design) which Ford screwed up it also later with redesign.
The bankruptcy hopefully fixed problems with US domestic automakers. Unfortunately it happened under Obama’s watch who kept time-bomb which is UAW and assigned idiots like Lt.Dan to run GM.
Oh god, the Unda-Achieva. A friend drove one against his will. Well, he bought it, but it was against his will after that.
I can tell you from experience that the Buick equivalent wasn’t any better.
Given these volumes, you have to wonder why they even still bother with Cadillac and Buick.
Nostalgia and China, respectively.
Well, you’re not going to sell humongous trucks everywhere (like, um, the populated coasts). For instance, Cadillac is the only GM marque getting any volume around San Francisco.
“Cadillac is the only GM marque getting any volume around San Francisco.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAAAA!!!!
Thanks! I needed a late night laugh!!!