Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinjlm
At the end of the day, GM made a decision to not offer an MT. We can argue until the cows come home about why they made the decision. They’ve told us why they made the decision. Believe them or don’t. I was there when the decision was made, though not part of the decision making team. What Tadge and Ed are saying now is consistent with what they’ve said internally. Understand that there were multiple factors, not just a single factor, and most of them have come up here. Similar discussions took place internally and the decision still came out in favor of no MT.
Some here argue that the decision leaves15 - 20% of volume on the table (the 15-20% of cars that could have been sold as MT if there was one). But, at the end of the day, the plant is running at capacity, so they could not have produced 15 - 20% more cars with any transmission. If less than 100% of the cars are DCT, then the cost of the DCT likely goes up, making the car more expensive, as well as having to engineer, certify, and supply a low volume high cost MT.
So, if you’re GM, you haven’t lost any sales, you’re amortizing the cost of the DCT across 100% of your volume, not 85%, and you spent no money tooling up or certifying an MT. If you’re GM, you’re probably good with that.
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We will need to revisit this when:
A) The plant is actually running at capacity and not shutting down due to parts supplies or CV-19 restrictions.
B) The luster of the newest gen Corvette has worn off (typically around the 3 MY), and the supply flips it's current position with demand.
Until then, they lost myself as a customer, plus many many more I have personally communicated with. If they make that up in other sales is not the question, they would have had those sales even while offering a manual.