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Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65
Mmkay. Longer explanation now that I'm not sitting in Biology lecture.
No, GM did not screw up by keeping GMC over Pontiac. Pontiac had no future. Besides the G8 and Solstice, Pontiac sold a bunch of rebadged Chevys. How is this different than GMC? The rebadged Chevys sold under Pontiac were cars, not trucks. Trucks have historically been GM's most profitable products. As such, it's self-explanatory that GMC rakes in profit by the boatload.
In addition, Pontiac had no overseas market outside NA. GMC has one in the Middle East.
The Orlando and Granite are two completely different cars on two completely different platforms aimed at two completely different demographics.
In addition, the Escalade (unless Whitacre gets his way) is moving off an SUV/truck platform and onto the Lambda platform, making the Yukon/Yukon XL Denali GM's luxury SUVs. Market demographics already support this as Yukon/Yukon XL Denali owners are generally more affluent than Escalade/Escalade ESV owners.
Now that Pontiac is gone, the Buick-GMC dealership network appears to be moving towards selling vehicles aimed at professionals (doctors, lawyers, etc). This is obvious in the marketing efforts shown in the new LaCrosse.
Chevrolet is moving towards a value-based lineup, offering affordable products without compromising quality and style, as noted with the launch of the Malibu and Equinox, both of which have been described as looking much more expensive than they actually cost.
The Cadillac brand is moving more upscale to compete with BMW and Mercedes with the introduction of the 3-series/C-class fighting ATS in the near future, along with the recently introduced XTS flagship. The CTS will be growing in size to match the 5-series and E-class.
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Yes, I definitely get your point about the GMC selling more trucks, historically, then any other of their brands selling their respective products. But, look at where the truck market is going nowadays. Unless somebody really needs a pickup to carry stuff over crappy roads, most people prefer vans. The SUV market, I'm not saying that it's dead, but suvs are slowly starting to gravitate into smaller spectrum of suvs. What's gonna happen when price of gas happens to climb back up to 5 bucks per gallon? And yes, it is a very real possibility. I mean I prefer to own a larger suv such as a hummer or escalade, for the winter and to tow stuff, but I'm not going to buy one until the end of this year, and by then, I may have to look at trailblazer/envoy/grand cherokee.
Like I said, SUVs are starting to gravitate to the smaller end of the spectrum, this can be seen by the emergence of a growing popularity with CUVs.
That's why I believe that pontiac, if it had been restructured properly, could have had a good future ahead. Slowly, people will want to buy smaller cars, people will want to buy hybrids. That's why gm is developing the volt and will release it into production. Yet, if the insight and the prius are a testament, people will want to have sportier versions. That's why if you take a look at autoblog, you will see that honda has developed the insight sports modulo concept. Have you seen people gravitate towards the tahoe/escalade/yukon hybrids? I haven't and I only see them in the dealer's lots.
I didn't know that gmc happens to have an outlet in the middle east. I also didn't know that the orlando and granite will be different from each other. They look hell of a lot alike to me, it's just that the orlando will kind of be an mpv/crossover marketed toward families, while the granite will be marketed toward young adults in urban areas.
I also didn't know that the esclade will be moving onto the lambda platform, I thought that all of the suvs were moving onto the platform. In that case, if it does happen, then I am wrong. But, until I see an escalade on the lambda platform at an auto show, I don't see the yukon line becoming the upscale version. And even if the escalade will move over to the lambda platform, what will be the difference really? I mean it's just going to become smaller than the current gen. but not by much.
I don't know where you live, but at least in NYC, lawyers, doctors and affluent people happen to choose escalade(s) over yukon(s).
Also, you need to look at the last two statements, as that happens to lead right back to my argument. Chevrolet happens to be the brand that is going to be marketed as a value based lineup that will not compromise on reliability, quality and style. And obviously, Cadillac is the brand that is more upscale to compete against bmw, benz and audi. But look that leads right back to what I'm saying, chevrolet is the affordable but good car brand that is basically the "average" car brand, cadillac is the upscale brand. So, where is gmc? Stuck right in the middle