Why wont Chevy bring back the Chevelle

[Berean]

Originally Posted by Number 3

Not quite true. It only works if you can maintain volumes. For example, each car has an invetment in tools, parts, engineering and development, to name but a few. The business case to get your return on that investment is based on a projected annual sales rate. If you bring out another car in the same class that competes with the other and impacts the volumes, you will be less profitable or not profitable at all.

The truck example is unique simply because the investment for the diffrentiated parts is much smaller than doing an all new. The Chevrolet and GMCs share the same cab, the frame and chassis and a lot of the interior. And the volumes are so high that you can make money. I think the Sierra has higher annual volumes than the Camaro.

What you are thinking of is simply "plus sales". So if you could come out with a Chevelle coupe and not steal any Camaro sales, you would be ok. Take 10,000 sales from the Camaro, though, and you have significantly changed it's profitability.

I agree to an extent, with new cards being developed in the same class, not just badge engineering.

However, the comment was made in response to that claim being made for an existing car in the same class being released in the same market.

In that case, the car is already being produced, so it doesn't make sense to not try and sell them because you're worried about "poaching" sales from yourself.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by cab2g

I agree. But I'm not against them making a special limited edition Chevelle that people know will only be around for a year or two.

Or they could be like Porsche and sell a large number of variations/models in low numbers, but charge a lot on the sticker price. I'm willing to bet that explains why the Dodge Challenger's price is so high, because its volume is low and they need to maintain profitability somehow with a heavier/slower car.

The Plymouth Prowler, Cheverolet SSR, and Ford Thunderbird are perfect examples of low volume cars with high price tags for the performance/features you got. They weren't priced like Porsches, but because the volume was low, they were priced higher than say a comparably equipped sedan, or pickup truck.

Thing is, when you sell in Porsche volumes but at Buick prices, its going to cost you more than it brings in.

[cab2g]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

Thing is, when you sell in Porsche volumes but at Buick prices, its going to cost you more than it brings in.

Well I was unaware that the 3 domestic limited run models actually lost the manufacturers money. If so, I can see why that'd be a bad idea.

[Number 3]

Originally Posted by Berean

I agree to an extent, with new cards being developed in the same class, not just badge engineering.

However, the comment was made in response to that claim being made for an existing car in the same class being released in the same market.

In that case, the car is already being produced, so it doesn't make sense to not try and sell them because you're worried about "poaching" sales from yourself.

You have to worry about poaching from yourself. In the end it's what hurt Saturn, Hummer and Pontiac. None had the volume to pay the investment required for unique models. And nobody was lining up to buy the G3, G5 either.

Think of it this way, if your all in business case needs 100,000 units to to pay back $500,000,000 in investment (made up numbers by the way) over a 2 year period, that is $2,500 per unit. Now if you lose 20,000 of those sales due to coming out with a similar car that poaches sales, that $2,500 is now $3,125. That eats significantly into the profit of the first model. $600 is a large amount of profit to lose.

So the only way this works is if the 20,000 units the second model poached are so profitable that it makes up for the loss of the millions you lost on the first model. And that is hard to do.

Back in the hayday of GM, you could do a Camaro/Firebird and it was a lot of plus sales. But in the end it takes a lot of money to differentiate the product and to maintain marketing, sales and service for those fragmented units.

The other way this works is if you happen to have a plant running at 1/2 capacity and you want to get the plant more efficient. But after the bankruptcy, GM has most plants running full tilt.

Originally Posted by cab2g

Well I was unaware that the 3 domestic limited run models actually lost the manufacturers money. If so, I can see why that'd be a bad idea.

Can't say what happened on the Prowler, but the SSR was a bit of a bungle. Not sure a dime of profit came from that deal. The investment went wayyyyyy up during the deveopment phase. What was intended to be a $30,000 sport truck ended up being a $40,000 plus truck. Price goes up? Voume goes down. We won't go into launching with the anemic 5.3 L V8 instead of the 6.0 that came later.

[2010-1SS-IBM]

It would be nice to have a 4 door, big displacement car priced below the CTS-V. Dunno if the Chevelle would fit that bill or not.

[2010-1SS-IBM]

Also, bring back some of the old styling. It's clearly a hit, and not just with old people.

[cruznls]

They could have brought back the Chevelle a few years back
using the GTO body with a different front nose & rear tail lights.
I talked to the guys that built a concept car on the GTO while we were at a Hot Rod Power Tour in St Louis..... they told us they took the idea to GM,
and got ran out of the building......

[Angelsilhouette]

If they did make it a 4 door and wanted to make it a 4 door muscle car, they might just bring over a restyled Holden HSV Clubsport and badge it as a Chevrolet Chevelle.

[3 SS's]

Let the Chevelle name rest in peace...there's no way to do it justice, you won't be able to please all...so better off left alone.