Showing posts with label econobox. Spark. Sonic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label econobox. Spark. Sonic. Show all posts

Sunday, July 24, 2016

GM has a good quarter.

So sayeth the Wall St Journal.  Sales of high margin SUV's and pickup trucks is way up.  The article goes on to do some back patting, and noting GM's plan to buy into (buy up?) Lyft.  And worries about Brexit messing up the European market more than it is. (GM's Euro operations have lost money for years and years).
    No discussion of GM's bread and butter business, selling sedans in North America.  Take a drive on Rte 128, half, maybe two thirds of the vehicles on the road are smallish four seat sedans.  That's where the real volume is in the car business.  Pickups and SUVs are a niche market, granted a large niche, but still a niche compared to small four passenger sedans, the family get-to-work and go-to-market car.  GM is still a huge company, and it must compete in the big markets to survive.  A behemoth needs a lot of feeding to stay alive.  Pickups and SUVs don't have the volume to feed a GM.  They must got for the big market, small sedans.
   GM does have some product for this segment.  First thing GM needs to do is find some better names for the vehicles.  Low end ($14K) is called "Spark", a name that makes me think of blown fuses, electrical faults, crapped out VCR's.  Not an auspicious name for a car.   The next step up is called "Sonic".  Everyone knows that Sonic is a computer game hedgehog.  Both Spark and Sonic are very simular looking hatchbacks, with the road snuffling forward lean styling.  Not very good looking.
  Next step up is Cruze, a decent looking conventionally styled sedan for $16K.  The name suggests only a certain sawed off movie actor.
    GM needs a good car in the low end of the market.  Say a MRSP of $10K, with distinctive styling so you can tell it's a Chevy when you see one on the road.  Distinctive styling helps two ways.  It attracts buyers, and it serves as a rolling advertisement for the car line if it looks like a Chevy rather than just another econobox.  And find a decent name for it.  Actually GM owns a bunch of decent car names that it doesn't use anymore.  Corvair, Pontiac, GTO, Roadmaster, Oldsmobile, all come to mind.  Surely GM can do better than "Spark".