GM’s betting big on Chevy
By Chris Sorensen - Monday, November 7, 2011 - 0 Comments
The automaker hopes global buyers will fall for the ‘made-in-the-U.S.A.’ brand
GM; Car Culture/Getty Images; Photo illustration by Lauren Cattermole
Late-autumn baseball is a nostalgia-filled time for Americans. So it makes sense that General Motors would wait until Game 1 of this year’s World Series to roll out a patriotic TV ad celebrating the 100th birthday of its flagship Chevrolet brand. The 60-second spot shows people holding up historic photographs of Chevrolet vehicles and their owners in front of the same stirring American backdrops—windswept plains, craggy mountain peaks, idyllic suburban homes and gritty roadside gas bars—as they appear today. And, just in case a few heartstrings were left untugged, Ray Charles sings America the Beautiful in the background.
It’s well-worn marketing territory for Chevrolet, but it represents only part of GM’s aspirations for its bestselling nameplate. Though the bow tie has historically been synonymous with burly pickup trucks and throaty muscle cars, these days a “Chevy” is just as likely to refer to a Sonic subcompact or its sleek Cruze small car—vehicles that are designed to be sold all over the world, including fast-growing markets like China and Russia.
Through Chevrolet, GM is rebuilding its global footprint after going through a painful restructuring under bankruptcy protection two years ago. “Ford has been much more of the global player of the American carmakers in recent years,” says Alan Middleton, a marketing professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business. “I think GM is not only looking for cost savings, but is shifting its positioning to become more of a global brand.” So far, it appears to be paying off—in its third quarter, Chevrolet reported sales of 1.2 million vehicles globally, a best-ever performance for the brand. It was also the only major automaker to grow its global market share this year, with 60 per cent of sales now coming from outside the U.S.
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The decline of the North American car
By Colin Campbell - Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 8:00 AM - 36 Comments
As GM files bankruptcy, a look at who’s to blame and what’s next for the U.S. auto industry
UPDATE (June 1, 2009): General Motors, the once proud icon of U.S. capitalism, filed for bankruptcy Monday. In the following piece, published last November in Maclean’s, Colin Campbell navigates through the rise and fall of the U.S. auto industry. In doing so, he identifies what went wrong at GM and explains whether the car company is even worth saving.
In hall No. 5, tucked far away from the main action at the high-profile Paris Motor Show last month, visitors who looked hard enough would have found the booth belonging to General Motors Corp. Those who went to the trouble—and not many did—were disappointed with what they found.
Paris was the place GM had decided to raise the curtain on a critical piece of its future in a world increasingly focused on efficiency and economy—the Chevy Cruze. The Detroit company is pinning its hopes on the lightweight Cruze to lure car buyers in Asia, Europe and North America away from bestsellers like the Honda Civic. Yet there were none of the usual showbiz trappings at its unveiling: no models leaning against the hood, no rock-concert special effects to usher in the age of the Cruze. Just a plain white stage and the car itself: a conventional, even understated, four-door family sedan. It “had all the pomp and circumstance of a Tuesday,” noted one auto critic. Perhaps it was just as well then that few journalists bothered to show up.
Most automakers look to the Paris show to highlight their next small, fuel-efficient wonders. It’s a science fair disguised as a car show. Mercedes-Benz and BMW were unveiling their first hybrids. Nissan snagged attention with its tiny Nuvu. Hyundai brought along its new mini-car, the i20. But at GM’s second-floor exhibit, visitors were confronted by a collection of massive Hummers and a hulking Cadillac Escalade. “This was emblematic of GM,” says Maryann Keller, an independent auto analyst who has covered the industry since the 1970s. “Here’s this show dedicated to small cars, new technologies, electric vehicles. Why, to Paris, would you bring Hummers, the Escalade and a Camaro? What planet are you on?” Continue…
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The Volt, now with pictures!
By Colin Campbell - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at 11:06 AM - 15 Comments
Edmunds has pics of the electric Chevy Volt, or “The car that will save…
Edmunds has pics of the electric Chevy Volt, or “The car that will save Detroit” as we like to call it. Not nearly as exotic as the version that was unveiled at the Detroit auto show last year. Too bad.
The earlier version, after the jump
