Analysis: Saturn Costs Chevrolet Sales Leadership

[Cretin_V6]

Here's some more stuff at Blue Oval News.
I don't even know why they are reporting on Chevy any way.
It's Saturn's fault for bringing down Chevy. Nope, Chevy's fault for having crappy cars. I pretty much just like Saturn's (but only the SCx) and some Ford vehicle's.

Here's the story...and here's a link to it too. <a href="http://www.bonforums.com/rozzi2.htm" target="_blank"><!--auto-->http://www.bonforums.com/rozzi2.htm</a><!--auto-->

-Amy

P.S.
I tried to post the table gram from the report, but it looked funny, check out the link for that. OOoo and the "Blame Canada" part was a bad South Park reference joke. I love Canada! They sell the best ice beers!

Analysis: Saturn Costs Chevrolet Sales Leadership

Published: February 21, 2001
By: Al Rozzi

Ford division’s car sales historically have trailed Chevrolet division’s sales in the U.S. That statistic had generally held true until the Saturn division was crafted at General Motors.

Prior to the 1990s and the light truck revolution, brand management, merger mania, transplant production, NAFTA and numerous other diversions from the American car sales race, the Chevrolet/Ford car sales rivalry captured the attention of most industry enthusiasts. Most often, Chevrolet won the sales crown. In fact, Chevrolet enjoyed sales dominance for decades following Ford’s retirement of the Model A in the early 1930s.

Occasionally Ford was able to outsell Chevrolet; for example, in most of the 1920s, while the Model T was still in production, Ford was the top seller of cars in the U.S. Ford outsold Chevrolet twice in both of the 1930s and in the 1950s, and again in 1970. It wasn’t until 1988 that Chevrolet would once again fall behind Ford in car sales, just two years before the introduction of Saturn to American consumers.

In 1990 and in 1991, Chevrolet regained the lead, but only by a slim margin. But in the 1991 model year, as Saturn made its debut, and then by 1992 when Saturn production was ramping up, Chevrolet lost the car sales crown to Ford, and has not since regained the lead.

A closer analysis of the sales results reveals a disturbing statistic for General Motors. While Chevrolet has fallen behind Ford in car sales since the introduction of the Saturn brand, if Saturn’s sales were added to the Chevrolet total, it would be enough to give sales leadership back to Chevrolet.



General Motors established Saturn as a brand that was to be different from the corporate parent’s way of doing things. Saturn was crafted to attract a breed of customers that none of the other GM brands were able to do; those buying import brands who were seeking a non-traditional way of buying and owning a car.

The result of the Saturn experiment seems to have been flawed for GM. By placing Saturn outside of existing GM brands, most notably Chevrolet, it caused Chevrolet to lose its bragging rights as the number one seller of cars in the U.S.

Saturn itself seems to have been costly for GM, as the brand has never been profitable, doesn’t sell anywhere near as well as GM had hoped, and the new L-series large car has not added incrementally to Saturn’s overall sales. Even more bad news for the brand surfaced this week as it was announced that GM would be pulling Saturn from the Japanese market to focus on the Chevrolet brand there.

Perhaps Saturn should have been the Chevrolet Saturn. Instead, Chevrolet attempted to sell the Geo line of vehicles at the same time that Saturn was being cultivated as a stand-alone brand.

Saturn will most likely go the way of Oldsmobile, and Chevrolet will need to work hard to regain car sales leadership.

[SattyfaninCT]

This article does not really convey the whole story. I dont really think Saturn's sales are taking to much away from Chevy for the fact that about 70% of Saturn's buyers would not have bought any other GM brand vehicle. Of course maybe some of Saturn's customers would have bought a Chey but is that enough to make a difference for Chevy? The article says if they put all of Saturn's sales with Chevy's sales then Chevy would have a slim lead over Ford. Saturn no Saturn Chevy would still be trailing ford in cars sold. Myself personally would never buy a NEW GM product expect from Saturn.

[SCDYNE]

Damn, there are some really desperate people over at BON.
SSDD: Just because it's written down doesn't make it true.
The article last week was unique, but this is beginning to establish a pattern of negative speculation about Saturn.
I can't help but think that someone over at BON had and agenda and it involves the destruction of Saturn.
It's time for Saturn to start taking a proactive approach to marketing it's products. A few aggressive ads and products will squish any negative articles like this real quick..
I'm not talking about competitive marketing, unless it's against a totally unrelated item (I.E. Saturn performance against a Train), but just some penis-envy SCT marketing.

[Cretin_V6]

CatalystSaturn

I fully agree with you.

The only time I've seen them mention Saturn on BON was in the message bard section when the VUE was still a "rumored" SUV.

Dunno why they are picking on Saturn over there.

Saturn NEEDS to be more aggressive.

-Amy

[MikeT]

I don't agree with the premise of the article that Saturn is costing Chevrolet sales. At this point, most Saturn buyers would go elsewhere. However, it's possible the two brands will be competing more directly in the near future. When I bought my Saturn, I didn't even consider Chevrolet. However, at the time of my next purchase, if Chevrolet is selling a Cavalier or Malibu on the same platform as a Saturn, using the same engine (which apparently they will be), I think I'd be tempted to at least look at the Chevy. And if the equivalent Chevy costs $2000-$3000 less, I might even buy one. This could be a problem for Saturn.

[John10]

I am sure that Saturn has cost Chevy some sales but so have Pontiac and the other GM brands. Ford Motor Company has less brands than GM so whats the point of comparison? Saturn has also brought GM some sales that Chevy or the other divisions would never have gotten. I would guess that is really what ticks off the folks at Ford and BON about Saturn.

[frankski]

This article is ridicule in my opinion. If not for Saturn selling cars in profit to GM, I'm sure people buying Saturns would not in vast majority buy a GM car. I for one will never buy from GM again (not counting Saturn). I had too much problems before buying my Saturn and I swore to never from american car company again (had a Ford and then a Pontiac and had my share of problems both with the car(Ford) and the service at GM (the Pontiac was not bad though)
Hmmm I digress but my point is I dont feel like stealing anything from Chevrolet at all since I would never buy that. If not for Saturn, GM would be 21000$ short and soon 26000$ (am buying SC2 next summer) because I will never buy anything from GM again, and certainly not a Chevrolet!!!?!!. (Their ads sucks by the way
ps : my dollars are in canadian, because Im canadian and to lazy to convert in american bucks.

[kazi]

If you take a look back at Charlie's informal poll, 'What Would've You Bought Instead', an overwhelming alternatives were not Chevy's but imports (Protege, Civic, Accord, Camry, etc...). Old thread here:
<a href="http://64.77.2.166/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowPost&Board=001&Post=1829& Idle=365&Sort=0&Order=Descend&Page=8&Session=" target="_blank"><!--auto-->http://64.77.2.166/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowPost&Board=001&Post=1829& Idle=365&Sort=0&Order=Descend&Page=8&Session=</a><!--auto-->

I would never consider a Chevy over a Saturn. Maybe an Olds Alero/Intrige, but never will I own or lease a Cavalier/Malibu/Impala. Never! Oh a Prism doesn't count as a Chevy because it's really a Toyota, so I may consider a Prism.