GM, Ford Execs Seek to Reduce Dealerships

[IGBT]

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"Just as we're right-sizing our manufacturing footprint, we have to right-size our dealer footprint as well," Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, said at a conference sponsored by J.D. Power and Associates. The conference was held the day before the start of the annual National Automobile Dealers Association convention.


GM has 6,800 dealerships for the Pontiac, Buick, GMC, Hummer, Cadillac and Chevrolet brands and 438 Saturn dealers in the United States. Ford has nearly 4,400 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury dealerships. GM controls about 26 percent of the U.S. market, while Ford controls about 18 percent.

By comparison, Toyota has 1,430 U.S. dealerships and controls 13 percent of the U.S. market. Toyota spokeswoman Denise Morrissey said Toyota has commitments from dealers to open another 39 dealerships soon.

 

[Goosemaster]

ouch

 

[DarkManX]

arent all dealerships privately owned? how can they close them?

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: DarkManX
arent all dealerships privately owned? how can they close them?

..not renew their franchise agreement I guess. This is going to put a bunch of people out of work. dealers employ technicians and mechanics..sales people and are serviced by secondary suppliers.

 

[RU482]

they could probably close all the dealerships on the coasts and see minimal sales declines

 

[EatSpam]

They really need to just reduce brandings.... there's no reason why there needs to be 20 versions of the same SUV or Minivan or small car.

Its time to ditch all the different brands and just have, say, Chevy, on the low end, and Cadillac on the high end.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: EatSpam
They really need to just reduce brandings.... there's no reason why there needs to be 20 versions of the same SUV or Minivan or small car.

Its time to ditch all the different brands and just have, say, Chevy, on the low end, and Cadillac on the high end.

yeah.. like the chrysler aspen, i cant believe after the crossfire and the 300, they build that monstrosity of a durango

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Originally posted by: EatSpam
They really need to just reduce brandings.... there's no reason why there needs to be 20 versions of the same SUV or Minivan or small car.

Its time to ditch all the different brands and just have, say, Chevy, on the low end, and Cadillac on the high end.

No sh!t. These people are true idiots!

 

[Squisher]

And, they should reduce dealerships.

Why have so many rebranded cars?


They are not that far from not having from cannibalistic tendencies, but the time has come for the "tough to get going"

 

[Linux23]

Originally posted by: EatSpam
They really need to just reduce brandings.... there's no reason why there needs to be 20 versions of the same SUV or Minivan or small car.

Its time to ditch all the different brands and just have, say, Chevy, on the low end, and Cadillac on the high end.

what would be their mid level car?

 

[Slacker]

Ford Motor began a manufacturing revolution with its mass production assembly lines in the early 1900s. Now the company is firmly entrenched in the status quo as one of the world's largest makers of cars and trucks. It makes vehicles with such brands as Aston Martin, Ford, Jaguar, Lincoln, Mercury, and Volvo. Among its biggest successes are the redesigned Ford Mustang and F-Series pickup. Ford owns a controlling (33%) stake in Mazda and has purchased BMW's Land Rover SUV operations. The finance subsidiary, Ford Motor Credit, is the US's #1 auto finance company. Ford has sold Hertz, the world's #1 car-rental firm. The Ford family owns about 40% of the company's voting stock.

Cut the FAT!, Aston, Jag and Land Rover will bleed Ford dry.