GM dealers not interested in hybrids
Half of GM's dealerships said no to large hybrids?Trucks and SUVs, the bread and butter of the US auto industry. However, after years of escalating gasoline prices, the days of large SUVs and trucks dominating the total sales output of dealerships appears to be near an end. Thus, one would assume that dealers would be excited to get their hands on hybrid versions of some of their top selling vehicles. Surprisingly, that is not the case. According to the DetroitNews, half of all GM dealerships opted not to sell GM's new dual mode hybrid vehicles: the Chevy Tahoe hybrid and the GMC Yukon hybrid.
No word on when GM dealers had to make this decision, but I assume it had to have been made several months ago, before the big run-up in gas prices. Still, can you say, denial?
Labels: Hybrid Vehicles, tahoe hybrid, yukon hybrid
posted by Dahcredyns at
7:25 AM
11 Comments:
Yes...and then there is this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080707/ap_on_bi_ge/gm_cuts_6
GM hasn't been able to manage all of its brands to their full potential it seems, or all those brands just don't have potential. So, offloading a few brands is probably a good idea.
Still, the fact that half of GM's dealers opted not to sell GM's dual mode hybrids is a bit shocking to me. That just seems oblivious to reality.
Well, that's because they're idiots. Most of them are managed by pushy, sleazy sales managers that wouldn't know how to sell a new car if their life depended on it.
Maybe, just maybe, we are seeing the end of SUVs. Too bad that it took $1.40/L (I'm canadian) to make North Americans see that they don't need them.
i'm not a fan of big suvs. still, these dual mode hybrid suvs can be up to 50 percent more fuel efficient than their conventional counterparts. you have to be really stupid to not be interested in that.
Let me re-iterate my oh-so familiar sentiment....GM needs to go out of business.
The sooner this happens, the better off we will all be in the long run. It's a useless, crappy company that has sold and made nothing but utter junk for decades. They neither deserve nor should be in business. How much more precious resources need to wasted for these fools?
As for these asinine dealers...let's also hope these douchebags get run into the ground sooner than later.
I'm a real advocate for change and filtering out the crap as soon as possible and as painful as it may be....it's absolutely necessary.
The problem with the GM hybrid SUVs is that they cost way too much for the small gain in fuel economy.
The Chevy Tahoe for instance starts at $35,500 MSRP. The Tahoe Hybrid on the other hand starts at a whopping $50,490 MSRP!
The regular low-end Tahoe gets 16MPG combined while the hybrid Tahoe gets 21 MPG combined. Nobody in their right mind would spend $15,000 for just a 5 MPG increase in fuel economy.
If GM had a Hybrid Tahoe that can get say 30mpg more than the regular Tahoe, then maybe that $15,000 premium might be worth it.
No such luck though. :-P
Didn't you just write about how poorly a Saturn dealer dealt with major electrical/computer issues with a Vue hybrid? Is it any wonder that these dealers don't want to deal with these first-generation products? They are already hemorrhaging from the inventory of large hard-to-sell cars that GM must be forcing down their lots.
armchairaviator-
you make good points, but in city fuel economy the hybrid versions of these SUVs can double their fuel economy. that's pretty impressive.
still, why do you need such a vehicle in the city - most people shouldn't.
i've driven the tahoe hybrid and the yukon hybrid and i was pretty impressed with synchronicity of hybrid powertrain and the gas engine, it was extremely smooth, which was shocking for such a large vehicle.
still, the shocker stock is hard to get over.
sticker shock
kp-
the mild hybrid powertrain in the vue hybrid is to some extent a dead powertrain. this powertrain is going to be significantly upgraded for 2010 when lithium is added.
likewise, cobasys screwed up the batteries for these vehicles.
nonetheless, there have been a few prius hybrids that experienced serious malfucntions. yet the prius cannot and should not be defined by those technical glitches that were ultimately resolved - its the nature of new technologies, especially in the auto industry where recalls are extremely common from all manufacturers.
the dual mode hybrid powertrain is far superior and better engineered than the BAS hybrid.
still, sticker shock. i've consistently believed that gm's first hybrids should have a prius contender. gm has consistently disagreed, and I continue to believe that was a huge mistake and an ongoing demonstration of gm's inability to disassociate itself with gas-guzzlers, which $5.00 gas might have finally put an end to.
still, gm dealers have forever made their money on big suvs. to not give the hybrids a try, especially amidst increasing gas prices, seems foolhardy.
Perhaps those dealers really were stupid. On my latest post I cover Chevy Tahoe hybrid markups. It turns out that dealerships selling the Tahoe hybrid have started adding markups ranging from $2000 - $4000.
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