Here in Germany, I went to the Chevy dealer the other day to get my Trailblazer serviced. There I glanced into the showroom just to see some new shiny Chevy trucks - but, to my surprise, no Chevys at all. Gone, vanished. Then I asked the dealer about what's going on. He told me that new American-built Chevrolets are no longer sold in Germany, instead they now sell cheap Korean-built Daewoos as Chevrolets (they even have the bow-tie) and, consequently, Chevrolet is now going to sell cheap substandard cars. No more Tahoes and Trailblazers, but small Asian city hoppers. If I still want an American car I should by Cadillac or Chrysler. Hey - what kind of marketing decision is that supposed to be? Can somebody tell me please what's behind that all?? Is Chevy going bankrupt ?
Hmm wonder if the price of fuel had anything to do with it. I talked to a guy in England the other day and gas was approximately $7 per gallon, that could have something to do with it.
I would say that that is a really good possibilty. A vehical that costs the equivlant of 200 bucks to fill up and gets poor MPG too is going to be a dust collector on the showroom floor.
don't worry, chevy will come back next year. They separated American GM and European ( Opel ). We have the same problem in france.
In france chevrolet ( daewoo ) talking about send in january 2006, the SUV chevy S3X and the HHR.
Chevy also talking about building a 4 cyl 2.0L diesel in a korean factory for european cars . And with the new cadillac BTS ( based on a saab 93 ) it should be a good start to do a good comeback.
Yes. Chevrolet has gone mad! Poor badge engineering!
They ruined two car make's reputation at once. Daewoo as economical Korean car and Chevrolet as real American automobile. Opel has already ruined their reputation themselves;-) (All automobiles become Opels, when they get old enough 8-)
The real problem might be the European tight legislation which phohibits any automobile without EU certification ie. e-tag on the whole automobile!
It would cost a lot to have the whole car manufacturing line accepted for European standards. That doesn't actually mean that European standards are tighter, they are just different. Asymetrical lights, exhoust gases measured differently....
For example it is impossible at the moment to register later than early 1996 US. made automobiles in Finland. Exeptions are those automobiles that already have european tags on them ie. small Chryslers, Jeeps, Cadillacs and Corvettes.
Finns drive at the moment oldest automobiles in Europe, averige age over 10.5 years. Automobiles are written off usually at age of 18 or older. They actually raice the historic/museum automobile age boundary from
25 to 30 years because if they have not done so, almost 20% of Finnish automobiles would have became as certified antique ;-)
Regards: AJ.
Gas prices Vantaa Finland. $5.85 reg, $5.72 super/g Big Mac $4.32.
Maybe you're right. Gas prices are rising at an incredible pace, although
200 buck per fill-up seems to be slightly exaggerated (:-;
Moreover, there is the strict German exhaust legislation: they even consider taxing the total amount of exhaust coming out of the pipe and that would mean a further restraint in buying big American cars.
But there may be two more reasons for Chevrolet for not selling big SUVs in Europe anymore: the first is, they don't offer Diesel engines in those cars - here everybody goes for Diesels because that fuel is much less expensive than regular gas, and second: I think Chevrolet hasn't made a lot of profit from their cars so far - they gave huge rebates on their regular showroom prices, which means that an average VW Golf (big-selling small size car here) is about the same price as a Chevy Trailblazer. Now it is all Cadillac at my dealer, but to much higher prices than Chevvies and still no Diesels. This won't work either, I guess
Overall, this is REALLY BAD MARKETING - a short-sighted strategy. There hasn't been practically any advertising, no Diesel engines available to please the customers. So they had to lower their sales prices down to no-profit. Train Chevrolet managers at KIA or Toyota, they know how to sell cars.
On the whole I am really sad about this development - Chevy still builds good solid cars, at least, my Trailblazer is one of this rare breed. And, it's something special here in Europe.
Not really, if it is $7 a gallon and you have a 34 gallon truck like my truck or 40 gallon like my older suburban, $200 plus fill up is a realty if you are low on fuel. At $7/gall it would cost you 50 cents a mile to drive it before you figure in cost, maintainace and insurance. Sad thing is, I think things are going to get worse because most people will not conserve unless it hits them in the wallet hard enough.
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