GM Gives Up on the Minivan Market

Ford is in the lead in that regard. Minivan sales have been in a continuing downhill slide for several years. Chrysler dominates the segment, nobody else even come close. Crossovers and AWD cars are the current rage. That is where Ford is putting their limited funds at the moment, with four AWD cars on the market today, two more coming in 2008 like the MKT, the new Towncar replacement. F.M.C. has two crossovers coming to market as we speak and another in 2008. The only Japanese contender, in the medium priced AWD car and crossover market, is Subaru and they are in the bottom end of that market.

mike hunt

Which is my point. Ford and GM chase the fad of the moment and abandon established markets. Then when the fad shifts, they will once again be caught with their pants down. GM gave up on the sport coupe market when it was declining and killed the Camaro/Firebird. Now they are scrambling to get back in that game.

Ford replacing the Town Car, gee, do you think it might be time???? Nah, give it a few more decades. At least they are giving the replacement a snappy marketing name :(.

John

Don't forget Chrysler which started the segment and is STILL the leader.

Thank god...mini vans suck and are for woman anyway, when was the last time you saw a man driving a mini van??

The original Plymouth minivan was a perfect market fit.

Detroit then "improved" it by making minivans that looked like beached whales.

Many men drive mini van's. If you think they are 'only for women' then you are as much as a dipshit as Horner.

"Hickabob McCrane" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Minivans are great. I keep most of the seats out of mine. I leave the 2 middle captain's chairs in for occasional passengers. I leave them folded forward and locked, leaving tons of cargo space in the back to haul cargo for my business. Also, great for camping. You can get a double size mattress back there.The other 2 seats that came with the Sedona minivan I have are in the garage and are occasioanlly used for seating. They have wheels on them and are very comfy.

Of course DCs Chrysler are still the market leader here, but they are now a foreign manufacturer aren't they. Chrysler keeps improving their mini van so frequently the slugs at GM and Ford can't begin to keep up. Much like Apple is doing with the iPod.

You are a piece of work John. When the automakers continue to do something as they always have, seemingly ignorant of market trends, you babble on about how out of touch they are and how that's the reason for the imports taking market share. Then... when they respond to market trends you babble about them abandoning platforms that are losing ground. Someone made a mistake in the past by suggesting to you that you would make a good critic... or in not pointing out that you don't.

BTW - this is a GM group - post this to a Ford group.

Duh! Ford IS following the market toward AWD car and Crossovers and getting out of the established market that is waning fast. . Can we assume your degree is not marketing? ;)

mike

No manufacture has ever come close to Der Mopar in minivan sales, none. Dodge alone outsells all of the import brands combined. When it comes to minivans most smart buyers think Chrysler / Dodge, just as they go to Ford for trucks, as the most product for the money.

mike hunt

My money is on animal husbandry or sociology.

Is that something like gay marriage? ;)

mike hunt

Note I included the Germans. Chrysler is a subsidiary of a German company now and is no more "American" than Honda USA is.

John

Care to document your attack Mike?

Minivans are going to continue to be sold, just now it is going to be the Germans and Asians doing the selling.

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly some usenet posters resort to ad hominem attacks.

However, it is a fact that Ford and GM do not refresh their vehicle designs as often as Toyota and Honda do. It is a fact that both US companies are completely dependent upon their truck businesses to keep the doors open and have lost an increasingly large share of the car market. GM and Ford do not have their acts together as businesses. Giving up on the minivan market and rolling the dice on their next generation SUVs is just more of the same.

Tell me this. Why can't the largest automobile company in the world field a range of no apologies vehicles in every segment which has global sales of over 500,000 units per year and refresh those designs every 4-6 years? If the #2 maker in the world can do so (Toyota), why can't #1?

Toyota consistently recognizes weak spots in it's product portfolio and invests like crazy until they earn a major spot in the game. For years Toyota had almost there minivans, and they kept at it until they now produce one of the very best. Toyota's large pickup trucks have missed the boat several times, and now they have spent over $1B to build a new US factory and tool up a new design to give it another go. Relentless persistence is obviously part of the Toyota management DNA. GM and Ford flip-flop worse than a recent Democratic Presidential Candidate.

How can anyone make excuses for the way GM has botched it's participation in the minivan market and now it's complete retreat? Part of the reason that the minivan market has been shrinking is that GM and Ford have put such lackluster efforts into it. The last redesigns of the GM and Ford vans were the worst kind of on the cheap half-baked efforts we have seen in the minivan market. The GM nose jobs are especially hideous.

John

Hmmm, more new college graduates today are female than are male. Women control the majority of retail purchases as well.

Your premise that men don't drive minivans is incorrect:

"The typical minivan or sport utility purchaser is most often a fairly affluent married couple in their 40's with children. And while minivans are sometimes labeled ''mom-mobiles,'' the principal drivers of minivans, like sport utility vehicles, are actually a little more likely to be men than women."

However, even if it were only women who drove minivans, what would the point be? Is it that GM is the company for poorly educated macho men? Women who want to buy a new vehicle are request to please stay away from their local Chevrolet dealer?

John

Yep, and they have at least half the money and all the p***y

Hickabob is right mini vans were designed for women.

Yeh and the only thing those Mini vans are good for is getting that p***y in the back seat.