Malibu vs Camry - have Chevy dealers grown a pair?

Really? Would you pay more for a smaller diamond, just because of the name of the store?

Ask any car salesman and he will tell you the last question a customer asks before signing on the bottom line to buy the car is always, 'How much is my monthly payment?' LOL

mike

Autoblog comments

"...you can even put a Toyota sign right next to the Chevy sign on the dealership. Then, once Chevy goes out of business, you can just take down the Chevy sign and move in the rest of the Toyota models....BRILLIANT!"

"Wake up GM.... Forget about Camry's customers and try to find yours. I am sure Toyota will be happy with GM's marketing idea; it will work for them more than GM..."

"I don't think your average Toyota buyer will even go into a Chevy dealer. What's the point?"

So why doesn't the Malibu outsell the Camry?

Mike Hunter wrote to ViperKiller:

What if the stores are Cartier and JC Penny? It's unlikely that any Cartier diamonds are laser zapped and patched with plastic.

redesign

that they're willing to have customers paw> > all over their mid-size offering and Toyota'sCamry by side. Instead of just telling potential> > Malibu customers that Camry ain't all that [great], Chevy's car> > marketing director, Cheryl Catton, suggests dealers put one of the best-> > selling Toyotas right there next to Malibus.

I'm sure that there are a lot fewer than 10,000 Chevy dealers. So are you saying that when consumers walk into Chevy dealers and see the Malibu and Camry side by side, enough will choose the Camry to keep that model #1?

The Malibu Chevy wants to compare the Camry against is a new model - so hard to say anything particular. However, the question is just as nebulous as asking why more people go to Wal*Mart than Target, or why McDonalds sells more BigMacs than Burger King sells Whoppers, or why more people buy Diet Pepsi than Diet Coke. Best I can say is that there are lots of factors, not all of them rational. If people were rational, there wouldn't be any Cadillacs, Lincolns, Lexi, or Acuras. If people were rational, the F150 would not be the top selling vehicle in the US. If people were rational, Expeditions, Suburbans, Tahoes, Sequoias, etc would be extinct.

It seems to me that Chevy has at least two models that compete directly with the Camry - the Impala and the new Malibu (and for good measure you can through in the Monte Carlo which can be considered a Camry Solaria competitor and the Malibu Maxx). Plus GM has several other models (Pontiacs and Buicks) that also play in that market. If you add up all the GM competitors to the Camry, I suspect they outsell the Camry. And don't forget, for marketing reasons, Toyota lumps Camry, Solaria, and Camry Hybrid sales all under the Camry banner. Toyota puts great stock in claiming Camry is the number one selling nameplate. If GM was dedicated to doing the same, they could probably jury rig the names of vehicles to create the illusion of having a higher selling model (Maybe the Impala Malibu...).

Ed

But are they functionally any different? If you bought the diamond at JC Penny and put in a Cartier box, would your SO be any the wiser? In ten years would the JC Penny diamond be less cherished?

Diamonds are a strange item to compare - they are not purchased for rational reasons, and the market is not truly competitive. There is no shortage of diamonds in the world, the price is artificially manipulated by DeBeers.

Ed

For the same reason Ford sell seven F150s to every Tundra Toyota sells?

mike

Perhaps, but we were talk about similar product selling at vastly different prices.

mike

Camry is loosing sales all on its own. The highest year for Camry sales was

2004

mike

Few people realize GMs mid size cars sell at a higher rate than the Camry today. It just that they do not have the same model name on the grill ;)

mike

Who ever said Camry buyers were astute shoppers? LOL

mike

What were the highest years for GM and Ford sales?

I am not sure how many Chevrolet dealerships there are in the US - but I would guess the number is somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000. If they all bought a Camry, this would increase Camry sales by at least

1%. This might be all it takes to stay ahead of the Accord. Of course, many Chevrolet dealerships are part of large dealer groups that already include Toyota stores, so it might be that the actual number of Camry's bought would only be a fraction of the total number of Chevrolet dealers.

Ed

I'm talking about smaller fleets of 20 to 30 cars where each cab/taxi is owned by an individual who drives it along with employed drivers,.not a single company operating a fleet driven by drivers.

Jason

The Ford numbers were fairly easy to find. The GM numbers were harder - I'll leave that for someone more interested. The best year for Ford sales depends on what you mean when you say "Ford" - If you mean Ford worldwide sales (including Mazda), then 2006 was tops (assuming 2007 will be worse). If you mean worldwide sales not including Mazda, then 2004 was the best (but not by much). If you mean total sales in the US by Ford Motor Company, then it is too complicated for me to figure out today, but I'd guess it was also

2004. If you mean Ford brand US sales only, then 2002 was tops (at least from the data I have - 2002 is as far back as it went).

Ford Motor Company Worldwide Sales

2006 Ford - 5,539,455 (51% NA) Lincoln - 130,685 (99% NA) Mercury - 188,579 (97% NA) Aston Martin - 7,000 (30% NA - no longer owned by Ford) Jaguar - 74,953 (29% NA) Volvo - 428,780 (30% NA) Land Rover - 193,640 (26% NA) Mazda - 1,297,966 (not generally included in Ford totals, 28% NA) Total - 6,563,092 (w/o Mazda) / 7,861,058 (w Mazda)

2005 Ford - 5,572,143 (55% NA) Lincoln - 132,496 (99% NA) Mercury - 203,794 (97% NA) Aston Martin - 4,400 (35% NA - no longer owned by Ford) Jaguar - 89,802 (36% NA) Volvo - 443,963 (31% NA) Land Rover - 185,120 (26% NA) Mazda - 1,224,631 (not generally included in Ford totals, 27% NA) Total - 6,631,718 (w/o Mazda) / 7,856,349 (w Mazda)

2004 Ford - 5,548,381 (57% NA) Lincoln - 147,708 (99% NA) Mercury - 200,550 (97% NA) Aston Martin - 2,400 (30% NA - no longer owned by Ford) Jaguar - 118,918 (41% NA) Volvo - 455,950 (34% NA) Land Rover - 162,422 (23% NA) Mazda - 1,188,856 (not generally included in Ford totals, 28% NA) 6,636,329 (w/o Mazda) / 7,825,185 (w Mazda)

2003 Ford - 5,460,935 (60% NA) Lincoln - 169,262 (99% NA) Mercury - 209,072 (98% NA) Aston Martin - 1,514 (33% NA - no longer owned by Ford) Jaguar - 120,570 (48% NA) Volvo - 415,046 (36% NA) Land Rover - 165,163 (25% NA) Mazda - 1,113,219 (not generally included in Ford totals, 29% NA)

6,541,562 (w/o Mazda) / 7,654,781 (w Mazda)

2002 Ford - 5,475,455 (62% NA) Lincoln - 159,651 (99% NA) Mercury - 274,975 (98% NA) Aston Martin - 1,551 (30% NA - no longer owned by Ford) Jaguar - 130,330 (50% NA) Volvo - Not a Ford brand in 2002 Land Rover - Not a Ford brand on 2002 Mazda - 964,800 (not generally included in Ford totals, 36% NA)

6,041,962 (w/o Mazda) / 7,006,761 (w Mazda)

Ed

GM and Ford have outsold Toyota in the US as far back as 1957.

mike

Around 80% of the taxis in service in the US are Crown Vics. Slightly less than the percentage for police patrol cars. According to the US Commerce Department site. Many are run to 500K or more

mike

messagenews:5572i.10041$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...

Not sure why you think that would be any different. Where I am located (Raleigh, NC) there are no "big" taxi cab fleets. Almost all the operators have 1 to 10 cabs and the vast majority are Crown Victorias. Lately some of the cab companies are using older mini-vans (I've even seen a Sienna cab) and there are a few Hispanic operators that drive smaller cars (I mean smaller!). When we were in Victoria, BC a couple of years back I saw lots of Toyota Prius's as cabs. When we were in Mexico last year I was wedged into the back of some tiny Chevy being used as a cab (and I mean wedgeed - knees against the front seat, head bowed against the roof). I don't think any of this proves that the cab companies are as smart as you think. I doubt that the operators in BC have enough experience with the Prius to know that over the long haul they are the most cost effective. I suspect the cab operators in my area use CVs becasue used ones are cheap, plentiful, and last forever. I am guessing in Mexico, initial cost is very important.

Ed