Team-BHP - What can make the GM get market share in India

Ever since I got an Aveo, this was always in my mind. I dont see anything negative for the car, but the sales was, as you all know, always south.

Why is it the GM cars not selling properly? What change will make it to get a decent sales? Why GM never re-visits their product or change their marketing style to get more sales? Or may be they did, but did no help on current sales.

So, decided to have a poll to see, what is our perception on GM cars.

I am more concerned about the AVEO/UVA duo. Reason is, the market for those are huge but still dominated by 2 manufactures.

Eventhough they have a decent portfolio in this segment, they hardly have any sales. Even after the 3 years Cashless service package.

Other car is the SRV. Nice car, but again almost dead. I wont be surprised if anyone asks if GM had a car like SRV :)

Voted for Others. Reasons are many for the slow sales from GM. I think that Captiva did well, but otherwise the products are not that strong.

About the UVA :

1) Engine : Not good when compared with competition. Take a Swift out on expresshighway and its respective 1.3 competition. Swift's G series might be aging and old, but it has got a great punch. Above 3-3.5K rpm, the engine puts up a smile on driver's face. With a loaded car and AC, this car can give a rude shock to day dreaming Accents and Logans of this world.
Is the same possible with UVA ? Load the car and put on AC, hit the highway and try overtaking two trucks at a time. Immediately one realized that this is good city car and nothing more.
The needed 1.4, GM had it in Aveo. If they had put in 1.4, Swift and Getz would have stiff competition. Moreover GM could have added the 1.6 too to this small car. Would be real hot hatch by Indian standards then.

GM did not take appropriate steps in this direction.

2) Resale Value : Due to low sales and a brand image not as good as others, this is major drawback.

3) Delaers and A.S & S. : In Vadodara we have good dealer, but else where I have not seen good reviews about the dealerships. GM had priced the spares very competitively, but the dealers were not good.

I wonder if diesel heart could have really helped this car. Also I must mention that looks of this car are not as good as lets say Swift or Palio. I know looks are subjective, but then the hood itself give an indication about the car being old.
Look at Aveo and then UVA, notice the difference between physical appearence.

This slow selling of GM cars, huge discounts, inconsistent service, and poor resale is not a recent story but at least till the mid-1990s.

The fact is that unlike in their pre 1960 period of world dominance, they are now competing with the Japanese and now the Koreans, and their cars come up short. Even if they improve, their competitors are not exactly sleeping.

When Alfred Sloan shaped General Motors he operated on the belief that automobile customers wanted four things-comfort, convenience, power, and style. Quality was nowhere on Sloan's list. This view became dominant and pervasive when the American consumer had few realistic alternatives. In fact, as penetration increased and vehicle market came to be replacement market rather than sales to new customers, techniques such as styling that shortened the average period of ownership promised more sales. By comparison, quality clearly could not serve such a purpose. Far from stimulating replacement demand, quality competition actually posed a threat.

Actually, quality and style conflict to an extent. This is because the huge costs and complexity associated with frequent model changes and US car makers model proliferation appears to undermine the quality achievable by standardisation. It is a given that long multi-year model runs permit a variety of cumulative volume economies, whereas varying models raises costs, inventories. Japanese automotive production processes consistently attain high quality on exceedingly long model runs. Their products are not so much technologically superior, but their manufacturing processes are highly standardised and more efficient. By contrast, US manufacturers change entire models on a shorter cycle, with minor annual variations. They offer huge number of models, each with a variety of engines, transmissions, colors, accessories, and options. This strategy requires substantial and frequent changes in capital equipment and labour set-up costs.

Now you know why GM is cutting models and axing brands. Whether it has woken up or is pretending to be, only time will tell. For me, as an existing and hassled GM owner, there is no GM in the future for me. They work well till they win the IQS, but start acting up after a year.

Quote:

Originally Posted by spadival (Post 1340187)

They should take a leaf out of Honda's brand building and advertising strategy.
No matter how rubbish the car is, it will still sell because of snob value/badge etc etc.

well snob/badge value is made with good products.It cannot be made with a marketing campaign.

Honda products - OHC, NHC were well received, were trouble free, had cheaper service costs, were fuel efficient and still command excellent resale. Compare that to the perception of a Corsa & Astra. Will you see a taker for Astra at half an OHC cost?

gm cars were always VFM. check out the optra itself.Its got more power and performance than a 20 lac laura.
I think service wise its not bad like the pathetic skoda's.
proper product lineup's will do the trick for them.
I always feel the indian counterpart of gm suffered due its american one.
its only that people do not have faith in Brand GM due to pullout of opel etc. But they dint let opel owners down did they? they still provide service and spares for opel owners.

How many Aveo commercials are aired/printed compared to a fiat Linea or a Honda city? plus its not as good a driver's car as its competition, which is a selling point in the segment it sells in. Most dont even remember the Aveo when it comes to buying.

A limited sportz version with refreshed looks, 15" alloys, tuned suspension and racing graphics can help boost the sales by bringing traffic to the showroom.

U-VA is clearly overpriced in its segment. The engine is puny and interiors old school compared to Swift and I20. A 25K price correction and feature list cuts to compete with I10 and Zen estilo will certainly play in their favour. They need to replace the aging car though.

The cars are good no doubt but a company like GM needs to keep reminding people of their strengths to cover their weaknesses.

They are bigger players than Honda, Toyota, Ford and Skoda in India.

They have more dealerships than most car makers at 203 dealerships.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinaydas (Post 1340243)

High VFM: so that means most Indian customers do not know what is value, and ignorantly vote with their wallets for Japanese and Koreans. Perhaps, Indian customers are patriotic in buying Maruti, while Americans are traitors in buying again Japanese.

Proper Product lineup: as if they say it and it happens overnight or even in a year. In that time, their competitors are sleeping.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vasudeva (Post 1340272)

not all i must say are vfm..
its maybe that people dont have faith in re badged Koreans do they?
ther service plans offered by gm for their cars are excellent.Its only the people who dont have faith in Brand GM.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinaydas (Post 1340454)

I agree. Eventhough the 3 yrs service plan helped to increase the sales, but that's very marginal. May be people are still in fear that the company may close and go, and what to do with the warranty papers? :D

I really would love to get feedback from long time owners (2-3+yrs) of GM cars. One thing I did not put in the poll is Mileage. Long time owners if can share their experience would be great.

That will show if they have any issues related to the vehicle in their course of ownership. I may be wrong, But I have heard of dealers / service center issues more than the issues with the car itself. So, interested to know more feedback on this line.