All Entries Tagged With: "gmc"

Rural Dealerships A Big Sales Advantage for Ford, GM, and Chrysler-Fiat

According to this Automotive News story, GM classifies 1200 of their dealers as “rural.” While the definition of rural is likely a little loose, here’s what we know about GM’s dealership operations:

1. GM has 4,400 dealerships across the USA
2. 27% of these dealers are rural
3. Toyota has about 1200 dealerships across the USA, and a very small portion of them are rural (our sources say less than 10%)

Assuming that each of these 1200 rural GM dealership can sell either Chevy or GMC trucks, and assuming that each of these dealership can sell a measly 5 trucks per month, GM can generate about 70,000 truck sales in rural areas that Toyota can’t hope to match.

In other words, GM has a big sales volume advantage because of their extensive dealership network in rural areas. Ford – and to a lesser degree Chrysler-Fiat – enjoy this sales volume advantage as well. Here’s what it means to Tundra sales figures.

The Tundra Is Now America’s “Most American” Pickup

Every year, Cars.com uses domestic content data from NHTSA and automaker-supplied data to pull together a list of the “10 Most American” vehicles. Over the last three years, the Tundra – with 80% domestic parts content – has been on this list.

* – The Ram 1500 ranking excludes regular cab trucks, which are assembled in Mexico.

On the Cars.com list, the Tundra is now the second-most American truck available…but only if the Ram 1500’s stats exclude regular cab models. If Ram’s “American made” numbers reflected the foreign-built reg cab’s it’s likely that the Tundra would be the only truck in the top 10 most American vehicles. For that reason, it seems clear to us that the Tundra is now officially the Most American truck you can buy.

What do you have to say about that, Ford, GM, and Chrysler-Fiat truck owners? 🙂