All Entries Tagged With: "rural dealership network"

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.