RE: [comment] VWoA...WTF?

[16v Jason <jason@scirocco.org>]

At 02:09 PM 12/15/00 , Aaron Ness wrote:
> Geos
> as Pontiacs?  Which ones?  I can't think of any - they're all
> badged as Chevrolet, AFAIK.



Yep.  I covered that one already. :)

>  
> Brings to mind an interesting
> question.  Does each carmaker have to meet CAFE corporately, or is
> it split by division?  i.e. will 1 Chevy Metro sold make up for 2
> Cadillac Escalades, or does Cadillac have to somehow comply on their
> own?  If that's the case, it would seem GMC would have a very
> difficult time.

It's corporate.  So a Neon is a Neon is a Neon regardless of whether
it was Plymouth or Dodge... so yes, 1 Metro made up for (more like) 3
Escalades.

> Assuming
> it's a corporate thing (as opposed to divisional), dumping the Geo name
> would have strictly been a marketing move.  Kind of like Plymouth
> and Oldsmobile.

More of a financial deal, yeah.  I think that GM realized that the
Geo name had no positive connotation, and there was no need to keep it
alive and spend all that marketing.  None of the cars in Geo's
lineup compete directly with any GM cars -- you *could* say that the
Prizm and the Cavalier compete, but that's a stretch -- the only thing
similar about them is that they're front-wheel drive (sub)compact 4
doors.  Apart from that, they're not in the same price bracket, nor
are they comparable in terms of quality.

So why manage a completely separate brand when the cars could fit just as
easily into one brand.  You get rid of the advertising and marketing
expenses, dealerships, etc etc etc....

Jason

 

Aaron
'82 Scirocco
'70 Beetle
'87 Jeep Cherokee 4.0
'81 Honda CX500

-----Original Message-----

From: owner-scirocco-l@scirocco.org [mailto:owner-scirocco-l@scirocco.org]On Behalf Of VWMikeLVW@aol.com

Sent: Friday, December 15, 2000 1:22 PM

To: jason@scirocco.org; aaron@makuta.com; soltwede@privatei.com; tiAn@usiw.net

Cc: scirocco-l@scirocco.org

Subject: Re: [comment] VWoA...WTF?

In a message dated 12/15/00 10:04:29 AM Pacific Standard Time,

jason@scirocco.org writes:

Those of you who aren't familiar with CAFE, it stands for Corporate Average

Fuel Economy.  It's currently at (I think) 24mpg.  This means that the

average fuel economy of all cars that any manufacturer sells in the USA

must lie under the 24mpg mark or the company will be fined heavily by the

EPA.

For every 42mpg Neon that Chrysler sells, it can sell *two* 18mpg

Dakotas.  Chrysler doesn't care that it loses a few hundred bucks on the

Neon, cause it more than makes up for it with the thousands that it earns

on every Dakota.

Perhaps that's why they just recently started selling Geos as Pontiacs....to

make up for their other Stupid Useless Vehicles.

Mike

http://www.geocities.com/vwmikel

'84-Arkay Turbo Rabbit GTI

'84-Rabbit GTI - uh.....

'77-Rabbit - project

'80-Scirocco S - (um... to be:1.9L crossflow, turbo, 6 speed, widebody?)

---

1987 Scirocco 16v
1988 Mercedes 190E Sport Euro


http://www.scirocco16v.org