NADA MEETING: GM, DEALERS SEE EYE TO EYE ON INCENTIVES

San Francisco February 2, 2003; The GM franchise meeting was apparently a lovefest, said company execs at a follow-up press conference, with moods elevated by 2002’s being the second consecutive year of record dealer profitability and improved GM market share. "The trust is definitely back," said Glenn Ritchey, co-chair of GM’s dealer council and owner of Jon Halls Automotive Group, Daytona Beach, Fla.

Incentives helped. Dealers applauded president Rick Wagoner’s statement that GM will continue to offer them for the foreseeable future, but asked that they be kept "simple and compelling," said John Middlebrook, general manager, Vehicle Brand Marketing and Corporate Advertising.

Added dealer Ritchey, "We have raised a generation of consumers who have gotten used to incentives and salespeople who have gotten used to marketing incentives."

Still, it always comes back to product. "If we put out cars that are really new, like the H2 and CTS, we don’t have to put on incentives," said John Smith, group vice-president, Vehicle Sales, Service, and Marketing. GM will refresh 25 percent of its product this year and 25 percent in 2004, he added. The Hummer H2 sport-utility truck, shown as a concept at the New York Auto Show in 2001, will be built, and four new vans will arrive in mid-2005—including, for the first time, for Buick and Saturn.

Story Courtesy NADA