Quote:
Originally Posted by BigAls87Z28
GM doesnt own any dealer.
How can GM tell another company who is independent of GM what to do to make money?
GM has no control over SLP marketing or selling of products designed, built and sold by SLP through dealers.
I would compare this to if SLP owned the rights to IROC, and they made an IROC Impala. People would be like wtf, but I wouldnt be too broken up about it.
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I have some experience in this area.
For a company to be able to sell a brand product at a dealer, they have to be accepted and certified by the manufacturer (GM) as an Aftermarket OEM. GM would have to certify SLP and approve their product. The reason other than the obvious for the certification is so that GM can verify the quality of the components in the vehicle as meeting minimum standards, because the cars are sold with a
GM warranty and they don't want to sell a car that'll need more work than the base model it's based on. So GM does take an active role in the process. The dealerships are all franchises and although independent of the parent company, they still all report to the parent company (GM). SLP is free to approach any dealer with a contract to have them sell their cars, assuming SLP has met GM's approval process. Another area where GM is involved is that once the customer orders the car, the order does go to SLP. However, the order then goes to GM so that GM can build the car with the SLP VIN tag. The car is then shipped to SLP so SLP can do the modifications to the car and add their package (Dave The Prick, the guy in charge of SLP, didn't know this). That being said, GM still has to approve the concept. Even a car sold through an A-OEM has an effect on GM's image and they want to control that. Further proof that GM is involved to some degree is that GM asked SLP to debut the car at Indy. SLP may be an independent company, but they can't design and sell a GM car at GM dealerships without GM approval first.