Quote:
Originally Posted by NJNETSFAN
Total GTO sales for 04-06 was 40,808. G8 is nowhere near that. G8 is a great car, just americans aren't buying it. The 57% in sales isn't much when you think of last years sales of under 2,000 a month. Selling G8's at 2600 a month steadily would still only put production at about 31,000 a year...that wasn't enough to keep the f-body a live...so what has changed now other than the economy is worse?
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Everything has changed.
GTO vs. G8 is really apples to oranges. Assuming a continuing trend of 2600 a month it is nearly as many GTOs built in 3 years (thanks for proving my math, lol). You cannot look at sales from 8/08-5/09 because the whole industry just about stopped, total collapse. And it is not ripping now and won’t be anytime soon. So I think that jump is pretty impressive and may very indicative of the potential of this car. Yes, it is one month, my point was simply it is catching on and gets great mainstream press. I know a lot of folks ask me about it. Killing this car seems really stupid.
Are 31,200 G8s annually enough? Not sure, but as things get better I’d expect that 2600 to continue go up if not for the demise of PMD. The auto business, both GM and industry wide, is very different now than 2002. Expected total sales are projected to be down 20%+ across the industry for the next few years. And GMs footprint is much smaller than before, as well as their capital structure – this is huge, really. So selling 35,000 cars may be a much more viable situation now. Plus it is generally accepted the Camaro died for other reasons as well so no comparison there either.