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GM dealers unhappy about pickup prices

The backlash is beginning. Following General Motors' price hike of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra last week, dealers across the country are expressing their ire over increasing prices in the face of rebates and discounts on trucks from Ford and Ram.
Speaking to Automotive News, Sam Pilato, the general manager at Dimmitt Chevrolet in Clearwater, FL, Silverados are "selling very poorly." W. Carrol Smith, the president of Monument Chevrolet in the heart of truck country, Texas, said, "[GM's] position is that the vehicle stands on its own and it doesn't need a bigger rebate. That's not what the market is telling us."
According to AN, that's the general attitude amongst Chevy and GMC dealers across the country, where the twin pickups are getting butchered in sales by competitors offering up to $9,000 off their sticker prices. Part of the problem for GM is that its trucks are arriving on the market near the end of the current F-150's lifecycle, a fact that Ford has taken advantage of.

United States drivers buying fewer Mexican-made cars

Crossovers and pickup trucks are not only growing in market share, they're also more profitable than cars. A crossover on the same platform as a sedan retails for thousands more, despite similar components. It's one of the reasons we've seen automakers rapidly shifting production of their sedans and hatchbacks to Mexico, where cheap labor preserves the thin profit margins on these inexpensive vehicles. But as the market continues to shift in the United States, Mexico is getting burned by its lack of product diversity. The country's auto exports, which are heavy on cars, suffered a 16-percent drop last month, Automotive News reports. In total, year-over-year exports fell from 233,515 to 197,020 last month, while year-to-date exports are down by 7.4 percent, from 922,029 to 854,118. The number one culprit? America – which usually accounts for 75 percent of Mexico's exports – and its appetite for crossovers and pickup trucks bolstered by cheap gas prices. While Mexico does build some light truck models – AN specifically calls out the Ram 2500, Honda HR-V, GMC Sierra, and Toyota Tacoma as export leaders – the vast majority of vehicles rolling out of its factories are sedans and hatchbacks. In fact, the three biggest drops in Mexican exports came from companies whose south of the border factories only build cars – Ford (Fusion/Lincoln MKZ and Fiesta), Mazda (Mazda3), and Volkswagen (Golf and Jetta). Mexican Automotive Industry Association President Eduardo Solis told AN the export shortfall will likely be sorted out sooner rather than later, thanks to a pair of new factories – a Kia car factory and an Audi SUV plant – that are coming online by year's end. The two facilities will add around 100,000 vehicles to the country's export totals, which Solis said should leave the industry on the verge of breaking another export record in 2016. But how sustainable will these record-breaking years be? Slapping an "Hecho en Mexico" sticker on a new German SUV won't be enough to change the fact that Mexico's product mix is tilted too heavily towards body styles that are not growing in volume. Mexico's record-breaking export years probably aren't at an end, but we'd argue they're certainly under threat. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Omar Torres / AFP / Getty Images Plants/Manufacturing Ford GMC Honda Mazda RAM Volkswagen Truck Crossover SUV Mexico

GMC wants to target Jeep with compact crossover

GMC execs might consider adding a Jeep competitor to the range, but rather than new rumors of a Wrangler-fighter, this time the Professional Grade brand could go after the Renegade. Division boss Duncan Aldred would like to broaden the brand's lineup with a subcompact crossover. "I keep telling everyone, 'How can General Motors' truck brand not be in the fastest-growing segment in the industry, an SUV segment," he said to Automotive News but wouldn't confirm whether the model was under development. General Motors already offers small crossovers like the Chevrolet Trax and Buick Encore, but the CUV segment in general continues to drive auto sales in the US. Adding a similarly sized GMC to the mix might increase the automaker's volume by appealing to different customers. "A GMC buyer is very different from a Buick buyer. This is like comparing the Fiat 500X to the Jeep Renegade. They are very similar but appeal to different people," Dave Sullivan, Product Analysis Manager at AutoPacific, told Autoblog. Aldred started the speculation about a Wrangler-fighting model in an interview in late 2014, and the company reportedly even raised the idea of an offroad-focused vehicle to dealers to see how they reacted. The development process was only in the very early planning stages, but the brand considered using Hummer for a little of the new product's inspiration. Aldred later suggested to journalists the possibility of adding a compact or midsize SUV to the GMC range in the next 10 years to appeal to more buyers. He didn't comment directly on the possibility of the Wrangler-challenger at the time beyond saying: "I can't confirm that ... everything's on the table." Related Video: