The little brand that couldn't continues to be the equivalent of a Columbian necktie for General Motors. Autonews is reporting that the Aura currently has 98 days of supply on hand, and the all new Outlook is running at a healthy 125 days supply. To put that in perspective, there are currently over 19,000 Aura units in stock at Saturn dealerships nationwide, along with over 9000 Outlooks. So much for the 'we're still rolling them out' excuse. An excuse that doesn't hold weight with the Aura anyways, seeing as how it's coming up on its one year anniversary very soon.
At the end of the day, one simple truth remains- GM succeeded in making a couple of competent vehicles, but failed miserably at allocating them. Why did Saturn even get the Outlook to begin with? Wasn't that decision indicative that GM still is relying on old ideas to try and get through these new times? The old standby of 'spread the wealth' as it applies to vehicle platforms, by giving everybody a version? Someone tell me where 7 passenger people hauler fits into the 'Euro' niche.
The Aura is a different story altogether. Can anyone say with a straight face at this point, that this vehicle should have been launched as a Saturn? After all the accolades, after all the value comparisons, and after all the PR spin, the Aura won't even outsell the L-Series- a vehicle that was deemed a failure in its time. Now the Aura is on track for about 80k in sales.
Think of what Chevy could have done with both of these vehicles. Wasted money. Wasted resources. Wasted ad dollars. Par for the course
The link is available here- I don't know how long it will last.
http://www.autonews.com/assets/PDF/CA16747413.PDF
No comments:
Post a Comment