Skip navigation

GM to battle for more midsize SUV share

It will be tough for General Motors Corp. to increase its share of the midsize sport/utility vehicle (SUV) market with its all-new Olds Bravada, GMC Envoy and Chevrolet TrailBlazer models, admits Richard Spina, assistant vehicle line executive-midsize trucks. GM lost 18,000 units of production in a recall and subsequent shutdown of the Moraine, OH, plant earlier this year. Moraine has raised output

It will be tough for General Motors Corp. to increase its share of the midsize sport/utility vehicle (SUV) market with its all-new Olds Bravada, GMC Envoy and Chevrolet TrailBlazer models, admits Richard Spina, assistant vehicle line executive-midsize trucks. GM lost 18,000 units of production in a recall and subsequent shutdown of the Moraine, OH, plant earlier this year. Moraine has raised output to 1,200 trucks per day from 1,100 daily. Of that, up to 50% of production is dedicated to TrailBlazer, 40% to Envoy and 10% to Bravada. Mr. Spina expects sales to exceed last year's 350,000 units. GM is using incentives of $2,000 on the new SUVs and $2,500 on the old Blazer, but Mr. Spina says GM's incentives haven't matched Ford's. With its three rows of seats, Explorer has an advantage — GM won't begin producing a new 7-seat model at its Oklahoma City, OK, plant until 2002. Preproduction begins in the fourth quarter of this year, and the 7-seater is expected to eventually account for 45% of volume.

Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish