GM targets hundreds of metro Caddy stores

[Oracle of Delphi]

Jamie Lareau

Automotive News

June 8, 2009 - 12:01 am ET

DETROIT -- General Motors wants to eliminate hundreds of Cadillac dealerships in metro markets to make the brand's per-store sales comparable with those of Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and BMW.

In a dealer broadcast on Tuesday, June 2, GM sales chief Mark LaNeve said some Cadillac dealers might be surprised to learn they will be terminated by Oct. 31, 2010, said GM spokesman Pete Ternes.

As part of the company's plan to winnow its dealership network, GM wants to align the number of Cadillac dealerships in major markets to those of its competitors.

"Our current footprint of 1,400 Cadillac dealers, most of which are dualed, is out of sync with modern luxury automotive retail," LaNeve told dealers, according to a transcript GM gave to Automotive News.

LaNeve did not say how many dealers Cadillac would terminate. But to reach the goal of a per-store sales match with rivals, hundreds would have to go.

"Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Lexus outsell us with 250 and 450 dealers," LaNeve said. "We have to address this and enable our large Cadillac dealers to do more volume."

The luxury gap

How Cadillac and its rivals compare in per-store sales.

Franchises as of Jan.1----- Avg. 2008 Sales

Cadillac 1,422 ----------------112

Mercedes-Benz 347-----------651

BMW 338---------------------- 737

Lexus 226 ---------------------1,158

Source: Automotive News Data Center

Link: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...paign_id=alerts

[vonVeezelsnider]

Frankly this is an interesting statistic, I had no idea the numbers were so staggering. Calgary has 3 Cadillac dealers but out of all the Cadillacs I see on the road in Calgary almost all of them seem to come from two of those three dealers.

[SoCalCTS]

My local Cadillac dealer is dual branded with Buick. Frankly, I don't want to deal with the geriatric Buick customers. I wish they would set up a Cadillac only dealership. Our local Mercedes dealer is in beautiful new facility that is completely first class and state of the art. The Caddie dealership might have gotten new furniture around 1988?

[Dsuupr]

Portland, Oregon is down to one Cadillac Dealer now. The other had great service and a decent building, they had just decided the profit was in BMW and Lexus instead of Cadillac.

[thedriver]

Yeah, I posted about this last week, nobody seemed to care. Why the shift?

[Justin Bimmer]

The Cadillac dealer in Fresno sucks. They really don't care. Most of their inventory is stored at their Toyota store across the street.

[A Horse With No Name]

We have too many Caddy stores around here also.

Chris