GM Updates Acadia SUV to Fight Off Gains From Ford, Chrysler
February 10, 2012, 12:59 AM ESTBy Tim Higgins
(Updates with shares in the sixth paragraph.)
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co. unveiled an updated GMC Acadia at the Chicago Auto Show, the first of its mid-size sport-utility vehicles to get refreshed as Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC make gains.
The Acadia, Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave are made on the same vehicle platform and combined U.S. sales last year totaled 244,811, a 6.2 percent gain from 2010. That trailed gains of competing models made by Ford and Chrysler, according to researcher Autodata Corp.
“There is obviously a disconnect” between newer models such as Chrysler’s Jeep Grand Cherokee and the older GM models, said Jessica Caldwell, an industry analyst with Edmunds.com, a Santa Monica, California-based website that tracks auto sales.
The competition for mid-size SUV sales is one example of how GM, based in Detroit, is being challenged this year to hold onto its 2011 marketing gains. Its share of the U.S. market rose to 19.6 percent from 19.1 percent in 2010 and the company supplanted Toyota Motor Corp. as the world’s largest automaker.
“The importance of this is huge,” Mark Reuss, president of GM North America, said during an interview last month in advance of the Chicago show, which began today with press conferences by automakers. “We completely redid the outside and inside of this vehicle. When you see it, I think, I know it’s going to be dramatic.”
The freshened Acadia goes on sale late this year as a 2013 model. GM fell 1.8 percent to $25.75 at 11:42 a.m. New York time.
‘Neglected Segment’
A redesigned Explorer SUV helped Ford more than double U.S. sales of the SUV to 135,704 while deliveries of Chrysler’s new Durango rose to 51,697 from 572 the year before and Jeep Grand Cherokee increased 51 percent to 127,744.
GM also faces competition from Toyota and Honda Motor Co. Toyota sold 101,252 Highlander and 44,316 4Runner mid-size SUVs last year. Sales of Honda’s Pilot, last redesigned in 2008, rose 14 percent last year to 116,297, making it top-selling mid-size model among Asian automakers in the segment.
“I can see why GM, perhaps, didn’t want to throw as much money into these products because it’s kind of been a neglected segment over the past years with the high gas prices and people shifting to smaller cars,” said Caldwell of Edmunds.
Even with the competition, sales of the Acadia, which first went on sale in 2007, surged 16 percent last year to 79,288, the largest gain among the three GM SUVs.
‘Perfect Momentum’
“We’ve got the perfect momentum in the market place and we’re just making it that much better,” Tony DiSalle, GM’s vice president for Buick and GMC marketing, said in a telephone interview last week. He declined to provide details of the changes in advance of today’s introduction.
The Acadia, with half of its customers being women, helped the GMC brand appeal to new shoppers with its improved fuel efficiency and three rows of seats, Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with IHS Automotive, said in a telephone interview this week.
“What the Acadia really did for GMC was it got them a crossover vehicle that would appeal to a much broader audience,” she said. “It really expanded the brand into a new demographic.”
--Editors: Bill Koenig, Kevin Miller
To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Higgins in Southfield, Michigan, at thiggins21@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jamie Butters at jbutters@bloomberg.net
