General Motors has announced that it plans to create superstore dealerships in major metro areas. The new superstores — which GM has dubbed “GM Collections” — will carry every GM brand under one roof. GM will announce its plans at next month’s annual convention of the National Automobile Dealers Association in San Francisco.
GM has already announced plans to streamline its dealer network by eliminating dealerships in certain areas.
The new plan would help GM to keep a presence in metro areas, where the price of real estate is most costly. In some cities, dealerships have been forced to sell their real estate because the land is more valuable than the franchise.
The plan also calls for dealerships to move their parts and service centers to satellite locations to save on land costs.
The consolidation would create four brand groups:
1. Chevrolet
3. Saturn
“We’re not changing from four channels to some other number,” GM’s vice president of vehicle sales, Mark LaNeve, told Automotive News. “It’s more about size and structure. How big does a dealership need to be? Does service need to be right on the site? Can we help them in areas of their IT infrastructure and other things?”
However, the plan has been met with some mixed reactions. Several family owned dealerships have voiced concerns that the superstores will run them out of business.
GM has once such superstore in Florida, with more planned in the future.
Follow up
Since Automotive News ran this story earlier today, Mark LaNeve and GM has since sent out a message to dealers that there is no such push for metro superstores. LaNeve says “there will be no announcements of any kind regarding any new initiative or change to our channel strategy” at the upcoming NADA.
However, Automotive News stands by its statement that some dealers will sell all eight GM brands.
