What is the point of Chevy vehicles being rebranded as GMCs?

[Whatthefluff]

I know that certain vehicles like the Suburban and Silverado are literally the same as the Yukon and Sierra but under a different name. What is the point of this? I know that GMC and Chevy are the same company in a way? But why?

[Anonymous]

Hard to say. VW owns Audi, Skoda and Seat. Basically those four brands builds basically the same model of cars with slight minor differences usually cosmetic to the body. Its all to do with sales and marketing. VW for instance is able to market four different products build on same design platform with similar parts, features and performance. The VW Golf is basically the same car as the Audi A3, the Seat Leon and the skoda Fabia. The Golf is more expensive than the others because its basically living on the old name of the Golf but it's not a better vechile and build quality is a lot better with the Fabia and Leon. The A3 is nearly as expensive as the Golf but it's got that Audi brand. I think in this case the good thing is that you have 4 major car companies with history pooling their knowledge and resources together so that when they release a car its the best it can be. In the past car designers would always have one niggling problem or design fault with a car that other cars in the same class but those other cars would have a similar but different achieves heal.

[Whatthefluff]

Huh. I didn’t know Audi was part of VW. Thanks.

[Opinion Owner]

Lambourgini and porches too

[Z1pTD]

And Bugatti :)

[Opinion Owner]

@Z1pTD yes

[WindAtMyBack]

At one time they were different companies. After all the buyouts and mergers, they remained separate. In some cases the same basic car is sold by multiple divisions. That's largely for marketing, distribution and service reasons.

What are considered twin cars usually have at least some differences, and are often marketed to different demographics. They may even have different prices. GM has tried to reduce some of this when it makes no business sense. Like when they got rid of Oldsmobile a while back. GM also owns Lotus and Opal. I don't think Opal is still sold in the US, but it's still a major brand outside the US.

At one time Oldsmobile tended to be the experimental brand. New innovations were often tested in Oldsmobile cars. For example they were one of the first brands to have an automatic transmission.

GM is huge, with thousands of design and manufacturing locations around the world. At one time they employed over a million people. There is no need to keep everything under one brand, and good reason to have multiple brands.

Most car makers have multiple brand names. They are also commonly marketed under different names in different countries. It's about marketing, and for legal reasons, especially to get around protectionist laws.

[docster]

I think that it's so they can give a different personality to each brand. Pontiac used to be the excitement brand for GM. Buick was more classy and Cadilac was luxury. Most car companies do it. The average person on the street probably doesn't know that Lexus is the upscale brand of Toyota and Infiniti is the upscale brand of Nissan.

Sometimes it doesn't work: RIP Scion, Saturn, Pontiac, Oldsmobile...

[exitseven]

The GMC sales guys will tell you that the GMC is more luxurious but I could not really tell the difference. They are also more expensive than the Chevy. I don;t know why they do it. GM used to have Pontiac and Oldsmobile and many time they had cars that were all the same.

[worldscolide]

Its the other way around. GMC is the parent company. They tend to stick with trucks.. they do not manufacture cars. Additionally they tend to do more commercial stuff than Chevy does. While Chevy is the child company of GM and does things that GMC doesn't do. GM also owns Buick, Use to own Pontiac and Saturn, and currently own Cadillac

[OfMiceandMen]

Reduce badging and trimming costs on what is pretty much the same vehicle, like their trucks. A GMC truck is exactly the same as a Chevy Truck, just different lighting package, badging and trim.

[StormChaser838]

It's called "step marketing , you better focus different products at different customers, like lexus at rich dudes and Toyota at Joe Blows.

[20yearsolder]

GMC is the upgraded version.

[Whatthefluff]

So it’s like a luxury version of Chev?

[KrakenAttackin]

Because some marketing guru thinks there is market value in rebranding some vehicles. Perhaps some markets see the Chevy name as "old" (not me), but who knows.

[Anonymous]

corporate thinking corporate mentality=retarded thinking jackass thinking

[Guardian45]

Consolidation and cost cutting

[AngryCarl2]

Because Chevys are shit?

[NostalgiaSenpi]

Illusion of choice.

[Legendarylegacy13]

I wonder that to.