As the DEALER advocate magazine, DEALER
welcomes your letters, and after verification will run them signed or
unsigned. Letters may be edited for space and clarity.
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DEALER magazine
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PMB 239 Columbia, TN 38401 (931) 388-1800 ext. 203
Fax (931) 388-4881 e-mail: mroscoe@dealeronline.com
The key to VOMS for General Motors is that after the dealer consents to product, but before he knows for sure that it can be produced the way he needs it, he is stuck with it and cannot turn it down. The reason we aren't hearing much about this is because we are in an unprecedented strong automotive economy and we haven't had that much problem moving weird or undesirable product. What happens to these vehicles when demand is weak?
Currently, about a third of my inventory of 300-plus vehicles are equipped differently than we would like them. Ask any dealer who was in the business 10 or more years ago what happens to these vehicles. GM won't get serious about abandoning VOMS until dealers quit consenting to product that isn't getting built the way they can sell it.
Steve Cook
Cook Chev-Pont-Olds-Buick
Vassar, Mich.
Jim:
I really enjoyed your article on Saturn. As a Chevrolet dealer, I can say
that you are right on target. You are probably already aware, but since your
article was written, GM has committed over $1.5 billion to Saturn for development
of new models!! They would lose less than that by just shutting it down and
as you say in your article, "admit that Saturn is an embarrassment and
should be humanely put to sleep." They could spend a small fraction of
that and fix VOMS!!
Name withheld upon request
Jim,
Love your column. Food for thoughtLloyd Ward is joining the GM board of directors
in the near future, the CEO of Maytag Co.(laundry equipment). I have friends
in corporate at Maytag; Ward makes no bones about the wave of appliance sales
in the future: factory direct. Put that snifter of cognac down and write a
column about Zarrella getting more forward-thinking cronies on the board to
show us dealers how to merchandise. Also, Ward just made a deal with the blue
oval to put Maytag appliances in Fords (that's loyalty). This guy is pure
poison (check Maytag stock prices since he took over).
Name withheld upon request
Dear Jim,
I enjoy your column more than all the other publications put together. I'm
also from north Florida, have owned a Dodge-Jeep dealership for 20 years and
was a salesman or manager with Chrysler/Plymouth before that for 15 years.
With Great Respect,
Ronnie Robinson
Ronnie Robinson Dodge-Jeep
Dear Jim,
You were right on target, once again, with your Dealer Advocate article. GM
will not admit to a mistake. They just throw more money at it until it becomes
an embarrassment. Take, for instance, the purchase of EDS. Since its purchase,
look at all the communications equipment the dealer has had to buy. Further,
check out "Onstar"-this has been a waste of time for most dealers.
GM has spiffed salespeople and managers to get this thing up and running with
little success. Now GM made it standard equipment in some Cadillacs and high
buck trucks. This is the only way they will sell this thing. It is a neat
concept, but who really needs it? GM also purchased Campbell-Ewald advertising
agency. To make it be useful, they tried to integrate it with the DMGs. When
the DMG showed resistance to Campbell-Ewald, GM did away with the DMGs. Since
then we are getting hard-hitting advertising campaigns such as Batman w/Onstar
and an all-line commercial highlighting nothing. This is what GM said they
could do better than the DMGs. Where did that 500 million dollars go? It sure
isn't in product advertising. How about that additional 1% we "voluntarily"
gave to GM to advertise our product? Where is their accountability? GM is
not interested in seeing dealers get stronger and selling more vehicles; VOMS
is their "out." They still have "flex allocation" and
new dealer allocation. Look at the number of advertising spots run for weaker
divisions. Is their No. 1 division getting most of the play or are they using
that money to help sister divisions? Hopefully when GM wakes up, if they wake
up, it will not be too late...foreign completion is coming hot and heavy along
with other domestics to eat GM's lunch. Do you think they will get rid of
Zarella and replace him with a real car person? A person who understands that
the dealer is the golden goose. If they kill it, they kill themselves.
Name withheld upon request
Jim Ziegler,
Your recent articles in DEALER are (again) right on.
J.D. Power is riding a wave created in part by Big 3 arrogance.Hopefully, their day will come. And now Ford and their Blue Oval crap. They claim their ultimate goal is to raise CSI. What a joke. It is a plot to shrink the size of the dealer body, with outrageous requirements for certification. When will they realize that one size doesn't fit all?
They are using the wrong survey. They should use the 'factory/dealer' survey; since stuff flows downhill, you fix the top and the bottom will follow.
Thanks again for your editorials.
Name withheld upon request
Dear Mr. Roscoe:
Your magazine is the best hope we dealers have of saving what we have worked
to create all these years. I have been in the retail business of selling cars
for fifty years-thirty of those as an Oldsmobile dealer and twenty with Buick,
all with GM.
I am past chairman of my state ADA and my final speech in 1989 said, "Mr. Manufacturer, you build the car, you advertise what you build and let us sell the car." That's the way it has always been and that is the only way the retail car business will ever work.
Keep up the good work!
Lew Coleman, President
Coleman Automotive GroupTrenton, NJ
Mike:
I read your Dealer Undercover interview on VOMS in the April 2000 issue. I
am the inventory manager at my Chevrolet store and your article was pure bull's-eye.
I experience the exact same problems and feel the same way as the dealer and
inventory manager you interviewed. This system is a mistake!
Name withheld upon request
Dear Mike,
April's Dealer Undercover article was interesting as yet another dealer weighs
in on the more obvious problems associated with VOMS. Unfortunately, the problems
that dealers are complaining about and that the factory is trying to address
are just the minor problems. The real problem with VOMS is also the reason
the factory is unlikely to abandon it in the near future.
In the old distribution system, dealers ordered the vehicles. So if, for example, you decided you could sell S-10 pickups with 6 cylinders you might order 20 or 25. But if GM could only produce five V-6 S-10's then you only got five. You could then decide if you wanted 4-cylinders or if you should promote some other line. With VOMS you consent to 20 or 25 S-10s but GM orders the trucks. Your job is to try to change the orders the way you would like them. So when you only get five with the V-6 engine, you're stuck with 15 or 20 4-cylinders whether you can use them or not.
