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April, 2015

Page 24

The Jimmy Corner Jim Luikens Hudsonville, Michigan

Welcome to The Jimmy Corner.Some of you long-time enthusi-asts might remember that

GMCs were affectionately called Jimmysin the earlier days. GMC has been manu-facturing trucks since 1902 and they haveamassed a lot of great history in their first113 years. Each month I’m going to takea look at all that is happening in the worldof GMC vehicles, both classic and con-temporary.

In that 113-year history of GMC youwould have to look long and hard to finda year that has gotten off to a better startthan 2015 for the truck people fromGeneral Motors. February, 2015 was thebest sales month in nearly a decade and ahalf for GMC. They have been workinghard to recast themselves as a manufac-turer of quality, fuel-efficient trucks andcrossovers and GMC’s message seems tobe gaining traction.

“Our new SUVs and crossovers, com-bined with our three-pickup strategy, aredovetailing perfectly with the growing U.S.economy and a stronger job market,” saidGM’s Kurt McNeil.

The Chevrolet Colorado is the indus-try’s fastest-selling pickup, regardless ofbrand,” he added. “And when you add theGMC! Sierra and GMC Canyon to themix, GM’s year-over-year pickup deliver-ies increased 37!percent in February, 2015.That follows January, 2015’s 42! percentincrease and December, 2014’s 43 percentincrease.”

Here are some specific GMC high-lights. The Yukon and Yukon XL were up43 percent and 85 percent, respectively.The GMC Sierra, which has the highestaverage transaction prices of any pickup

line in the industry, was up 6 percent.GMC dealers also delivered more than2,500 Canyons, AutoWeek magazine’s“Best of the Best/Truck Award Winner”for 2015, in February.! It was the vehicle’sbest-ever February sales. The Acadia wasup 4 percent and Terrain was up 17 per-cent for their best-ever Februarys as well.Finally, the Denali series sub-brand mod-els were 21 percent of all GMC vehiclesales, up from 18 percent.

But it wasn’t just the new truck salesthat were garnering headlines. For the firsttime ever, GMC; along with its sister divi-sions Chevrolet, Buick, and Cadillac; allranked in the top 10 among brands in the2015 JD Power Vehicle DependabilityStudy. The 2015 study tracks 2012 modelyear vehicles in their third year of owner-ship.

For many customers dependability is atop purchase consideration. The GMCSierra LD and the Chevrolet Silverado LDranked first and second in the Large, LightDuty Pickup segment while the ChevroletSilverado HD and GMC Sierra HDreversed the standings to rank first andsecond in the Large, Heavy Duty Pickupsegment.!

GMC Yukon, along with Chevrolet’sTahoe and Suburban all ranked in the Top3 of the Large SUV segment. Those mod-els also filled the Top 3 positions in theLarge SUV segment in the 2014 JD PowerInitial Quality Study, where the 2014Chevrolet Suburban and 2014 GMCYukon ranked highest in a tie. Not onlyare older GMCs holding up well but the2014 scores indicate that they shouldscore well for some time to come.

To keep the sales momentum rollingGMC recently introduced a new advertis-ing campaign: Precision, to promote thebrand’s attention to detail. Precision canbe the difference between winning andlosing or what separates ordinary from acut above.

The entire GMC product line is fea-tured in a campaign for the first time sincethe 2000 launch of tagline “GMC: We AreProfessional Grade.” The new ads repre-sent a broader, contemporary interpreta-tion of the longstanding GMC core val-ues.

“For discerning GMC customers,Professional Grade has evolved to meanexacting attention to detail and fine crafts-manship in everything they do and pur-chase,” said GM’s Duncan Aldred.

“Fastball,” the first of three TV adsdeveloped by GMC, began airing nation-ally on March 2. The ad’s underlyingtheme is that the same precision andattention to detail applied by pro athletesand accomplished professionals translateto GMC engineers and designers.Ultimately, customers who demand supe-rior execution in the products they pur-chase look for the same level of precisionand craftsmanship.

All three “Precision” ads open with aninstrumental portion of The Who’s“Eminence Front,” chosen for its confi-dent tone and technical, precise musicalexecution.

That’s it for now. I’ll be back nextmonth to talk about more Jimmys. If youown one that you would like to see con-sidered for inclusion in this column dropme a line at jim@risesales.com. SSSS

The 2015 GMC Canyon gives GMC one of the only three-truck lineups in theindustry.