Apples vs Oranges.
Chevy is not Apple.
Dodge / Ford is not Samsung.
Apple's model is not built on budget items, their model is based on top tier pricing.
Samsung's model is all over the place, from budget to still a budget compared to Apple.
Yes, Apple's revenue leads the pack (62% to 90% profit) vs Samsung (16% to 18%).
But GM is not seeing profits like that from Camaro anymore than Ford is seeing from Mustang.
This is a numbers of units game at this level of vehicle (this is not a Lamborghini or Ferrari).
The 4th generation Camaro was cancelled, due to low sales.
While there are press releases directly from GM on this, here is a quote from CNN
"Chevy, a unit of General Motors, decided almost a year ago to discontinue the model due to a drop in demand in the sports car market, where sales have fallen 53 percent from 1990 to 2000."
(all you have to do is google "GM to Discontinue Camaro, Firebird")
GM went into bankruptcy for not being able to turn a profit on its cars, thanks to the strong unions.
GM was tied with Toyota for global sales as late as 2007 (prior to that GM was #1 for years).
By the time of their bankruptcy, they were operating at or close to even.
In 2006, they attempted to cut fixed costs in NA, by spending $6.8 BILLION to buyout 35,000 hourly employees (~$200K per).
Think about that, $6.8 Billion to receive nothing in return from it, other than not having to pay out wages / benefits going forward.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChevyRules
Profits is what matters to automakers. If you can make $5 billion selling 60,000 a year instead of $3 billion at 100,000 a year, you would be very happy with that. Apple is a prime example of this. Samsung consistently handily outsells Apple in smartphones, but Apple owns everyone on the money they make with the iPhone. In fact they own 79% of the profits in the smartphone market with only 15% marketshare. Only GM of course knows the profit margins and how much money they are making off the Camaro, but volume isn't everything. GM's bankruptcy is to show what happens when volume is put above all else.
F-Body was cancelled because it could not meet crash test regs that were going into effect in 2003 and it was not worth the investment to redesign the platform or move the twins to a different platform such as Sigma. From what I gather, Sigma was never really an option for Camaro.
Automakers won't continue to make what doesn't generate a profit.
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