If you want a Chevrolet logo on a Manchester United shirt, be quick, because it might be game over.
UK Chevrolet dealers have known it for some time, but it needed a strong man in the UK to tell GM that one of the top four brands in the world, selling five million cars a year, cannot hack it here.
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For two years there have been talks with the dealers about ways of sustaining the business so it will come as little surprise to them. And there is little rush because Manchester United is a global brand and reaches round the world. UK dealers who want to close early will be allowed to do so but they will be reminded of the opportunity to run Adam as a budget brand through Opel and Vauxhall rather than taking on rivals such as Hyundai and Kia.
Sixty per cent of the Chevy network, at one time mostly badged Daewoo, is dualled with Vauxhall and there is a determination to retain all of them. Indeed the American GM presence will be strengthened with greater emphasis than hitherto on the three Cs – Cadillac, Corvette and Camaro. Another cycle of models is needed before all those brands have cars suitable for the UK, but they are coming and they are claimed – rather ambitiously – to rival the classiness of BMW.
That will be a big step up. The 2011 JD Power quality survey ranked Chevy as 27th out of 27 brands in the UK.
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