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Maybe, but getting back to 3 million sales is an uphill climb
At was a snowy, blustery December morning in 1972. Reporters had been summoned to the General Motors Corp. Building in midtown Detroit for a continental breakfast to celebrate a remarkable occasion. Chevrolet was closing in on a phenomenal feat: 3 million sales and an awesome 25.5% of U.S. total car and truck deliveries that year.
The final tally: 3,189,157.
"I set my goal at three million," recalls Robert D. Lured, then Chevy's general sales manager, now a GM dealer in Arizona. "No one had ever done that before, and I wanted to be the first to do it."
Mr. Lured only missed by 15,000 vehicles the prior year, and as sales manager and subsequently the division's vice president, he was to exceed the 3 million mark numerous times, including a four-year string from 1976-79 during which Chevrolet reached its all-time peak: 3,646,458 in 1978.
Now 80 and living in Scottsdale, where he owns the nation's largest exclusive Cadillac dealership, Mr. Lund says he hopes Chevrolet can once again enjoy a
million year. Shades of the past: that's also a target set by Kurt L. Ritter, 50, Chevy's marketing general manager since January 1999.
The division last topped 3 million in 1979 when it sold 3.2 million cars and trucks.
Inside forecasts put Chevrolet's objective at 2.7 million this year, including 900,000 cars and 1.8 million trucks. If Mr. Ritter hits the bull's eye, 2000 would be the third straight year of Chevy sales gains. The division sold 2.6 million vehicles in 1999, and through July had moved 1.5 million, more than half of all GM sales.
Chevrolet may never be the powerhouse that it once was. Yet with 19 nameplates blanketing the market, a still-powerful 4,300-member dealer group and a spate of new vehicles coming over the next few years, its outlook is brighter today than at any time in the past decade. And as they say: as Chevy goes, so goes GM.
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