Quote:
Originally Posted by K-A
I dunno, perhaps you're right, especially in regards to the selling it at a premium thing. Those different front ends, lights, badging, steering wheels with different Logo's, etc. might seem cheap, but when produced in mass quantities will cost major $$. I didn't factor in the fact that they do sell GMC's at a premium, so perhaps it ends up working in their favor. I'd be curious to know how the numbers really look on their end....
As well, don't forget, just keeping the GMC name running, promo'ing it, adverts, GMC specific Dealers, etc. all cost money too.
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The costs are actually somewhat opposite to what you think. The higher the volume, the less it costs GM per unit. Designing new sheet metal is a fixed cost, it doesn't matter if you sell 1 or 100,000 it will cost the same to design it. So if it costs GM 10 million dollars (complete guess) to develop it and get the extra tooling, that money is down to $100/truck. Labour costs to assemble it are the same. Better materials (for trim and grills) will cost a bit more, but that's a per unit cost so all that matters is GM's cost vs percieved value. So as long as its worth more to the customer than it costs GM to include it, they make money off it.