Automotive News - September 15, 2008 - (Page 88)

General Motors Story 31 /100 The running battle: Chevy vs. Ford, for the sales title John K. Teahen Jr. e’ve written this story before, but like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales, it’s worth another go-round. It’s the story of the auto industry’s Great Race, the annual struggle between Chevrolet and Ford for sales supremacy. (Today there’s a third participant. Toyota outsold Ford last year. But so far the Japanese brand hasn’t led the pack, so this account will be limited to Ford and Chevy.) All in all, it has been a friendly rivalry. The contestants don’t hate each other as Duke hates North Carolina or Ohio State hates Michigan, but that hasn’t lessened the competition. It began in 1912, Chevy’s maiden year on the market, and it was hardly a race. The score: Ford, 89,455; Chevrolet, 2,999. Ford won by ever greater margins as the years passed. But in 1924, Chevrolet named a new leader, William S. Knudsen, a former Ford executive. Ford outsold Chevy 5-to-1 that year, and Knudsen didn’t like it. © GM Corp. W Sales race: Chevy vs. Ford Annual light-vehicles sales winners 1912-2007 1912-26 1927-28 1929-30 1931-34 1935 1936-41 1942-45 1946-56 1957 1958 1959 1960-69 1970 1971-86 1987-04 2005 2006 2007 Chevrolet Ford Winner Ford Chevrolet Ford Chevrolet Ford Chevrolet World War II Chevrolet Ford Chevrolet Ford Chevrolet Ford Chevrolet Ford Chevrolet Ford Chevrolet 52 wins 40 wins Then, as now, a steady stream of car haulers kept Chevy dealers supplied to compete in the annual battle against Ford. The Chevrolet brand won its first sales title in 1927. 44 wins in 47 years It took Chevy until 1927 to catch Ford, and even then the results were marked with an asterisk — just like Roger Maris’ 61 home runs — because Ford was out of business for most of 1927 for changeover from the Model T to the Model A. Then came eight pingpong years, the lead flipped back and forth — Chevy in 1928, Ford in 1929 and 1930, Chevy again in 1931-34 and Ford in 1935. In 1936, Chevrolet began a remarkable streak. From that year through 1986 (omitting World War II, when auto sales ground to a halt), it outsold Ford 44 times in 47 years. Ford’s only victories were in 1957, 1959 and 1970. In 1970, a UAW strike shut GM for 70 days. In 1959, it was a steel strike. GM closed down, but Ford kept building because it produced much of its own steel. In 1957, Ford had a brand-new car, and Chevy had a third-year face-lift. But the 1957 Chevrolet has become a classic. The 1957 Ford, if any are still on the road, is just a 51-year-old automobile. Memorable battles There were some memorable battles along the way. Chevy won the car race by only 2,107 sales in 1937 and by 4,378 in 1934. In those days, when you talked about sales leadership, you were talking about cars. Trucks simply were not mentioned. The race that auto veterans remember best is the 1954 car sales war. Going into the final days of the year, it was too close to call. There were tall tales, never proved, that factory field reps delivered lists of engine numbers to their dealers and told them: Register these now as sales. We’ll send you the cars later. Automotive News has questioned some 1954 field reps who rose to higher jobs at their divisions. Did it happen or didn’t it? Every executive drew himself up to his full height, placed his right hand over his heart and swore that his company would never, never resort to such tactics. In those days, the factories did not issue sales reports, so there was no 1954 winner until R.L. Polk & Co. anointed one in February 1955. The result: Chevrolet, 1,417,453 cars; Ford, 1,400,440. Chevy won by 17,013 in a year that brought sales of more than 2.8 million Chevrolet and Ford cars. The tide turned completely after 1986. Ford surged to the forefront in 1987 and stayed there for 18 years, through 2004. Chevy was on top in 2005, Ford in 2006 and Chevy again in 2007. Source: Automotive News Data Center and company sources A disclaimer At least one highly placed auto executive thinks that being No. 1 in sales does not carry as much weight with potential buyers as it once did. John Smith, GM group vice president for global product planning, told Automotive News: “I don’t think it matters, in and of itself. Most people are not like us, you know, who eat, drink and breathe the car business day in and day out.” He added: “Having the best vehicle in the field as seen by third parties” is important to get your vehicle on a customer’s short list. The Great Race has been run 92 times since 1912. Chevrolet has won 52 times, Ford 40, with the World War II years declared “no contest.” For 2008, the polls are still open at 3,976 Chevrolet and 3,602 Ford dealerships in the United States. Ballots will be counted until the close of business on Dec. 31. ick Grant didn’t coin the term “super salesman,” but he certainly epitomized it. Grant was an early sales giant who helped build General Motors into a colossus. He’s the corporate forefather of super sellers such as Bob Lund at Chevrolet and Cadillac, Bill Holler at Chevy, Jim Roche at Cadillac (he became CEO of GM) and Rocket Jones at Oldsmobile. And don’t overlook Billy Durant, who started it all. Durant sold a lot of Buicks in his day — but his biggest selling job was persuading Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Oakland (now Pontiac) and Rapid Motor Vehicle Co. (today’s GMC) and countless suppliers to cast their lots with a new manufacturing giant he called General Motors. Dick Grant was a Harvard man who decided on a career in sales after graduating in 1901. Rather unusual. Harvard men often joined the family business — law, banking, Wall Street, whatever. For Grant, though, there was no such business. A few years after graduation, he wound up at National Cash Register Co. in Dayton, Ohio, and within nine years was general sales manager. In 1915, E.A. Deeds and Charles Kettering tapped him for Delco Light, a venture that supplied lighting for farms. Delco Light became part of GM in 1920. The man was 42 years old, and he had never sold an automobile. In 1924, GM named him vice president and general sales manager of Chevrolet, and the real Dick Grant emerged. His sales promotions were legion and legendary. Perhaps the most famous were his steak and beans dinners. Dealers were urged to sponsor a dinner for their sales staffs each month. Salespeople who made their quotas ate steak; those who didn’t dined on beans. Also in 1924, Chevy got a new president and general manager, William S. Knudsen. Knudsen came from Ford and was not at all happy that Ford was outselling Chevrolet by a wide margin. Early on, Knudsen and Grant attended a dealer meeting in Chicago, and Grant told his boss that he should say a few words. Knudsen wasn’t too keen about it, but he agreed and got caught up in the excitement and enthusiasm that a Dick Grant sales meeting always engendered. When his turn came, an exuberant Knudsen raised his arms with index fingers extended and shouted, “I want one for one,” meaning parity with Ford. But in Knudsen’s thick Danish accent, the message came out, “Ay vant vun for vun.” At first there was puzzlement. Then the crowd understood, and there was pandemonium. Dealers were stomping and yelling, “Vun for vun.” It became Chevrolet’s battle cry. It took Chevy and Grant until 1927 to outsell Ford, and that was because Ford plants were Dick Grant, flanked by GM exec Ormond Hunt, left, and future CEO Charles Wilson in 1936 down for much of the year for changeover from Henry’s Model T to Edsel’s Model A. Chevy won again in 1928, Ford won in 1929-30, and Chevy came out on top in 1931-34. Ford won in 1935 — and after that it was Chevy’s ballgame for half a century. Grant’s success at Chevrolet earned him a GM vice presidency in 1929. He was placed in charge of all the corporation’s sales operations. He later was elected a GM director and sat on the board until 1953. He died in 1957 at age 79. — John K. Teahen Jr. Dick Grant 1901: Graduated from Harvard 1915: Joined Delco Light 1924: Named vice president and general manager of Chevrolet 1927: First year Chevy outsold Ford 1929: Became a GM vice president 1957: Died at 79 September 15, 2008 AUTOMOTIVE NEWS © GM Corp. Dick Grant helped early GM set sail in sales

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