Besides 1 Cadillac CTS smaller lease ad, a small Hummer ad, and a sliver of a dealer saying they'll sell any 05 over $150 over invoice, there are no other new GM products being advertised in this weekends edition of the Autos/Drivetime in the Portland, OR newspaper (the Oregonian). In comparison; honda = 7 (not inc. acura) toyota = 7 (not inc. lexus) Mazda = 4 Subaru = 5 VW = 4 (not inc. Audi) nissan = 6 (not inc. infiniti) Chrysler = 15 (not inc. Mitsu & Mercedes) Ford = 8 Note to GM; If you want to sell cars you need to advertise. You will continue to loose market share if you don't tell people about your great products, and not about the latest sale. I've noticed over the last few years that the GM dealers in the Portland area do very little advertising. They are so sad on product pushing that one of our local dealers is a Subaru / Chevy Dealer, and the Subaru side out sells the Chevy side. What a sad state of affairs for GM and it's dealers.

Edited October 2, 200519 yr by Dsuupr

That's totally unacceptable. And GM wonders why it can't get a gain in market share out west, maybe it's because it doesn't even TRY.

I don't know about their current system, but in the past GM has allocated a huge portion of its advertising budget to subsidizing advertisements chosen and composed by irresponsible dealerships who use outdated, overly pushy production and focus entirely on the "great deal" and not at all on the car. By and large, the subjects of the ad are the dealership and its sales people rather than its products. GM is/was overly myopic this way: it suspends all other programs to rush trucks out just as fuel prices start to rise, it uses cheaper parts and extremely old platforms in order to save on R&D but then is rapidly left with stale product that can't make a significant dent in market share.

Perhaps it's just a brief lull after the major push for the ending of employee pricing on Friday. It was probably a pretty quiet weekend for GM dealers with most prospective buyers doing business earlier in the week. Maybe there's a major new campaign set to debut tomorrow?

Perhaps it's just a brief lull after the major push for the ending of employee pricing on Friday.  It was probably a pretty quiet weekend for GM dealers with most prospective buyers doing business earlier in the week.  Maybe there's a major new campaign set to debut tomorrow?

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Yeah . . . uh see . . . that's the problem. GM never does much for advertising here in the NW as compared to honda or toyota.

GM marketing sucks period. (Although they have improved MARGINALLY as of late)