This just highlights the biggest problem that automakers have.... dealers!!!
How can the automaker spend billions developing certain products, plan to introduce them into the marketplace at a price that the market will bear (they spend millions just arriving at a proper price!) and then turn it over to greazy Larry to try to sell the thing???? They have teams of marketing people, who know how many people in the country are between the age of 45 and 49, and owned a Camaro as a teenager, among every other factoid... and how many of them will be interested in their new car.
The automakers commit plants, thousands of workers, billions of dollars, and their whole future on these plans. Why can't they get control of their dealers!!!!!!!!!!?????
Sorry to overuse the exclamation points, but this is absolutely moronic.
GM *should* be able to say, here they are, $23,000 a pop. Come get 'em, any color you want. And, then, and only then, would the streets be full of them.
The reality is, that dealers will sell whatever makes "THEM" the most money. (Usually trucks.) GM shouldn't have closed only 1000 dealers. They should close them all. Then switch to a fixed price model, where a customer walks in and buys WHATEVER THEY WANT at a fixed price.