so many similar overlapping models

Why does GM, Ford, Chrysler, Deere etc. Offer so many similar overlapping models?
Is it each division" vice president " building an empire" for themselves?
Has anybody counted just how many models each manufacture and their subsidiaries carry.

Not only overlapping, duplicate models, but also the sales/marketing game the big-3 play with options. It would fill 20 pages to understand the options/packages/deals availabel on their cars. For the Honda models you could write ALL the options/packages down on a 3 by 5 card and make your choice in 5 minutes. The big-3 gouge the consumer by over-pricing options/packages/syles/paint jobs/acessaries, etc. This is what happens when you are over-bloated with over-paid "managers" particularly in the sales/marketing/advertising groups.
Why didn't the big-3 ever stop and wonder why the Japanese managed USA built companies did not set up in Detroit? Why did they run off to Tennessee, Carolina, Georgia, etc? To get away from the labor union disaster that the big-3 executives had tolerated for so long.
Tom

I have often wondered that too ? It has got to cost BIG $$$ to design,build,and keep parts supplies for all this stuff. Very little parts interchangeabilty between them also.

Toyota is going down this path. This may be a reason why they are starting to loose money too ?
I think they have no less then 8 SUV models. Maybe 7 ? I'd think 3 would still be plenty, Small,Med,Large.

John Deere's Lawn and Garden lineup is mind boggling ! I soon give up thinking about buying a "new" mower once I see all the choices and the climbing ladder of prices.

It is called market differentiation. Set yourself apart from the competition and walk away with market share.

Except it will eat your lunch and dinner if your competition has it too and you loose market share.

It is taught in MBA school; never went there myself.

I think, if the goverment would stay out of it, there is a great rectifier at work.

Part of "the plan" is to make Pontiac a specialty division, offering racy convertibles and pocket rockets. Saturn, which is now just a Chevrolet, will be going somewhere else--maybe away. SAAB and Hummer are on the chopping block, and probably GMC badges will disapear from pickups. I can remember the time when we had Chieftain, Star Chief, and Bonneville; and Biscayne, Bel Aire, and Impala--all the same car with different skin, armrests, and chrome pieces--but Pontiac engines and Chevrolet engines. At one time there were about fifty different configuratons for parts such as power steering pumps, window crank mechanisms, carburators, brakes, alternators, etc.just to fit inside each division's own 'special' design.

Under the old "Alfred E. Slone" concept, yes, each division--and each individual plant--was configured as a 'profit center", so the vice presidents all competed against each other. It has been just recently(on the GM time clock, at least) that GM has converted to the concept of Activity Based Costing--which allocates all of a plant's resources and costs down to the part unit level--including the labor costs, benefits, medical, taxes, salaries, utilities, materials,everything to the penny, on a budgetary basis. This has sorted out some of the BS from the days of old--and that's why you see many plants shutting their doors. (It should be no secret that farmers have been using the ABC method, or some semblance of it for years to make go/no go decisions about specific crop or animal production)

Most of my experience with the GM elephant has been mostly from the tail end, rather than the trunk. It takes a pretty big cattle prod to keep it moving fast enough to outlast the current confidence crisis. Hopefully it will, as my retirement check is tied to GM' future well being. (And I have to move fast enough to keep out of the way of the elephant's you know what...)

But, because GM is, and has been, so huge, I will maintain that it simply mirrors the larger American experience, just by the statistics of the bell curve. Any sickness that you find in GM, I'm sure you will find it among us all. That is the larger issue in our current financial condition. I've seen great people in all the ranks of GM, from janitor to vice president--and scoundrels as well. Same as this board, or my home town, or yours........

Ask not for whom the prod buzzes...............

Well, in the case of GM, it goes all the way back to Billy Durand. He would buy companies and set them in direct competition with each other. This mentality persisted in GM well into the nineties.

It has a lot to do with brand loyalty. Remember when every GM division had their own 6 cyl,V8 300-350-400-450 engine with no parts interchange with other GM brands?
Remember the group of Oldsmobile owners that raised holy heck with GM because they substituted Chevrolet engines in a number of Oldsmobiles that one year ?

i think thats one of the reasons their in trouble,they offer too much duplication, it could be set up like the old days at gm, you start with a chevy,small cheap and fast,move up to a pontiac, get a little more plush, then up to olds get 4 doors,then up thru buick and onto a caddy for the best of all but that needs to be special like it once was, not just a rebadged chevy, it seems that would save them a ton of money

Yup!!Back to the 70's again when each one of the big three had way too many models. That problem is second to the UAW.

You are still listing too many cars ! That's some of what got them into trouble.

Call them a GM. Small,med, + large car Small + large pick-up and small,med, + large SUV this should cover the needs and wants of most all.
Then you have to make it reliable ! This is also where GM failed BIG TIME !

Farm equipment makers are headed down same road to more disaster soon too. Too many new models out each year with no one to buy them all.
2008 2009 new

Geo, that is the best post I have ever seen here. Are you a IE or manager?

The thing that gets me about them is the new models every few years. They would be alot better off if they went back to make'n major over hauls every 7 to 10 years. Do it like they used too. Change the grill, trim, or tailgates every few years to change the look of them but you know all the R and D to develop a whole new pick up every 2 years has got to eat up alot of cash. Leave most of the body and drive train alone!!! People who need trucks will always buy trucks and many would rather buy one that is just like the 5 year old one their brother has that has been a good'n!

Dave