South Africa Edition 2

THE MARKET
The Chevrolet legend lives on. For over a century,
the brand has been making driver’s dreams come
true. From ‘muscle’ cars to modern suburban
commuter vehicles, the brand has offered
reliability, quality and value for money ever since
its inception in 1911.
The Chevrolet portfolio offers the right
value for its customers, clearly reflected in the
brand’s continued sales growth across the globe.
In 2007, Chevrolet again achieved great sales
performance, breaking record after record. Brand
volume in the January-June period was at an alltime
record of 217,679 units, up over 30 percent
from the first half of 2006, and market share grew
0.45 points, to 1.85 percent. June 2007 was the
50th consecutive record month for Chevrolet.
From the zippy Spark to the robust and family
friendly Captiva, more and more South Africans
are discovering the true secret of a Chevrolet: It’s
an attitude as much as it is a dependable vehicle.
Chevrolet is the “people’s” car for all South
Africans. From the country’s most affordable
passenger car - the Chevrolet Spark - to the Aveo
hatch and sedan, from the larger Optra, right up
to the Lumina sedan and Ute, Chevrolet has a
vehicle to meet the needs of the entire motoring
public.
Chevrolet prides itself on the key brand image
pillars of practical motoring, value for money
including initial purchase price and ongoing
overall cost of ownership - and quality. With the
introduction of the new Lumina and the Captiva,
Chevrolet is extending the brand pillars to include
more fun and excitement, on and off-road.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Testament to Chevrolet’s durability, the brand
dominated the 2007 Peking to Paris Motor
Challenge. All eleven Chevrolets that left Beijing
on 27 May arrived in Paris on the weekend of 2
June, making Chevrolet the winning brand of the
race.
Of the 135 historic vehicles
that participated in
this year’s
Motor Challenge, 125 arrived on Place Vendôme.
The three Chevrolets that took the three lead
positions in the vintage category early on arrived
in Paris in first, second and fourth position. The
Chevrolets clearly demonstrated their robust
construction, particularly on gravel roads.
The brand’s global sales results in the second
quarter of 2007 again confirmed Chevrolet’s
growth potential. Sales volume reached 115,199
units and market share grew to an all-time record
1.9 percent.
In the first half of 2007, Chevrolet sold
128,637 units in Central and Eastern Europe, an
increase of 61 percent compared to the first six
months in 2006. Chevrolet more than doubled
sales in Romania (up 122 percent to 6,115 units)
and Bulgaria is up 82 percent to 1,290 units. Sales
in Russia, the largest Chevrolet market in Europe,
grew again to 84,467, an impressive 89 percent
increase compared to the same period a year ago.
In Ukraine, Chevrolet recorded an increase of 37
percent, with sales rising to 20,782 units.
A total of 89,042 Chevrolet units were sold
in Western Europe in the first half of 2007, an
increase of 11.1 percent over the same period
a year ago. Strongest growth was recorded in
Switzerland (up 40 percent to 1,820 units), the
UK (up 29 percent to 9,156 units) and France (17
percent to 4,475 units). Italy remains the largest
Western European market with 23,676 units,
followed by Spain, with 15,312 units sold and
Germany with 12,055 units sold in the first six
months of 2007.
In a Chevrolet first, the 2007 World Touring
Car Championship in Sweden saw Chevrolet
drive to victory in both races of the seventh
event.
HISTORY
Chevrolet was co-founded by Louis Chevrolet and
William C. Durant. Chevrolet was a Swiss racing
driver. As head of the Buick Motor Company
before founding General Motors, Durant had hired
Chevrolet to drive Buicks in promotional
races. Durant planned to use
Chevrolet’s designs to
rebuild his
own reputation as a force in the motor vehicle
industry.
On 3 November 1911, Chevrolet entered
the automobile market in competition with the
Ford Model T. A year later, the “Classic Six”
was introduced: A five-passenger touring sedan
equipped with a six-cylinder engine that gave
the car a top speed of 104 km/h. Now the scene
was set for Chevrolet vehicles to appeal to the
commercial market.
By 1916 Chevrolet was profitable enough
to allow Durant to buy majority shares in GM.
Durant became president of General Motors, and
Chevrolet was merged into GM, running as a
separate division.
In 1926, General Motors South Africa was
importing and selling a wide range of vehicles,
including GMC Trucks, Chevrolet, Oakland,
Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Vauxhall. The
Kempston Road assembly plant in Port Elizabeth
was converted into a manufacturing facility in
1948. The “fishtailed” Cadillac and the Pontiac
“Chieftain” models were first produced at this
plant.
Chevrolet was General Motor’s main brand
name in South Africa until 1982, with Vauxhall
Motors and Holden derivatives built under the
Chevrolet name from 1964.
In the 1960s, the advertising jingle “Braaivleis,
rugby, sunny skies and Chevrolet” epitomised the
ideal lifestyle of white male South Africans.
Originally, the local factory assembled
American Chevrolets kits at the plant in Port
Elizabeth. But government support for local
manufacture and the need to produce righthand
drive vehicles made local manufacture
more practical. Chevrolets such as the Biscayne
were eventually manufactured entirely in South
Africa.
By the 1970s, South African Chevrolets
like the Kommando and Constantia were
based on Australian Holden models like the
Kingswood, while the Firenza was based on the