“Is it true that GM is pulling out of South Korean markets? Is it really okay to purchase GM’s car right now?
As rumors about GM Korea pulling out of South Korean markets continue, salespeople are also having difficulties in selling cars. Despite GM Korea saying that it is not pulling out of South Korean markets, consumers are feeling more uneasiness about GM Korea pulling out.
“As media continues to report that GM Korea may pull out of South Korean markets, many customers ask if this report is true.” said a section chief who works at an authorized Chevrolet retail store. “Although we tell them that this report is absolutely not true, I feel that number of customers who visit GM Korea’s showrooms is clearly reduced.”
This section chief was a well-known sales king as he sold about 30 cars on average per month. However ever since second half of this year when a rumor about GM Korea pulling out has been repeatedly brought up, his performance worsened from 30 cars to 15 cars.
“Except for certain models such as SPARK, Malibu, and TRAX, number of inquiries from customers is greatly reduced.” said the same section chief. “Although level of popularity increased recently for SUVs, fact that GM’s lineup of SUVs is weaker than its competitors is definitely a weak point of our business.”
Although GM Korea recognizes this situation, it has yet to put out any brilliant solutions. Its position is to have more communications with salespeople.

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<Panoramic picture of GM Korea’s showroom of Chevrolet >

“Although we understand that certain retail stores spoke candidly about their difficulties due to a rumor, we have not put out any official solutions yet.” said a representative for GM Korea. “Employees from GM Korea’s headquarters’ business support sector are directly meeting with representatives from retail stores and are working to interact and communicate more with them.”
Reason why there continues to be rumors about a possibility of GM Korea pulling out of South Korean markets is because operation rates of its plants continue to fall due to lack of sales. Actually operation rate of its plant in Gunsan that produces ORLANDO and CRUZE dropped up to 20%. People who are employed at this plant are currently going to work only once or twice a week.
Operation rates of GM Korea’s plants are currently at 20% for Gunsan plant, 30% for Bupyeong engine plant, 60% for Bupyeong plant 2, and 70% for Changwon plant. Lack of sales in South Korea on top of aftereffect of global GM pulling out of European markets in 2016 are fueling decline in amount of products. GM Korea only sold about 102,504 cars from January to September which is about 19.9% reduction compared to same period of last year.
GM Korea is planning to dismiss any rumors by releasing a new model by end of this year and turn around its current status. “We expect that some of operation rate of our plant in Gunsan will be recovered when ALL NEW CRUZE Diesel comes out early next month.” said a representative for GM Korea. “We are going to do our best to prepare for ALL NEW CRUZE Diesel release.”
Staff Reporter Jung, Chiyeon | chiyeon@etnews.com