105 Years Old and Still Relevant – 5 Lessons Chevy Has Learned Along the Way
Despite the title of this article, Chevrolet is now going on 110 years as a company. First founded in 1911 by Louis Chevrolet and William C. Durant, the Chevrolet Motor Company was actually Durant’s second big effort in the auto industry. He was the founder of General Motors but was pushed out of that company – he used the early success of Chevrolet to acquire control of GM and reclaimed his position as President of the company quickly thereafter. You could say that Chevy was created out of spite – a way for one man to get enough power and market share to retake the company he had started.
That’s kind of a weird thing, but honestly, that’s far from the strangest way a major company has started in this country, and the continuance of Chevy dealers across the nation proves its success. The point of that story is this: Chevy was founded on a desire to prove itself since Durant needed to prove that he understood how to succeed in the auto industry. His efforts were far from in vain, and his success was legendary; not only did he build Chevy up, but he turned GM into a monolith, one of the Big Three in the American auto industry. In the century that has followed, there has been no shortage of additional lessons that Chevy has learned and utilized to remain at the top of the industry.
“What kind of lessons?” you no-doubt ask. Well, let’s take a look at a few of them and see how the decisions that Chevy has made time and again have made them an industry leader.
Lesson One – Always Go With the Flow
Sometimes, success comes from a brilliant moment of innovation, and a new idea that you know will absolutely take the world by storm. Other times, however, success is more about realizing that something you thought was just a passing fancy or an interesting concept is much more than that. Chevy has had a knack for understanding when something they hadn’t thought too much of is actually a far bigger deal than they realized and responding appropriately.
Case in point: the legendary Chevy Corvette. Today, it’s ridiculous to think of the Corvette as anything but one of the most powerful and influential sports cars in the world. Some 70 years ago, however, that wasn’t the case. The Corvette originally came about because Chevy’s engineers and designers wanted to have something new and different to show off at the 1953 New York Auto Show – not a new production vehicle, just something to catch some attention and maybe make a few headlines.
This desire to make a splash resulted in them designing the first Corvette as an interesting concept that would get a little attention. The result, however, was massive interest and incredibly positive feedback from the press and from customers – so much so that they realized they had a good thing at their fingertips. In that moment, Chevy’s leaders decided to go with the flow of positive buzz and make the Corvette a reality – much more than an interesting concept, a new model that would take the country, and the world, by storm. Today, more than 1.5 million Corvettes have been sold, and the latest generation has taken innovation even further with a mid-engine design that shows Chevy continues to listen to customer interest.
Lesson Two – If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try Again
While the Corvette could be held up as the model of succeeding when you’re not even trying, things don’t always come so easily for Chevy. And that’s okay – failure is a part of life, for people, and for major car companies. Lesser companies might see failure as a sign that things have fallen apart or refuse to recognize problems and plow ahead toward catastrophe rather than learning from their mistakes. But not Chevrolet.
Take the Chevy Colorado, for instance. The midsize Colorado was introduced in 2004 to replace the S-10 pickup, and Chevy expected it to be a huge success. Things didn’t go exactly as they had hoped, however, and the Colorado was discontinued following the 2012 model year. Rather than simply decide it had been an abject failure, Chevy’s designers considered where the Colorado had succeeded and where it had come up short. A couple of years later, they released an all-new Colorado for the 2015 model year, and sales surged to nearly three times what they’d been in the late 2000s. Just like William Durant, Chevy continues to refuse to give up, and instead, they always find new ways to prove themselves.
Lesson Three – Stay on Top of Trends
Sometimes, new ideas are the key to success; other times, you need to see what’s going on and figure out the best way to stay on top of things. Understanding the auto industry has always been one of Chevy’s greatest strengths, and this continues as they watch for trends and endeavor to stay on top of them. You can see this with particular clarity when it comes to the kind of technology now found in most vehicles.
For example, Chevrolet was one of the first manufacturers to introduce 4G LTE Wi-Fi connectivity in a wide range of their vehicles, starting with the Malibu in 2014. Prior to this move, car companies typically offered something like Wi-Fi, primarily on high-end and luxury models. But Chevy recognized that connectivity and tech were features that every driver could enjoy, so they delivered on improved technology across their lineup.
Lesson Four – Safety First
Some of the lessons that Chevy has learned are essential but also pretty general – the kinds of things that major companies in a wide range of industries should understand. But other lessons have been much more specific to the auto industry: first among them is the absolute importance of safety when it comes to their vehicles. This is something we believe in very strongly here at McCluskey Chevrolet, and it’s one of the main reasons we’re so proud to offer the Chevy lineup. A vehicle is absolutely worthless, no matter how much fun it is to drive or how luxurious the interior might be, if it can’t help keep you safe.
Chevy understands this, and you can see it throughout their full lineup of vehicles, from the powerful Corvette and Camaro to the Silverado and across all of their crossover and SUV models. Every year, Chevy scores high in tests from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, the leaders in safety testing for the auto industry. And every year, Chevy’s engineers push themselves to go further, to add more features, and make their vehicles safer.
This is clear in the impressive technology that they offer in their vehicles to help make them safer. Every manufacturer has features like forward collision alerts, side blind zone alerts, and a rear cross-traffic alert. With innovations like Chevy’s Teen Driver system, you can see them going even further. The Teen Driver system sets limits on things like music volume, sounds an alert when the driver goes too fast and even prevents the vehicle from being put into gear if seatbelts aren’t being worn. This not only helps keep young drivers safe but helps build safe habits and behaviors that can last a lifetime.
Lesson Five – A Quality-Made Car Is a Must
In the auto industry, it’s easy to get lost in the flashy features: pulse-racing acceleration, mountain-moving towing capacity, and grandiose, spacious interiors that can comfortably fit a full offensive line. However, there’s something more that Chevy finds just as important: quality and reliability. This is why Chevy’s designers, engineers, and leaders push to ensure their vehicles will last for years and will retain as much value as possible.
As a dealership, this is something we’re deeply connected to; we understand that a new car is a major purchase for our customers, and you want it to be worth what you spend. Over the years, Chevy has earned more Initial Quality and Dependability awards from J.D. Power and Associates than any other car manufacturer out there. Chevrolet has learned and really understands that their customers want to buy a vehicle that is of the highest quality possible. This is something we see year after year, which is why we can hold our heads high as a Chevy deal and why so many of our customers keep coming back to us over the decades.
