Going to a dealership in person can be stressful for some consumers; particularly if you don’t like talking to people or feeling like you’re being pressured into buying things. At the same time, it’s a great way to learn more about a vehicle and get your questions answered by someone in the know. GM’s digital showroom program was the best of both worlds. It let people tour a car from the comfort of their own home and ask questions. Sadly, though, it appears that many of the company’s “Live” digital showrooms will be short-lived.
If you haven’t heard of the program, here’s the lowdown. GM bought a big old Target building in metro Detroit, and converted it into a specialist showroom. Product specialists trod the boards there, giving online tours of vehicles and answering questions from potential customers. If you’re interested in a GM vehicle but want to know more, you can schedule a one-on-one appointment with one of GM’s product specialists to see a car and get your queries answered. Alternatively, GM has also offered group tours at times as well. The experience was first trialed as Cadillac Live, and later expanded into Chevy Live, Buick Live, GMC Live, EV Live for the company’s electric vehicles.
The Live program has served as an interesting experiment in educating customers outside of the usual high-pressure sales environment of a privately-run dealership. According to Jamie (name changed), though, this experience sadly won’t be sticking around for much longer. “I will be personally impacted by the closure,” explained Jamie, who indicated they worked for GM or a partner directly involved in the program. “All staff and related vendors were made aware today.”
The program’s impending closure, apparently due to take place sometime in the new year, is reportedly due to budgetary concerns. It comes after GM has had some unexpected expenses, like losses due to the UAW strike action that ended in October. “We saw the program face some cuts earlier this year before the strike began, but at that time were told that GM was still committed to maintaining and leveraging the program,” says Jamie, adding “The only reason we have been given are ‘budget cuts’ and that the decision is not directly related to the performance of the program or individuals working on it.”
Jamie speaks highly of the Live initiative, and what it offered to potential customers. “I think it was a very unique and luxurious experience to have a real person speak with you about a vehicle in realtime and give you a one-on-one personal tour, rather than an AI chat bot.” Outside of GM’s initial intention, it also served those who had just bought a new vehicle as well. “It was also useful for new owners to help them learn the ins and outs of their vehicle–we saw a lot of that.” It was intended to be a one-stop shop for learning about anything in the GM range. “The studio has basically the whole GM lineup there, probably 40 vehicles tota– anything you can think of in terms of current and upcoming GM product for North America,” Jamie explains.
On Jamie’s recommendation, I scheduled myself a booking on Chevy Live to explore the Chevy Blazer. The session began with a greeting and a reminder that the camera feed is one-way; it seems during testing, GM found this was a very important point to drill home. My guide then showed me the car and asked if I had any questions in a really friendly, casual manner.
I spent about ten minutes asking about various features and specs of the Blazer. My guide for the tour showed me how the rear seats fold, and explained the cargo space available on the EV under the floor, versus the spare tire storage on the ICE-engined model. At all times, they seemed knowledgeable and were able to answer my questions about EV range and infotainment features. The guide gave me an earnest and honest explanation of the Blazer EV’s range, while highlighting that these figures do change depending on weather conditions. They noted that in Michigan’s severe cold, range could be slightly less. Some salespeople might try and hide these flaws, or diminish them, but my guide simply explained in a clear manner how the EV handles different conditions. All in all, it was a chill, casual chat with someone who seemed like a pretty cool person.
Overall, it was an earnest and easy experience that answered my questions about the car. With no sales pressure, I wasn’t getting hassled about my trade-in or questions like what I wanted to pay per month. I just got the information I was looking for about the vehicle, and could make any further decisions on my own terms. Right away, the value of this tool was apparent to me; I was just wondering why I’d never heard of it before this week.
The Live showrooms weren’t just restricted to the U.S., either. It first launched as a pilot program in Canada, and was later launched in Mexico as well. GM’s rivals have also explored the space, with Ford launching Lincoln Showcase to digitally bring customers closer to its own luxury brand.
The Live showrooms were established at a pivotal time for GM. After the Canadian pilot in 2019, GM hurried to open a U.S. version as the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic made visiting dealerships impractical for many. The GM brands would all eventually converge on the ex-Target store in Detroit, which became a massive complex of five studios to serve inquiries about Chevy, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and the company’s range of EVs.
“From an operational POV, I can imagine it became a large cost-center too soon before it became fully integrated into GM’s marketing ecosystem,” Jamie speculates. “I estimate that it employed about 120 to 150 full-time employees to run the thing.”
You might not have heard of Live before today; as an automotive journalist of some years of experience, I was unfamiliar myself. “Obviously, it was not marketed consistently enough outside of GM properties,” says Jamie. “I think the strategy was to service a slow-drip of customers to provide a better service to them… the average customer session time was over 12 minutes long.”
The service did get an advertisement on cable TV, way back in 2020, which was aired during broadcasts of Jimmy Kimmel Live and Saturday Night Live. Featuring Fred Armisen, it showed off the concept of Cadillac Live to familiarize people with the idea of one-on-one virtual tours.
Like GM’s current literature for the service, the advert is very eager to make potential users aware that the video aspect is one-way only. Those booking appointments can see the GM product specialist and the car, but their helper at GM can’t see them. It’s a voice link only for the potential customer at home. It’s an obvious measure to take to ensure people were as comfortable as possible, and GM has taken great pains to drive that message home everywhere it can.
We don’t have any hard data on how many sessions GM was handling through its Live digital showrooms, nor any impact it had on sales. One can imagine, though, that it wasn’t making a huge obvious impact. That’s not to say that people didn’t find the service useful or worthwhile, but whether GM was seeing a direct dollar result out of it is a question we’d love to get answered.
The Autopian reached out to GM for comment on the matter, with the automaker confirming a wind down for the Live program. “GM is re-examining how we reach out to customers to ensure we are set-up to best support them as we transition to an all-electric future,” a company spokesperson said. “Right now, that means closing a portion of the GM Live studios. EV Live will remain open however as it is a key element to GM Energy’s distribution plan.”
Keeping the EV Live studio open does make sense. There are still plenty of potential customers out there that are bursting with questions and misconceptions about EVs. Having a one-on-one platform for answering those queries and educating people makes sense. However, it’s still a shame to see the broader studios closed. In my experience, it was a really easy way to get an almost first-hand experience of a car without the pressure of the usual dealership environment.
In the meantime, it’s still possible to jump on and schedule yourself a “Live” appointment if you want to get a professional tour of GM’s current lineup and ask some questions. If you do try it out, let us know what you thought of the experience below. If you haven’t tried it, feel free to speculate wildly based on incomplete information. Happy bantering, friends!
Image credits: Chevy Live, Cadillac via Facebook screenshot, Buick via YouTube screenshot
That’s so you.
Rather than all of us comment “Wow, I never heard of this,” it might be more efficient to poll the Autopian readers to see if anyone actually had heard of it before today.
Never heard of this program and that is probably why it’s getting cancelled. If more folks knew about something like this, I’m sure they would go for it! My mom is shopping for a car and would be all over something like a virtual tour from the comfort of her couch
I can’t help but think the emphasis on the one-way nature of the camera is to basically tell the person at home that the person giving you the tour can’t see that thing of an intimate nature you’re doing, so please don’t bother, sir.
Wow – for a second there I genuinely mistook Fred Armisen for George Santos and that was not a great moment. Things that cannot be unseen…
How dare you?
Nice to know that GM torpedoing it’s good ideas isn’t just relegated to the cars they make
What a fantastic idea that is great for GM’s brand and great for consumers. And probably why it was doomed to failure. I can see several long knives that probably came for the program.
Wow, I’ve genuinely never heard of this. I would totally use a feature like this when car shopping. Sometimes the features/specs/ergonomics you care about when shopping for a car are not what a marketing department cares about. Being able to ask a non-salesperson questions and get genuine answers would be… refreshing.
Classic that GM began development of a good idea, then canned it before anyone realized it existed. Batting 1.000 those guys. I’m sure there was a whole lot of resistance to the idea from dealers though.
I feel like I vaguely remember hearing about this way back in the early days of the pandemic back when most people were taking the threat of Covid seriously. I didn’t realize it was still going on (and I suppose that’s the problem). It seems like a great idea and could be very valuable to someone who just wants some answers about cars that they’re researching without someone trying to earn a commission putting a spin on things.
I wonder if this will become just another item to add to the list…
I had heard of the Live EV program before, but this is the first I’ve heard of it being expanded to the rest of the lines. Well marketed, GM!
First, I want to thank Lewin for posting content so early in the EST day. Some of us get up at stupid-early hours, and it’s really nice to have stuff for the important morning reading 🙂
Not a new car shopper, but I can really see the value here: the chance to see the car —even ask them to focus on something specific—without having to submit to the high pressures you get subjected to in a showroom. Another great idea that gets axed by GM it seems.
I think Lewin is in Australia, which from my perspective (living in Sydney) helps.
It also means that when I wake up on Saturday I get my Autopian content which the good ol’ USA posts on Friday, but then the Monday blues strike and I have to wait till Tuesday for fresh content.
That does suck
Yes, I’m being USA East coast centric. Mainly because I often have multiple 4-10 min windows of downtime from 7am on while I’m waiting for a unit to cycle and his articles really help the morning go by
I wish they could combine this with the ability to buy the car without having to confront a dealer. I hate the dealer experience sooooooooo much…. Even the “Good” dealers leave me wondering if I just got taken and haven’t yet realized it.
Interesting concept and one I had not heard of it. However, why not just do videos on YouTube. Any vehicle I want to learn about I just do a quick search on YT and there are videos ranging from 30 minute in depth deep dives to 20 second short reels. Surprisingly, there is a lack of videos directly from the manufactures doing the same. Why not hire a video friendly person or two and just create a series of videos? I would be willing to bet that during the live sessions, many of the questions were the same.
Live interaction gives you a chance to ask spontaneous and specific questions. If I want to know something but have to watch 5 videos before finding someone who covers that little detail, I get annoyed. I’m thinking in terms of the times I’ve tried to find a video demonstrating a specific repair I need to do, but every video I find is on a different year of the model I have and the details are just different enough that my question doesn’t get answered. With a live stream, you have better odds of getting your answer in a shorter time with less wasted effort.
Good idea, poorly executed and cut before realizing any benefits. GM’s upper management always stays on brand.
Well put. My father worked 31 years for the Pontiac Motor Division. He often told me that GM would focus on fixing problems on a given car until they got it right, then discontinue the model shortly after. Many of these problems, he said, would be attributable to cost-cutting modifications ordered prior to model launch.
Effectively, GM was shooting GM’s own foot off in the name of cost savings, then spending those savings to fix the problem, then killing the whole project altogether.
During his career, he worked at the Fiero plant from production startup to shutdown, which only reinforced this view.