The latest addition to the GMC lineup, the Granite, will make its debut at the Detroit Auto Show next week. It’s a hatchback based on the Delta II platform, the same as the Chevy Orlando MPV that was unveiled last year. Mechanically, the Granite will be the Orlando’s twin brother dressed in different sheet metal. It will also be GMC’s smallest model in the lineup by far as well as the brand’s only car.

It will be one of seven other all-new models that will see their debut next week, as confirmed yesterday by GM vice president of Sales, Customer Service and Marketing Susan Docherty. Other confirmed models include the all-new Cadillac XTS, Cadillac CTS-V Coupe, and the Chevy Aveo RS concept.

The GM Authority Take

I understand the Chevy Orlando and think the bow-tie brand could use a car with its capabilities and I think it’s a great addition to the Chevrolet fleet. Plus,  Chevy’s brand positioning as a mainstream automaker with a variety of models makes the Orlando right at home. However I just don’t understand what makes the GMC Granite a good idea, or who thought it would be a good idea. Modern successful marketing points to brands that have a clear identity and execute that identity to the dot. For example, you wouldn’t see Ferrari building a minivan. It just wouldn’t make sense. And if they did, people wouldn’t understand it, let alone accept it. Yet GMC – GM’s “Professional Grade” brand – has a fleet full of tough and capable trucks and SUVs and is basically about to get a bastard son in a hatchback that doesn’t fit in with its image at all.

Somebody with a Sloan Fellow Masters program from Stanford should know better than this. (Susan Docherty, I’m talking about you.)

A teaser of the GMC Urban Utility Vehicle aka Granite