GM of Canada has it in mind to double and redouble the volume of its accessories in the years to come so that buyers can "personalize" their vehicles more, and – as luck would have it – that's not such a bad thing for those consumers.
The corporate case is easy to follow. All of those Boomers long-trained in the art and application of self-indulgence have more money to spend than ever and they're apparently willing to expend huge chunks of that on getting the motor juste, as the French wouldn't dare to say.
To date, very little of all that post-purchase consumption (the annual amount is in the billions) has gone to the companies that actually build the vehicles the stuff is attached to. In this hyper-competitive market, there was no way that would continue, and so GM has recently declared its intention to go after more of that money. No doubt other companies will follow suit.
GM doesn't yet have the experience to cook up accessories that people can't live without, says Don Johnston, the company's general director of marketing, but the Oshawa-based firm does have a couple of advantages all those stand-alone firms don't have.
GM say its parts are of higher quality than traditional aftermarket parts, that those parts are covered by the car company warranty, and that there are financial benefits to its parts – they can be included in the monthly financing payment and they can be part of the residual value, meaning they'll increase the vehicle's worth at trade-in time.