Automation vs Real-Life Sales - GM Alpha Platform Cars

Let’s see how close my 46-trim, 3-model stress test of GM’s Alpha Platform cars (ATS, 3rd Gen CTS, 6th Gen Camaro) stacked up against their real-life counterparts in terms of total sales.

The #2 and #3 trims seem very realistic in terms of popularity vs real life (LS - rental spec, 2LT - well equipped, but lower-priced trim). I think the V6 1LE Track Pack is an outlier. Automation buyers love it, but it’s a niche trim in real life. I’m aware the goal for later iterations of the game is to give players the ability to limit production on certain trims. I definitely would’ve done that in this case.

Let’s look at TOTAL cars sold next.

(USA and Canada)
Real-life Cadillac ATS sales: 153,536
Real-life 3rd Gen Cadillac CTS sales: 108,743
Real-life 6th Gen Camaro sales: 286,988
∑ = 549,267

Sales were about 2x reality, but all things considered I think Automation did very well in approximating how these cars could’ve sold in an alternate reality! Three things that could explain the discrepancy:

  • Trims like the V6 1LE Track Pack sold in huge numbers in the game - in real life they’re limited production. The same could be said for all the high-performance trims across all the 3 models in the game.

  • The market size of the fictional automation countries vs. real life countries.

  • Economic growth rates (recession/growth) of the fictional countries vs. real life countries.

It was a fun exercise still! This game never ceases to impress!

Happy New Year all! :new:

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Pretty crazy little run that :smiley: nicely done. They were all priced correctly too?
I think the limited edition sold more than expected because it is not having as much demographics overlap with all your other trims, thus giving you more “unique” potential buyers.
Would have loved to see a Market Company Bubble mode overview of the company at the point the cars had been in production for 6 months. :slight_smile:

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Thanks much! :grinning: Indeed!™ I used the actual “dealer invoice” price for all the trims.

Ahhhhh, that makes perfect sense! Didn’t think about the demographics overlapping vs being more focused as having an effect. I LOVE THIS GAME!!

I’ll try and take more screenshots of the campaign the next time I do something like this. It was quite the undertaking but I had a bit of time off and curiosity got the better of me. :laughing:

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Wonderful platform to test!!!

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I’m a little biased, LOL :star_struck:

Do you have any others you think I should try out the next time I have a little downtime?

How about the GM full size truck/suv lineup.

That’s a lot of variations!!! But I’m up for the challenge. :smile:

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I wouldn’t wish that much work upon anyone… with three brands of SUV, two brands of truck, two SUV wheelbases, four truck cab/bed configurations, two and four wheel drive, and 5 engines, and numerous trim levels… my estimate comes to 232 variants.

It ain’t work if you’re having fun! :laughing:

My main concern isn’t necessarily the time involved. It’s whether or not the game will crash once I’ve created variant #189 of 232 and the game save is unrecoverable. Or if I am able to complete all variations, but the month-to-month ticks (which admittedly have been significantly optimized) slow to such an extent that it becomes unplayable.

I still think it’s a fair test especially if someone plans on replicating a real life company. They may have dozens of models and nearly a thousand trims.

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And the troublesome heavy duty models.

No dualies in automation, so I think I’m OK there. I’ll know where to draw the line. :wink: Even when I did the Alpha cars, I didn’t re-create every possible trim combination. There was some consolidation for the sake of reasonableness.

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How’s the latest project coming?

I won’t have any vacation for a while, but when I do I’ll let you know. :grinning:

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