Pre-Loved Chrysler Pushing Used Cars
Those zany marketing guys! Apparently euphemisms like "gently used" and "pre-loved" aren't enough to make us want to rush out and buy a used car. WebProNews brings us Chrysler's marketing mavens' latest attempt to obfuscate: "brand spankin' used." You can expect to see that phrase plastered all over used vehicle web sites like Cars.com and AutoTrader.com soon. Chrysler plans to list every certified pre-owned vehicle in every U.S. Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep dealer's inventory. That equates to over 20K vehicles listed each day. Why so many? Because Chrysler has a glut of used cars to unload since they dumped transferred all of their unsold 2006 models into their used car inventory in June. Banning over 600 dealers from Chrysler's used car auctions probably didn't help move the metal either.
More by Frank Williams
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LA Times 8/8/07, brand new 2007 PT Cruiser are being sold for $10,990.00 and fully loaded (power everything) PT Cruisers "Touring edition" are going for $13,800.00. I bet one could get one of those cars even cheaper. A new PTnot used new, but new new) Cruiser for $10K. I guess it worth buying one one and throwing it away in four years or donating it to the Salvation Army for the tax write off. No wonder they are going broke.
I just did a search for '05 up Jeep Liberty, max price, $20k, no results. Searched for PT Cruiser, '05 up, max price, $10k, nothing. Ram at $20k, nothing. Just a big marketing ploy or Cerberus already pulled the plug on this fast dash for some quick cash. Cerberus only wants top dollar. They won't let this stuff go at a discount.
I did a search within 75 miles of my home here in Ohio, and the only "new used" I found were some 2006 Dodge Stratus. I checked Jeep, Chrysler, and Dodge - all the rest seemed your typical 20,000 mile used rental cars. Sounds like a marketing scam to me.
I see several 2005 Crossfires on our local autotrader search with under 10 miles on them. Here is one: http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?car_id=226504979&dealer_id=66920&car_year=2005&model=CROSSFIRE&num_records=25&make2=&start_year=2005&keywordsfyc=&keywordsrep=&engine=&certified=&body_code=0&fuel=&awsp=false&search_type=both&distance=50&marketZipError=false&search_lang=en&make=CHRY&color=&page_location=findacar%3A%3Aispsearchform&min_price=&drive=&default_sort=priceDESC&max_mileage=&style_flag=1&sort_type=priceDESC&address=95037&advanced=&end_year=2008&doors=&transmission=&max_price=&cardist=50