Release The Captivas!

General Motors’ decision to reanimate the corpse of the Saturn Vue for rental fleets was not entirely scorned by the always-practical B&B, so your humble author has been keeping an eye out for any news regarding the Captiva “Sport”. Now, thanks to automotive industry consultant and wrongly accused Lexus-smasher Seung “Mel” Min Yu, I have some news about the pricing for GM’s insider auction of low-mileage Captivas, as well as some information regarding the imminent arrival of Captivas at your local dealer.

A week or so ago, GM ran a batch of fifty “program car” Captivas through their dealer-only Mannheim Auction. Most had between five and ten thousand miles on the clock. According to Mel, the pricing ran like so:

• 4 cyl went for 17.5K~20K
• 6cyl 1LT went for 19.5~21K
• 6cyl 2LT went for 24~26K
• 6cyl LTZ went for 28.5~30K

That doesn’t represent the dealer’s final cost; they’ll also pay an auction fee that could go as high as $325. If they want these Captivas to carry the worthless hallowed “GM Certified” banner, they’ll also need to pay $898 plus 1.6 hours of a GM tech’s labor. Amazing that these cars can be “certified” in just 1.6 hours, isn’t it? It’s pretty customary for a used car at a dealer to carry a minimum of three grand in markup, so that makes street pricing for Captivas somewhere between $22,000 for a stripped four-cylinder bought “right” and a staggering $34,000-plus for LTZ V-6 models purchased at the high range of the auction.

Compare that frankly outrageous pricing with the MSRP for a new Equinox, and it’s hard to understand how the Captivas sold at all. Is Equinox availability that constrained? Are dealers that desperate?

Mel says that the rental car companies will start releasing Captivas with thirty to forty thousand miles of careful rental usage some time in the summer. Surely those vehicles will fetch much, much less. In the meantime, buyers who want to capture a Captiva will need to bring a very thick wallet.