GM Discounts, Incentives, Confusion (Pt. 1)

It's not just the domestics that play these pricing games. My in-laws managed to buy a Lexus ES for a price that would leave many Camry buyers angry and embarassed. Of course they are iron-fisted negotiators. Personally I don't have the stomach for it, which is why I always buy used - in one of the great ironies of modern life pricing on used cars is far more transparent than on new cars.

The GM card is an interesting topic to cover...I get 5% of whatever I spend into an account for a GM car. Typically, a 2-3% of a transaction is paid to credit card issuers by merchants, as well as a transaction fee of 25 cents or so. Over the years of use of my card, was GMAC the benefactor of the 2-3%? HSBC is actually the bank that issued the card. So what is GM getting in return on the 5% of every transaction I make going to one of their cars? I've amassed nearly $3500 on my GM card since I first got it about 5 years ago. Now I am at the point where the only vehicles where I can use my full GM Card discount on are the real dogs. The new Silverado and other decent vehicles only allow $1k of your GM Card discount to apply. No discounts for Saturn, either, which is a shame...my wife and I kind of like the Aura. jurisb...your frequent posts on the American flight from engineering depress me, though I agree with and am aware of most of your points. Americans still do engineer some high-tech, high expense items...satellites, rockets, military technology, etc. But most consumer products are no longer engineered by Americans. Even the Big 2.8 only engineer their full-size truck products, and a few spare vehicles (Corvette) in the states nowadays. I think it's great that GM is doing most Volt engineering in the US...hopefully that vehicle actually comes to market someday. My question to you, jurisb--obviously a European (Latvia?)--, is whether the same is happening in Europe, also. Of course BMW/Porsche/Daimler still engineer their vehicles in Germany, but besides those few examples, are the Europeans outsourcing engineering to the Asians for the majority of their consumer products as well? I wouldn't be surprised to find that they are...or will be doing moreso, in the near future.

I have had a GM Visa Card for nearly a decade. My plan was to buy an inexpensive (???) small new car for my kids to use. Essentially a throw away - but hopefully good enough for 3 - 5 years to get us through the experience. At the time, the Suzuki based car Chevy was selling (I forget the name now) was listing for less than $10G. So with my $3500 (that was their offer at the time)I was looking at $6500 or so. Not bad. Even for a crap car - if it was on warranty - I could deal with it. By the time I got enough points to do a deal - just at that point, GM both dropped the product line and changed the redemption deal from a $3500 discount on all cars to a variable amount depending on the car. The cheapest car in their line-up was over $13000 and I felt cheated. Still do. Add product quality and design to the mix - so long GM.

The original GM MasterCard issued originally in the early 90s still yields 5% discount on most GM cars, with no cap on earned amount. $3500 means $3500. About 5 years ago GM came out with a new card with caps on models, and slammed many legacy cardholders with promises of a card 'upgrade.'