Chevy Launches New Dealer Incentive Program. Huh?
Regular readers of this site know that I’m math challenged. To paraphrase Blanche Dubois (tragic heroine, not TV psychic), I have always depended on the calculations of strangers. Which is one reason I NEVER sign ANYTHING at a dealership without having my good friend Steven Lang give it the once over. Of course, that’s looking at the car sales paperwork from the customer side. Pity the poor Chevrolet dealer. Given the farrago of sales incentives, discounts, cash-back deals, financing offers, etc. how do they set a price? Seriously. Even a dealer who wants to give his customer the best possible deal has the devil’s own time establishing what that actually means. Check out this Top Secret(ish) Powerpointery and tell me that Roger Smith’s no-haggle Saturnalia wasn’t the way forward. Oh well, too late now. And, as we reported last night, there’s more post-bailout deals a brewin’. Good luck with that. [Thanks to you know who you are.]
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How To Get a Free Vehicle Jim Dollinger Wednesday, July 11, 2007 Did you hear about the customer who went into a GM dealership? He qualified for the following: AARP GM Discount Recent College Grad Active Military Olds Owner Resident of North Central Region GM Cardholder Father who was a UAW Retiree Owned Import Took Overnight Test Drive Incremental Allowance Bonus Cash Matching Downpayment Needless to say, the car was FREE. He passed, saying he'd prefer to pay for a Toyota. The sales manager came in for the close and offered Two On Us. Didn't work. The car was already FREE. As a last ditch effort, the manager offered to remove the emblems. Customer left saying he'd get back in touch. Who is John Galt?
Some of that is pretty confusing, but some is fairly straightforward. Ford's incentives are thankfully somewhat easier to understand, but here is the rundown for what most of that Chevy document is saying - You get manufacturer rebates or 0% financing, not both. There is nothing new about that. Aged inventory has extra cash on the hood. Again, nothing new about this, but as it is dealer cash, instead of customer cash, the dealer has the option to hold it if it can. I am not quite sure about how GM calculates which vehicles get it and which don't, Ford does it in a much simpler way. The lessee cash is something fairly new. Basically since the domestics have severely cut back leasing, they are offering customers coming out of leases extra cash if they are willing to buy a new vehicle in order to keep them away from going to one of the import brands that still offer leases. This is also why the charts show this money being able to be combined with the other incentives. The whole IVC and family plan thing I can't comment on, because again, these things are done completely differently at GM, and I don't quite get what is going on. When it comes down to buying a car however, in most case it is mandated either by state law or by the manufacturer that the dealer has to give you all rebates, so, you don't have to worry about the dealer keeping them. Dealer cash is the exception, but, it is much rarer than regular customer cash, usually isn't as much, and is usually only put on items that are selling very slowly to give the dealer either some profit in case he has to cut the deal to the bone to move the unit, or to offer that last minute incentive to push a customer over the edge.
BUICKMAN.. Good to hear from you... A Celebrity in the house as it were. You used to post on TCC.com, place has gone down hill. I wouldnt buy domestic either.. definately not after finding out the car is free. As for as CREAMY: Dude, I read two lines of your post.. and fell down laughing so hard.. I WAS CRYING. But your post makes 1000x more sense than the pp presentation. Thank you for the laugh and the sensibility.
Accords, I remember you also and agree TCC isn't worth even looking at. this site is one of my favs and am glad to see you've come on board. best... jd