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.
More by Jack Baruth
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Really, people want these? Outdated min-CUV that is mediocre at best when compared to the current outgoing models of other cute-utes? Really, the Equinox is just flying off of the shelves to the point they can't stock them? I can't believe there would be a demand for something so average, regardless of its apparent merits when evaluated in a total vacuum.
@ FJ60. I wrote above about why GM would do it. They all tried with the fleet only car in the past like the upto 2007 Taurus and both Malibu "Classics". It fails the main model and it's residuals. A used car has a differnt dynamic then a new car. It could have been noting much new yet as a used car it might be priced to give a lot for the $$$. GM is building used cars here & making good $ on the already paid for tooling. Retail sales & marketing incentives are zero and used product does not hurt the other brand names. I'm all for it. Just be smart about how this is done.