incentives
Automotive News reports that GM is offering dealers up to $250 in bonus money for every loan they sell to a lender other than GMAC. This latest move follows Monday's report on
GMAC tightening lending restrictions, and "is an encouragement for dealerships to seek out other sources of funding," says Mike Mullaney of Hudson Pontiac-Buick-GMC in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The program pays salespersons $100, sales managers $100 and an "employee of choice" (most likely the finance manager) another $50 for non-GMAC transactions.
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industry news
Chrysler is number one in a very key stat. Unfortunately, it's a terrible one. Yup, the newly-revealed
2009 Dodge Journey has become the first 2009 model from any automaker to see any form of sales incentives. How bad is it that the new egg-mobile crossover-utility- minivan already has a $1000 cash rebate slapped on the hood? More importantly, what does this signal for the rest of the quasi-minivan market? [via
Automotive News]
an incentive to ride home on
Wow, talk about your not-so-boldly moving sales, eh? According to a tipster to the
blog all about ze
Auto Ford's latest boldly moving incentive plan includes the usually happy-for-sales Ford Mustang. But we're not just talking about your plain-old-V6-auto-tranny pony car. Nope, you'll be able to buy yourself a brand-spanking new Shelby GT500 on a 36-month financing plan for
a mere three drachmas just the price of the car. That's right — 0% APR for the 2007 model — or at least as long as you take delivery before July 9th. Sounds to us like someone's trying to clear out a heap of '07's still in inventory. But whatever — what a deal!
– Ray Wert
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joe eberhardt, is that you?
Head on over to a Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealership today to get your hands on a semi-used 2006 model. Yes, you heard us correctly — a "semi-used" vehicle. Apparently
all of those over-built 2006 model year cars are still causing the 'merican side of the German-American hybrid (for the next little while anyway) to seek strange solutions to the problem. Here's how the
Detroit News explains the newest solution:
Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep dealers can use new vehicles as loaners for test-drives or for customers who need a car while theirs is in service....
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news
Sales incentives are a risky game for US automakers these days — they help you to get rid of stock on the lots quickly, but they do it at the risk of cannibalizing profits, future sales and resale value of your products. And apparently, according to Joe "Would I Lie To You" Eberhardt's interview with
Reuters earlier this week, the 'merican side of the German-American hybrid wasn't going to be providing any additional sales incentives for the month of December. So, if that's the case, then the "Premiere Event" postcard I got in the mail — the one that's pictured above and which the Freep's Katie Merx brings up in her article referenced in the
morning shift — must be a figment of my imagination. It's the only way to explain why I'm offered an "additional $1000.00 bonus cash" off the price of a 2007 Dodge Caliber, Dodge Nitro SXT or a Dodge Ram Quad Cab. Because if that ain't an incentive program, I don't know what the hell it is. Oh but wait, there's more — after the initial article appeared online yesterday, Merx reported a Chrysler spokesman as saying when Eberhardt originally said no "new incentives" in December, he really meant that they wouldn't launch any
innovative or
new types of incentives. Oh yeah, well — it is a direct mail piece, right — we guess that's not new or innovative — but wait, we're not done yet, there's more...
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