Yesterday, we (and that includes Chrysler's Jim Press) predicted post-Black Tuesday light truck fire sales. This is how they start for GM, focusing on loyal GM customers, trying to get them out of their negative equity hole (a.k.a. backwards or under water). Interestingly, the deal include those "low profile" two-mode hybrid SUVs…
• Chevrolet — Tahoe (nonhybrid) or Suburban: $2,000 customer cash + $4,000 owner loyalty bonus cash = $6,000 total cash.
Tahoe (hybrid): $0 customer cash + $4,000 owner loyalty bonus cash = $4,000 total cash.
Silverado or Avalanche: $2,000 customer cash + $3,000 owner loyalty bonus cash = $5,000 total cash.
• GMC — Yukon: $2,000 customer cash + $4,000 owner loyalty bonus cash = $6,000 total cash.
Yukon (hybrid): $0 customer cash + $4,000 owner loyalty bonus cash = $4,000 total cash.
Sierra: $2,000 customer cash + $3,000 owner loyalty bonus cash = $5,000 total cash.
• Cadillac — Escalade: $2,000 customer cash + $2,000 bonus cash + $2,000 owner loyalty bonus cash = $6,000 total cash.
What’s the difference between “customer cash” and “bonus cash”?
Typically you lose the “customer cash” if you choose whatever low interest rate they offer but keep the”bonus cash.”
You’d think they’d offer up some conquest cash to lure in new customers to buy their fuel-thirsty death traps.
I saw a ton of Versas and Yaris today with paper plates.
Saw my first ever G8. A big ol’ yank tank indeed. Saloon car. GTO redux. If they offer these for sale for one year or two; I guess it depends on how much it costs GM to ship them over here. Is it unchanged from the Aus model?
Looked like it weighed about 4500 lbs. It ain’t nothing. Never has been, never will be. It’s history.
In the past these owner loyalty deals have been paired with conquest sales deals so as to make a mockery of the loyalty angle.
There is no way in hell I would be caught in a GM Morbid SUV, not even if they give it away for free. I would trade it in a 4 door Golf or whatever, light bulbs burning be damned.
What exactly is a “loyal GM customer”? An idiot? I think I qualify: My now defunct uncle had an ’87 Delta 88 (how ironic) and I have a Frigidaire at home, from college days. Runs great and its electric.
Can’t wait to trade my e46 for a Yukon Morbid, baby!
Those incentives aren’t enough to make me even slow down as I go past the dealership. This is just the beginning.
What exactly is a “owner loyalty bonus”? Does that mean at one time in your life you owned a GM car? Does it mean you have to trade a GM car?
Why would a GM dealer want to take in a GM SUV as a trade in knowing that they won’t be able to sell it?
I would easily buy a new Tahoe or Yukon if the rebates crested $30k. GM – are you listening?
I ocasionally drive an escallade for work… this is the big one with the 6 litre engine. I ran it to about 1/8 of a tank, then filled it up. Even tho it says premium preferred, i filled it with regular.
It cost about $115.00.
The pump only allowed 75 bucks, I had to re-enter the credit card. I cannot beleive that people would want these for a daily driver, tho i see them and their twins all the time on the road. The on board computer says it got about 11 mpg.
No incentives on Hummers? Wow, GM really is leaving them for dead.
I get 13-14mpg in my 2500HD which I use mainly for towing and hauling only. I pull a 6,500lb trailer laden with car and equipment. Pulling I get 11mpg but I don’t go above 65mph and just adjust the cruise to stay behind semis practicing drafting.
My neighbors 2 daily drivers are an Expedition and F150 that they get 11mpg b/c they don’t drive efficiently. They complain they need trucks for the occasional pulling of a single Harley bike or ATV or b/c they have 3 kids. I noted that most minivans get mid to low 20’s and can easily pull those and with sliding doors easier for the family. They scoffed at the idea as the need that “suv and pickup image”. They are not “active” lifestyle people that SUVs advertise to.
Saw a guy at the track last year with an enclosed aluminum trailer and a TVR Tuscan and he pulled it with a Honda Odyssey (had a weight distributing hitch, air bag suspension in the rear, and tranny cooler). It was his wifes car and they had 4 kids and a 2 car garage at home.
What I don’t understand is what the “Loyalty cash” part is supposed to encourage…
A stripped + AC long bed, regular cab V6 Silverado would be a great work truck at $15K. Or is it just that GM has decided that they can only sell to suckers who’ve bought GM products in the past?
I think loyalty cash has some merit.
First, GM’s new car customers are still some of their best customers. It may be robbing Peter to pay Paul, but a little sweetener to get them into the dealership a few months early isn’t a bad idea.
Second, loyalty cash helps GM customers overcome the bad depreciation they experienced. A spoonful of sugar may help them rationalize yet another idiotic financial move.
Lastly, car buyers, on average, aren’t all that bright. Any gimmick helps.
I’m considering an SUV for the wife – buy when everyone else is selling. I’m looking more at a Grand Cherokee – resale value on them is in freefall right now.
Not to mention, in a few years with the new CAFE requirements the only vehicles available with be little crackerboxes with a supercomputer needed to keep it running.
A client of mine got a quote on the fair market value of a used SUV (the exact model escapes me) last month. 14,000 was the quoted price. She gets another quote this month. 8000. Six thousand in depreciation in a months time. Dealers won’t accept them as trade ins.
I wouldn’t touch an SUV with YOUR 10 foot pole. At this rate they are going to worth their weight in scrap metal by the end of the year.