Automotive News [sub] reports that, thanks to you the taxpayer, GM is offering 0 percent financing through Monday, Jan. 5, on the discontinued Chevrolet TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy and Saab 9-7X, 9-3 and 9-5. “We’ve been trying to hold onto market share with one arm tied behind our back,” says GM Marketing individual Mark LaNeve. “Any tool they can get to make credit available and put deals together is a good thing.” Especially when taxpayers pick up the bill. But Mr LaNeve, what do you say to critics who argue that artificially low rates and subprime lending is what got this country and your firm into trouble in the first place? “Six hundred twenty (FICO) is not a subprime score,” argues LaNeve. “That’s a very creditworthy buyer. Hopefully, we’ll have access to more of the market that is out there.” Meanwhile, Saab dealers aren’t exactly thrilling over the decision. “We need product, and we need a clear decision made” on Saab’s future, one Saab dealer tells AN. Either “we’re going to continue to be a part of General Motors’ family, or we have a buyer lined up, and here’s the buyer.” And though that decision doesn’t seem to be immediately forthcoming, at least everyone can pretend like it’s the nineties for another week. Trailblazer at zero percent interest? If that doesn’t get the nostalgia flowing, I don’t know what will.
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I would take 0% on a 9-3 particularly the Turbo X, and especially with other incentives tacked on. I dont think 0% will move the Trailblazer sisters though, or the 9-5. Poor Saab.
Screw ’em. They already got my money so let them rot on the lots.
I’ve never worked in auto finance.. so maybe someone can help me with this math…
$6,000,000,000 / $25,000 per car = 24,000 cars…
Maybe they can leverage the $6B 10:1.. So maybe 240,000 cars?
How does 240,000 cars (when GM loses money on each unit anyways) help?
I guess all this does it keep the dealer network functional for a few more months until they can have proper burials arranged.
lw,
Nice thought but you forgot all of the additional billions of our tax dollars that the Feds are going to throw at GM & Chrysler. It is like an algebra equation where they will eventually solve for X. X is the losses the Detroit 3 will generate over the next several years and it will equal the money that the Feds will commit to the problem. Insanity.
Tex
GM Marketing Individual needs to explain how Trailblazer sales were tanking even when GMAC was still giving leases and subprime loans, and how this should somehow change now.
So while he is busy loaning our own money back to us with interest, he will be busy clouding the facts.
Because he has been blaming the consumer. It’s the consumer that has credit problems and therefore can’t buy.
Never has GM Marketing Individual looked in the mirror and said, maybe my prices are too high. Because that would be an admission of failure, of missing the pricing point the market could bear- heck, it would mean putting the market back in Marketing.
Let’s get one thing straight: GM does not blame itself, ever. No, let’s get two things straight: The UAW does not blame itself, ever.
So basically, we taxpayers are giving GM (GMAC) money to loan to people with iffy credit (people that banks apparently won’t loan to right now) so that they can buy cars at zero percent interest that we are giving GM money to build?
@ Jon Paul
Yep.. My opinion is that the goal is to pump cash into the system any way possible to devalue the dollar.
Trying to understand this as rational within the confines of the auto industry isn’t working out for me…
Giving them money did what I thought it would, allow business as usual. Bankruptcy = change, cash = more of the same.
arrgh.
Cancer is a killer that must be removed. Red Ink Rick and LaNaive must be thrown out for GM to have any chance at survival.
I think throwing out Saab is a good place to start. That thing is a money pit. They sold all of 852 vehicles in the US last month combined, all three models. No wonder they are all on the 0% list here.
Plus, killing Saab would be a good move for domestic political reasons. Since the nameplate, and most of the jobs, are foreign, firing people overseas isn’t nearly as bad, and possibly good, when you are begging for help from the American government.
Just curious. Are those zero percent (or other extremely low rates) for real? Or or they, as I suspect, just a come on to get people in to the show room? I mean how many customers actually end up paying no interest on their car loan? 1 or 2 a month nationwide?
My gut tells me that their offer is so loaded with weasel clauses that no one can qualify.
yakinwaoz:
I agree. Another article I read mentioned that some of the $6B will be used by ResCap for home mortgages.
Maybe you get 0% if you buy one of ResCap’s foreclosed homes.
“Buy a foreclosed home from ResCap and get a Buick at the MSRP for 0%!!!
Do you already have a home with another lender? Just walk away from that one!”
@lw
Illuminati scheme to advance intro of Amero. you’ll see it soon under Obama.
@ Buickman
I thought about the Amero at one point.. but I can’t get my head around it. Maybe they can enforce an exchange rate..
So you owe $30K dollars on a Suburban that is worth $20K dollars.
You earn $50K Ameros per year and maybe $1 Amero equals $3 Dollars by law??
Not sure how it would work… So far they are doing a real super job of trashing the current US Dollar!
Btw you can protect your assets from all of this by moving your cash to a “hard currency” fund. MERKX is an example, but there are others. I’m working to balance my stash between a few of these funds with different fund managers (to avoid a “MADOFF moment”)
I smell a backlash coming…
http://www.myfoxboston.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=8167932&version=3&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1
What is funny is that nobody disputes the federal governments ability to save themselves.
The logistics of the government are the same as the Big 3, lots of debt, little production and a spoiled workforce that believes a minimum of work will result in maximum pay with minimal exertion.
The thing is the Big 3 at least produced a product, the government produces nothing and is facing the same killer Baby Boomer demographics as the now Little 3. Do you really think the feds can cover the huge baby boomer retiree population better than the now Little 3?
The Big 3 was the canary in the coal mine now the rest of the cards will tumble.
So the easy thing is for the government to print a million dollars for everybody. Problem solved! Why didn’t Mexico or Zimbabwe think of that?
Is the assumption that it’s okay for Slick Dick Shelby and the state of Alabama to back spending Alabama taxpayer $$$ as friggin’ gifts to foreign companies, to a dollar-per-resident level far in excess of a federal LOAN to American companies?
Sheesh…
Wow… thanks for the opportunity to own a TrailBlazer. That’s what I call a ‘turnaround’.
Crap, now I’ve got “saved by zer-O!” in my head. Thanks TTAC! And thanks also to GM and Chrysler for being the worst run companies in the world! It’s like they’re not even trying. Oh, wait…
And an early Happy New Year to everyone. I’m sure we’ll have lots of more of the same to look forward to in 2009.
Wow… thanks for the opportunity to own a TrailBlazer. That’s what I call a ‘turnaround’.
Actually, we always had an opportunity to own one. Now we have the extra opportunity to owe on one.
I smell a backlash coming…
I think it’s poetic justice that an Acura ad that plays before the story in the video.
At the moment, you can get a TrailBlazer SS for $24K or so, with zero-percent financing. Hell of a way to tow your race car or enjoy high-speed winters.
Sure, the interior sucks and the secondary ride is a disgrace, but if that disqualified a vehicle for purchase you’d never see anybody in a Prius.