Find Reviews by Make:
26 Comments on “NOW How Much Would You Pay? Bait and Switch Pontiac G8 $20k...”
Read all comments
Latest Car Reviews view all
Latest Product Reviews view all
Recent Comments
- Lou_BC: @Carlson Fan – My ’68 has 2.75:1 rear end. It buries the speedo needle. It came stock with the...
- theflyersfan: Inside the Chicago Loop and up Lakeshore Drive rivals any great city in the world. The beauty of the...
- A Scientist: When I was a teenager in the mid 90’s you could have one of these rolling s-boxes for a case of...
- Mike Beranek: You should expand your knowledge base, clearly it’s insufficient. The race isn’t in...
- Mike Beranek: ^^THIS^^ Chicago is FOX’s whipping boy because it makes Illinois a progressive bastion in the...
Car Reviews By Make view all
New Car Research
Who We Are
- Tim Healey
Managing Editor - Matt Posky
News and Social Media Contributor - Timothy Cain
Sales Analyst - Murilee Martin
Junkyard Finds Author - Matthew Guy
Contributor - Chris Tonn
Contributor
- Adam Tonge
- Bozi Tatarevic
- Corey Lewis
- Jo Borras
- Mark Baruth
- Ronnie Schreiber
$20K barely gets you a 177HP base Accord. The G8 is a fine automobile, maybe not competitive at $30K+ but at $20K, a steal.
Actually I think the G8 is the perfect anti-snob vehicle.
Those who want Lexii, Acurae, Volvae and Infinitii may not like it. Beemers, Benzes, and Audi owners may snort at the Pontiac name. But as a sports sedan with a healthy level of luxury thrown in to the mix, the G8’s a very competitive vehicle.
With the name Pontiac thrown into the mix it may be the best overall value out there.
Did I read this right? There are 21 vehicles available but only one of them will be sold at that price. Obviously, that particular G8 has already been “sold” and this is a ploy to get consumers in the door.
crackers has it right. oldest dealer trick in the black book.
Add in a whole bunch of shady-sounding rebates that no one will qualify for, and you’ve got yourself a brightly-colored lure.
Christ, $10k in rebates as a down payment? They want you to pay $30k for a V6 G8?
Personally, I’d go for a Hyundai Genesis, I think. Won’t have as many of those nasty trips back to the dealer.
Typical “bait and switch”.
The fine print for the G8 and G6 includes “Targeted Lease Bonus Cash” – so you are leasing the car for that “price”.
This is a new trick – notice that the “OR” BUY FOR $309/MO.
I hate car dealers, truly.
Around Pittsburgh, they proudly play TV commercials with “Buy for 13,995” an then shoot up the next banner “With All Rebates and $3,000 cash or trade”.
They’re not lying, but it ain’t right.
You’ll be in a world of hurt if you walk in looking for that car, I’d estimate that most drawn in by that to actually BUY a car were sold a 17,995 G6 – unless they turned on their heel and walked out.
So, what’s great is that my RSS reader downloads the news items right away and I get to see what the headline was before RF’s ninja-edit.
That ad would be illegal in Australia (seriously).
Unfortunately for GM, a $20,000 G8 is exactly the type of car they need to sell for a decade to rebuild their destroyed brand image.
GM needs to build cars like this at a SIGNIFICANT discount to their competition. This will force buyers to, at least, consider their vehicles when shopping. Once they get these vehicles into the hands of people who wouldn’t normally buy them, GM needs to make the entire ownership experience a nice one.
Then word of mouth will slowly spread about great cars and great service all at great prices and rebuild GMs reputation.
The reason this strategy will not work is that it requires both time and money – lots of time and money; neither of which GM has.
Oh yeah, they need to “fix” dealers like the one in the ad as well.
-ted
”
Personally, I’d go for a Hyundai Genesis, I think. Won’t have as many of those nasty trips back to the dealer.”
I’ve driven both. The G8 GT is a far better car than the genesis. Frankly, I’m not sure why the Genesis keeps getting the hyped press it does. Sure, it sounds good on paper, but a long test drive shows typical Korean cost cutting measures galore – a flopping handling, poorly put together car with cheap paint and an impressive sounding warranty that gets less impressive when you try and actually use it (been there, done that).
That’s why you gotta negotiate OTD price. Bought my 3 yr 3.0L Auto Extended Cab with bedliner Ranger during the height of post-Katrina gas prices ($3/Gal, American’s will never pay that!:). Sat at the Fordman’s lot repeating $10K OTD for 3 hours. After getting up to leave and walking to my car, Fordman caved in and gave me my truck at my price.
Then handed me the sales contract with $10K plus $1500 in tax and dealer fees (seriously $50 for ‘express’ mail delivery of loan paperwork to a bank 75 miles away). Sat for another hour repeating $10K OTD. Started walking away the second time when he caved in.
End of the day, $10,100 OTD (I should have bellyached about the last $100, but even I was getting tired).
Point is, never trust anything a dealer says, ever, for any reason. As learned by the customers of that particular Ford store (South Shore Ford in Marmora, NJ) when he went belly up 3 weeks later taking several dozen people’s deposits and non-paid off trades with him.
I’m more intrigued by the little gas pump graphic… 25mpg highway! Who does this dealer imagine a) cares about fuel economy and b) thinks 25mpg is good fuel economy? Why would this be worth mentioning in the ad?
Actually, the sale price minus the listed offers is about $21K. Something else doesn’t add up.
For a large, heavy RWD w/ 255HP, 25 MPG sounds about right.
I am a graphic designer for a company that does a significant amount of direct mail for car dealers. What you see above is NOTHING compared to some of the stuff they try to pull.
– for a list of used cars they have me put pictures of the new version. ie- the title says 2002 Ford Mustang V6, But they put a picture of a 2007 GT. then at the bottom really small it says “photos for illustration purposes only”
– alot of times when they are giving stuff away. a car or vacation or cash. they really do have a winner. the only problem is the winner “gets lost in the mail”
– or if you look at the odds on the back. your chances of winning might be 1:40,000. but we only printed 20,000 so no one wins.
also,the worst scum bag dealers of them all are GM dealers. GM dealers seem to be advertising like crazy at the moment. More then anyone else. Chrysler dealers have all but stopped completely. Ford dealers have cut back slightly, inline with the rest of the import dealers.
I don’t know why people get so uptight about advertised prices. Of course there’s going to be fine print and lies.
Like morbo implied, the only fair price is the price YOU pay out of the door. If you don’t like the price, complain or leave. In this market, you can do that.
Although not completely truthful, I look at these ads are a rough guide to what’s selling and what’s not. Once you smell blood, go do the hard work. You can’t expect a great deal to present itself all of the time.
Mileage is fine for a RWD car.
That car is maybe worth it in my book. I’d rather have the Pontiac G8 V8 than an Accord right now, but not a V6 G8. I did mention to a buddy I was thinking of a used G8 and when I said it was a Pontiac he laughed and said the interior probably is junk. The accord does have a sporty suspension, and its mileage and interior is nothing to laugh about.
I just wish I could get a manual G8 GT. I guess that would interfere with the EPA ratings and end up with a gas guzzler tax. I might have to figure out adding a manual myself one day.
The GT G8, well a dealership in Texas is advertising $20,998 for it. I’d buy it if dealers weren’t con men and didn’t always try and make the loan interest 10-15% or more, skim extra costs in, etc.
Don’t they know I’ll add the numbers up, hmmm, $8,000 in interest for a 20K car. yeah right.
GM needs to build cars like this at a SIGNIFICANT discount to their competition.
GM cannot sell cars like this at a significant discount because GM could not make any money. In their current condition, GM needs to make cars that bring in the most profit the least loss.
I’ve seen G8 GT’s with less than 10k miles on them being advertised for less than $19k.
THAT my friends is a steal.
This ad is a case study of how protected slimeball auto dealers are at the state level. The dozen+ allegedly progressive State Attorneys General let this crap slide all the time. They know where the campaign contributions come from.
The sooner the current modern dealer network dies, the better.
Lee:
I’ve seen G8 GT’s with less than 10k miles on them being advertised for less than $19k.
The used market is wonderful if you’ve got cash. I’m giving serious thought to a 2-3 year old G35.
@ ihatetrees…
Having worked at an Infiniti dealership i have seen 2007’s in the very low $20k’s. If you can stretch it, go for ’07 and above, a hugely improved vehicle over the ’06’s.
“GM needs to build cars like this at a SIGNIFICANT discount to their competition.
GM cannot sell cars like this at a significant discount because GM could not make any money. In their current condition, GM needs to make cars that bring in the most profit the least loss.”
The underlying economic climate has changed.
High profit cars are not selling and will not sell.
The only road to profit is sell more cars at less profit.
Yah….I fell for this once a long time ago. There was an ad for a Chrysler product for $10K. I went to the dealer and sat down to sign documents for the advertised price. Then the very intimidating “business manager” told me the terms. The cost being “net of all rebates” – Sales tax would be calculated based on the car costing $14K, I was required to buy the optional rustproofing package at $700, and the car I bought had the optional bigger engine which would cost me an additional $2K. They had run out of the cars with the standard engine. I thanked him for wasting my time and left. Three days later he called me back.
The only road to profit is sell more cars at less profit.
They aren’t making any profit. Selling a car at a bigger loss now will only cause more problems, both now and, if they survive, the future. For now, they need as much money they can get their hands on. For the future, they don’t want to be thought of as the blue light special of the car market.
“The fine print for the G8 and G6 includes “Targeted Lease Bonus Cash” – so you are leasing the car for that “price”.”
No, that is incorrect. The “targeted lease bonus cash” applies to customers having a lease (of any make or model) with a scheduled end date before June 30, 2009. If they do, they qualify for the $1,000 incentive.
…and the auto industry, and dealers in particular, wonder why they have such a sleazy image…