Fresh off its widely-copied “Assurance Program,” Hyundai is reaching into its bag of tricks for a new gimmick. And found inspiration in Chrysler’s 2008 gas-price guarantee promotion. Automotive News [sub] reports that Hyundai will offer customers who buy or lease a new Hyundai between July 1 and August 31 the opportunity to lock in a $1.49 per gallon price for gasoline for one year or 12,000 miles. According to research publicized by Hyundai North American President John Krafic, “40 percent of potential new car buyers were staying on the sidelines due to uncertainty over gas prices.” But Chrysler’s promotion didn’t save the farm a year ago when gas price anxiety was at an all-time high. After all, at three dollars a gallon, the estimated savings on a base, four-pot Sonata aren’t likely to top $725. Has Hyundai’s success at selling cars based on America’s insecurities peaked?
lol just another bullshit gimmick. People need to get a better upfront price instead of falling for this program. I’d rather have the $725 in my pocket to begin with then getting it back with the gas program!
Although basically pointless, it does generate free press.
Who’s paying for this? I’m guessing the dealers will use this is just another variable (like trade in offers) so that they can hide the true cost of the car from the customer and jack up what they make.
OTOH, driving a Genesis Coupe for a year at $1.50 gas?
Now, if Pontiac did this for the G8…..
With fuel prices being back in the $2.50-2.60 range, this won’t help Hyundai sell any more vehicles…but to proposition the notion that Hyundai has peaked in the American market doesn’t make any sense.
I’m not suggesting more government meddling, but it would be entertaining to see a mandate that each new vehicle sold come with 5-years of enough free fuel to travel 12,000 miles per year. That price would, of course, be rolled into the purchase price of the vehicle one way or another. So, if a car company expected gasoline to average $4/gallon for the next 5 years a car getting 26 MPG would have 12000*5/26*$4 = $9230 extra cost, but an 18 MPG vehicle would have $13,333 extra cost. That would (finally) make light trucks more expensive than their large-sedan counterparts and would probably be more effective at increasing the fleet fuel economy than all of CAFE.
Btw, I think the former Ford engineer cum Hundai chief’s last name is Krafcik.
If it’s only for 1 year/ 12,000 miles, I don’t see this helping sales. 3 years? Perhaps. 5? Sure.
What good is $1.49 gas when you are listening to your suspension clank, thunk and crash with incredibly loud persistence?
@grog : I read over on Jalopnik, that the Genesis isn’t a qualifying model.
Obviously those who took up Chrysler with the $2.99 gas deal got hosed when prices plummeted, but what happened to the program itself. Gas prices are now over $3.00 here, but did bankruptcy end the program?
Somebody at Hyundai has been studying portfolio hedging.
The cost of the gas gimmick will tend to correlate directly with the economic recovery, whereas the cost of the job loss gimmick will tend to correlate inversely. It’s actually kind of smart for Hyundai to offer these incentives together, because they aren’t likely to get crucified on both of them at the same time.
Now if only they could get help for ohsnapback, who is still traumatized by the memory of being forgotten in the trunk of his buddy’s ’87 Excel for a full week after sneaking into the drive-in.
# don1967 :
June 30th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Somebody at Hyundai has been studying portfolio hedging.
The cost of the gas gimmick will tend to correlate directly with the economic recovery, whereas the cost of the job loss gimmick will tend to correlate inversely. It’s actually kind of smart for Hyundai to offer these incentives together, because they aren’t likely to get crucified on both of them at the same time.
Now if only they could get help for ohsnapback, who is still traumatized by the memory of being forgotten in the trunk of his buddy’s ‘87 Excel for a full week after sneaking into the drive-in.
Touché. :)
Dumb question alert…
Remember last summer (or try to forget last summer) with gas at $4+/gal when Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep ran those $2.99/gal “lock-in-price cards” commercials about once every 10 minutes?
Now that gas is still under $2.99/gal, and especially when some areas not long ago were touching $1.79/gal, did everyone who signed up for that card just get screwed over?
Now that gas is still under $2.99/gal, and especially when some areas not long ago were touching $1.79/gal, did everyone who signed up for that card just get screwed over?
Not sure they got “screwed over”, but they did made the classic mistake of attaching too much value to something at the peak of a bubble.
How stupid do they think the consumers are! Everyone knows that gas prices will fall in fall y’all! Stupid marketing executives. No wonder Chrysler is in such trouble… wha? Oh, it’s Hyundai? Well… they must know something we don’t! Toyota better watch out! Here comes Hyundai!
Has Hyundai’s success at selling cars based on America’s insecurities peaked?
“Fear will keep the local systems in line.”
-Governor Tarkin (Star Wars IV – The New Hope)