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One of our Best and Brightest, Kixstart, sent us this heads-up:
Jeff Belzer Chevrolet in the Twin Cities is running a newspaper ad today suggesting you “Order Your 2010 Chevy Volt! 230mpg EPA City!” Who could resist? When I called the dealer, “Mary Jo” answered. After a preliminary question or two Jeff Belzer, himself, called me back. Yes, they’re really taking orders. They want $10K down. The price of the Volt will be $40 to $50K, plus $10K on top. (Belzer wasn’t even slightly embarrassed by the surcharge.) If I wanted, I could pick a color. But there are no specific delivery dates. If I don’t like the car when it arrives, I can have my money back. According to Belzer, this is not a dealer cashing-in before time. “It’s official.”
25 Comments on “Volt Birth Watch 160: Chevy Volt Now On Sale!...”
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Have mercy. This takes the pre-order to another level. I can see it with retro-chique muscle cars, but a hybrid that really hasn’t been fully developed yet?
PT Barnum’s dictum comes to mind. (and W.C. Field’s come to think of it)
Who could resist? Now I know how the serpent decieved Eve.
I’m still waiting on some information about that Pontiac G8 ST I pre-ordered.
Maybe a less shifty ploy would be him putting you in a $10k Chevy (or Dodge or Kia) today while we waited for the Volt and then applying the full $10k toward the Volt (plus mark-up) when it arrives. That would be a true win-win! (Of course, if you don’t still want the Volt by then, you’re stuck in your Aveo…?)
Looks like the dealer cull missed one.
All hail the New GM and their relentless focus on the consumer.
Of course, the catch is that there won’t be a 2010 Chevy Volt (if it comes out in 2010, it’ll be a 2011).
Was that Jeff Belzer you spoke with or was it really the janitor having some fun?
Excellent.. some dumbnuts with too much money will buy one for $50K..
Dumbnuts with either get bored or run out of money and I’ll pick it up used for $20K…
Works for me.
Didn’t New GM have its dealerships sign completely new franchise agreements?
Why didn’t it exclude such brand destroying behavior???
Here’s a plan:
Have a GM marketing VP publicly denigrate and call out these POS dealerships for what they are. If the POS dealers wanna sue, let ’em.
Then, GM should let Obama, Congress, and the PTFOA know they may need more money “to pay dealers who are trying to screw the American people.”
One born every minute.
Here is what the dealer said:
“If you don’t like the car when it arrives, you can have your money back.”
Here is what the dealer thought:
“If you can find me in Rio.”
Charging more than MSRP for high-demand vehicles is nothing new. I remember Mazda dealers in the Midwest charging $10k over sticker for the Miata when it first came out twenty years ago. More recent examples include the Solstice/Sky, the Camaro, and the Corvette ZR1. All were MSRP+ at many dealers upon release.
Just like anything new and different, there will be demand for this thing when it first arrives.
ohsnapback: “Was that Jeff Belzer you spoke with or was it really the janitor having some fun?”
I hope it was the janitor.
So much money for a car that is supposed to save you money on gas. That’s counter intuitive, isn’t it? Or is the 50K a small price to pay to save the polar bears and get a knob job from some greenpeace chick?
How about I buy 2 Prius cars today and help Toyota fund R+D for generation 4 which will no doubt be a plug in car? It’s time to start thinking about what car companies we really want to have around, and investors along with consumers voted GM out a while ago.
GM is already looking for ways to get this car’s cost down to a point where it can compete. Dealers like this are not going to help.
Charging more than MSRP for high-demand vehicles is nothing new. I remember Mazda dealers in the Midwest charging $10k over sticker for the Miata when it first came out twenty years ago. More recent examples include the Solstice/Sky, the Camaro, and the Corvette ZR1. All were MSRP+ at many dealers upon release.
At least those cars actually existed.
One more thing, Mr. Belzer.
An extension cord from your lot to the NJ Turnpike so I can drive my new $50K car home.
This looks like a fabulous opportunity to secure Volt Serial #1. Would that be a good thing?
(Actually, perhaps Volt #2. Volt #1 will be presented in an elaborate self-congratulatory ceremony to the Volt’s father; Rick Wagoner).
Me: “Sure Mr Belzer, I would be happy to pre pay you now, at an inflated rate, for your Snufalufagusmobile. But could you place your noterized signature on this contract that I have drawn up that you will garantee the 230 mpg”
Thought not.
Ah the new GM.
Smells like; victory, or is that just Teen Spirit.
I don’t see what the big deal is, there are a lot of people out there who are for whatever reason very excited about the Volt, and who would be willing to put down that kind of money to have one of the first. No one is going to force anyone to pre order a Volt, and if you are that gullible and have that much disposable income, well, it’s about time you did your part in helping the economy by spreading your wealth around.
A great way to sell an overpriced car is to add an extra $10K to the sticker. And you wonder why people think dealers suck. If a dealer fed me that line I would be looking at a different manufacture’s car and cross his brand off my list.
I see no fundamental problem with dealers charging more than MSRP for hot sellers, as that’s the way free markets work. What I do take issue with is the fact that some dealers are so deluded they forget today’s marketplace allows the consumer to buy from just about any dealer in the nation (at the best available price), and then have the vehicle shipped to the buyer for a nominal fee.
KixStart: “I hope it was the janitor.”That janitor is pretty dedicated to take out a newspaper ad.
Yeah, with the usual dealer crap continuing, there can be no doubt that GM is going down in flames. You’d think they’d have learned by now.
did the dealer ever say how many people actually preordered this car?
Sounds like a great time to corner the market for anal lube!
I hate to go completely off track…
But looking at the “selection” of cars this dealer sells…
Chevy medium duty trucks..
Kia cars
Dodge
And Chevy vehicles.
I thought Chrysler was pushing dodge / chrysler / jeep to consolidate its dealerships.. and WAS cutting dealers who don’t have all 3..
P.S
ajla- :
You sir, are going to be waiting an AWFULLY long time on that G8 ST.
The 2010 Prius is already selling for a small discount in my neck of the woods, MSRP minus $400. A well-equipped example is $25K. By this time next year, the discount will probably be $1K or more. It is nothing short of nuts to pay 2x the cost of a Prius for what is almost certain to be an undercooked Volt, assuming the Volt ever sees light of day. Given all the hype so far, the Volt will no doubt bask in the white hot glow of media spotlights as soon as reports of production problems start rolling in. The priceless part will be the “special” look on faces of early Volt customers, as resale value of a car they paid way too much for goes rapidly into a death spiral.
Jeff Belzer Chevrolet gives me a bad feeling inside; when I went there with my wife looking at cars to consider for our C4C deal (I was interested in seeing an M/T Cobalt and M/T Kia Soul), we were met at the door by a salesperson (it may have been Mary Jo, actually) who whined about the upcoming C4C deals she was going to have to run and then impatiently grabbed us the keys to 2 auto-trans versions of the cars we wanted to see. Then we went on 1-mile test drives of each before she unceremoniously dumped us so she could pursue more profitable customers.
Needless to say, my wife and I bought a Honda Fit Sport from Walser Honda and had a much better go of things. The experience made me very leery about the way Belzer goes about selling cars. You can bet we won’t be stopping there when it’s time to replace my wife’s aging Lumina – there are many more hospitable places to buy a car in the Twin Cities metro, places that emphasize treating customers with respect instead of selling vaporware like the Volt.