With GM’s decision today to offer a 60-day, money-back guarantee on new cars, we figured it would be fitting to ask what kind of reasons a person returns a car within 60 days? There are all kinds of reasons why a person would go through buyers remorse and we see it all the time here in our car lease trading marketplace. Keep in mind that LeaseTrader.com helps a person escape a car lease they no longer want, so we’d like to share the 20 most common reasons why a person would fall out of love with a vehicle – even as quickly as within 60 days.
Forbes‘ former GM Kool-Aid drinker, Jerry Flint, has finally cottoned on to the fact that GM is going to hell (and not back). The Ascot-Wearing One sees today’s announcement that the nationalized American automaker is selling its Opel brand to a Canadian-fronted Russian mob as a harbinger of doom. (Substitute the words “yet another” for “a” and you’re there!) “Opel, and the cars made in Britain under the Vauxhall name, account for more than 1 million sales a year, but the operations are more important that the sales. The German unit is the heart of GM’s car engineering, and particularly the creation of front-drive cars and compact-size cars. U.S. models are derived from these cars, such as today’s Chevy Malibu.” Oh, no! No more world-beating Astras? Hang on, isn’t Daewoo engineering GM’s small cars?
But only because dealers will be forced to give up a half a percent of their profit margin, reportsAutomotive News [sub]. Good thing Mark LaNeve says volume will be higher. Otherwise that might suck for the dealers. As Bob Lutz puts it, “We’re putting our money down that if people buy one of our vehicles and don’t absolutely love it, we’ll take it back. Three or four years ago, this would have been a huge risk. We are now so confident of our vehicles, we can afford to take this risk.” Actually, Bob, it sounds like you’re putting the dealers’ money down. But, hey, at least that way it’s not taxpayer money! Who’s feeling positive?
Yes, well, Car And Driver‘s Dave Vanderwerp kind of stole our headline for his takedown of EPA testing practices. Still, he earns it by stripping away any illusions you may have harbored about the rigor of the EPA testing process. Did you know that the EPA only tests 15 percent of all new vehicle models, taking automakers at their word for the other 85 percent? Surely you were aware that the EPA once had to convert a Bugatti Veyron to two-wheel drive for testing because it didn’t have four-wheel dynos at the time? No? Hell, the EPA test can’t even tell whether the BMW M5’s +100hp “M” button is on or off. No wonder the Volt is going to get 2,347 mpg! Read the whole thing over at MSN Autos.
Participating in GM’s global technology development and purchasing organizations secures important economies of scale for Opel/Vauxhall and other GM brands. For example, vehicles that represent new propulsion technologies, such as the Ampera extended-range electric vehicle, can only be brought to market in a joint effort.
“GM operates many joint ventures around the world and has proven in the past that this business model delivers the right balance of independence, innovation and synergies,” said John Smith, GM Group Vice President Business Development. “All parties will work hard to close the deal as soon as possible,” he added.
GM straps on the rose-colored blinders and dangles the Volt in its presser on today’s agreement to sell Opel to Magna and Sberbank. Ironic counterpoint after the jump.
To put it simply, Honda’s Insight sold 4,226 units last month while the Prius sold 18,886. Through August, Toyota sold 93,810 Priora while the Insight motivated only 14,045 buyers. Honda has tacitly admitted that the Insight is not up to snuff. But upgrades could take years. Honda could just as easily have the long-rumored Fit Hybrid ready in the same time. Would it be a better Prius fighter? Or will Honda Hybrids be stuck wandering the desert until, say, the CR-Z arrives?
I recently clocked a billboard offering passersby a Mercedes E-Class for $599 a month. I called the Mercedes dealer in question. Sorry, can’t find the paper, I have to call you back. I’ll wait. Oh, here it is! Here what is? A rear-wheel-drive E-Class luxury car. Which one? A rear-wheel drive E-Class luxury car. Yes, which model? E350. Options? A choice of metallic paint (as long as it’s white or black) and heated front seats. How much down? $5,509. How many months? It’s a 39-month lease, 10k miles per year. $599 a month all in? Plus tax. How much tax? $42 a month. Do you have one in stock? I’m sure we do but we can get one. Uh-huh. It’s not a the worst deal I’ve ever seen but . . . I wonder how much it would cost me to lease that Maybach that’s been in their showroom since 1909. Meanwhile, where the hell is Darwin? By now, anyone stupid enough to fall for a low low monthly payment come-on should be in debtor’s prison. Which would force the dealers perpetuating the sales technique into receivership, where the bank could re-fi their biz. I mean, $1 mil would only be $1666 a month over 50 years. Plus interest, of course. And handling fees.
GM’s new ad campaign, featuring Chairman Ed Whitacre, centers around the catchphrase “may the best car win.” According to the New York Times, the lure to new buyers will be a 60-day refund on any new GM product. In short, the perfect way to remind shoppers that buyer’s remorse comes standard on most GM vehicles. But that’s not even the craziest part of GM’s latest bid for consideration. To find out more, let’s just surf over to maythebestcarwin.com . . .
I don’t mean to single out Audi here, but they sent us some stats about their stand at the Frankfurt Auto Show. [Press release after the jump.] Fifteen climate control units. One thousand four hundred spotlights. Six thousand square meters of space. I mean, even if you put aside the environmental impact of powering this much stuff, not to mention transporting, feeding and housing 150 people, how much does it all cost? Is it really worth it? Can’t Audi just use the internet and give us a discount on a nice, pre-owned S4?
Hello, Don Sajeev! Over on Autoblog, I read Jonny Lieberman’s post on the Aston Martin 177 and it’s inboard shocks. I am not sure I will ever have to deal with this, but what is the deal with reducing unsprung weight as much as possible? I don’t understand: Is it just about greater control of the vehicle+motion through shocks & springs, or is it something greater? It would be nice to find out what El Mehtador + the Piston Slap community thinks about this.
Special interest groups continue to battle a pair of anti-photo enforcement ballot initiatives in Ohio and one in Arizona. In Ohio, officials are so desperate to prevent the public from deciding whether or not to keep the cameras that the city’s legal department moved to block a citizen-led ballot petition before the Ross County Board of Elections. Last week, the board rejected the city’s demand outright. Representatives from Citizens Against Photo Enforcement (CAPE), which collected the signatures, were thrilled at the outcome. Voters will now decide for themselves whether or not to kick out Redflex Traffic Systems, the Australian company that runs the cameras. “We believe that this protest was a Redflex move,” Rebekah Valentich told TheNewspaper. “The assistant law director did not even know how many cameras we had . . . Just the comments he used during his back-to- the-people speech seemed very rehearsed and reeked of Redflex.”
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel herself has confirmed that GM is ready to sell Opel to Magna. The offer comes with yet to be disclosed conditions. However, according to news-adhoc, Frau Merkel “doesn’t have the impression that behind the announcement of Opel is a hidden agenda that sets the threshold so high that in the end there won’t be a sale.” This is politico-speak for: “Do we smell a rat here?” Das Handelsblatt has more details.
The increasingly active GM BOD (Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr. is even to star in a TV commercial, usually not the job of a Chairman) convened, canned the CFO Ray Young and did the unthinkable: They came to a conclusion about (their version of) the fate of Opel. Nothing is clear at the moment, but indications are it may be Magna after all.
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