This sounds bad...

http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/gm15e_20051015.htm
57%

 

It wasnt a disaster, it was a complete success. The Employee deal ended in September, so of course sales are going to be down now, since everyone already got a deal!

 

Plus, if I am not mistaken...normally there are many more previous model year (05's) on the lots this time of year, but GM has already cleared them out with employee pricing. Also, the rebates suck for the 06's right now.

 

that's basically the meat of it. everything else is an excuse. the problem for GM is after a firesale, they aren't setting the pricing on "new" '06 models that are vertually unchanged low enough for people to consider them.

 

You think it sounds bad now...most have been pumping out vehicles at rates that aren't neccessary to end the fiscal quarter strong. Watch over the next 3 months...
(BTW, I'm heading for another layoff at the end of the month, orders are down across the entire vehicle industry and am working mandantory O/T for the remaining time.. )
I would have hated to have seen the figures w/o the Employee Pricing sales incentive.
(BTW, my close friend traded in a perfectly good 2000 Silverado for an '05 with $9,000 in savings.. )

 

Daimler Chrysler was fairly smart...right now their 06 incentives are better or close to the same on the 05 models.

 

Is it just that, or were a lot of the sales "pull ahead" sales? Maybe some combination of the two?

 

Also, GM new low "total value pricing" is going to gurt it for a while. Many GM buyers were conditioned to using rebates to get out of cars they were upside down on. Without the rebates, there now is not enough room in the 06's for them to continue the cycle.

 

My local ponitac dealership has about 3 rows of cars that just arent there because they sold them all.

I dont see that as a disaster.

 

That has a lot to do with it. GM's inventories are currently at about a 35 day supply, way below what they usually have, and way lower than the 60 days that they like to target. This is of course due to the employee pricing program that cleared out all the 2005s. Without all these past model year vehicles to unload, year over year comparisons are going to be pretty bleak.

And I agree that the new value pricing is going to take time to take hold. The last time GM tried to scale back incentives consumers stayed away and GM blinked, returning to the big incentives. We'll see if GM has enough faith in their new products, and the willpower to suffer a few lacklustre months in order to kick the incentive habit.

 

Chrysler did a phenominal balencing act with their "Employee pricing". Where as GM sacrificed sales for the next number of months, Chrysler (and to a lesser extent, Ford) used it simply to move slow selling vehicles, as opposed to a Fire Sale on everything except "halo vehicles".

While GM has done alot to reinforce their "K-Mart" image on the auto scene, it seems Chrysler seems to have gained quite a bit of stature with the public.

 

You guys will really like this then....

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...04&forum_id=74

 

Did I read that right?

GM is doing a price increase?!

Aren't their sales down over 50% overall right now?

 

Uhm, ding ding ding...we have a winner

I will say one thing...rebates are STILL too high IMO despite the value initiative. Consider that if I want a new GP or a G6 sedan with the 3.5 (either base or GT sedan...all other G6s are $500 less rebate), I can already get $1,500 and its not even November? I don't even have a Torrent yet, and it has $1,000!!!!

Something tells me value pricing won't stop fire sale rebates...GM doesn't have the gumption to suck up several months of slow sales. I can't blame them...they have to keep the pig stockholders happy. Which is a shame, because GM really does live month-to-month and quarter-to-quarter far more than it should if it was able to look at the bigger picture.

I wish them luck

 

I won't comment on the value pricing and the rebates situation that Jason E is talking about. I simply don't know what to think and have been tired of rebates for a very long time. As for the sales situation, September and October were blowout months last year where GM had the 72-hour clearance, or somehting like that, and used it to clear out all the '04s, now they just did it a couple of months early. My Chevy dealer has like 35 cars missing from their usual inventory on display, I think most dealers don't have all thier inventory yet.