Unfortunately it is the nature of the business....supply and demand if you will. Legally, GM/Ford/any manufacturer cannot dictate to a dealer what the dealer can sell a car or truck for. Period. Every GM Employee who contacts a dealer MUST sign a stack of papers a foot high (OK, I'm exaggerating...it's only 11 3/4 inches high.. ) One of those is a cease and desist order from the United States Government that "thou shalt not tell a dealer what he can sell a car or truck for......or ye shall be thrown to the wolves...."

It frustrates the manufacturer for many reasons. (some of which I can't get into ...but some of you may have heard me speak about some of those reasons.... --see! another reason to show up in Bowling Green next year!)

It appeared that the GTO was dead in the water...also the SSR...when in reality much of the disappointing sales figures were due to "additional dealer markup" on many cars........interestingly, when it was found out that the LS2 would be used in the '05 GTO and SSR, suddenly the prices came down!!!

My personal opinion is that a dealer should never charge over MSRP. That said, if I were a Chevy dealer, I would not be discounting 2005 Corvettes right now......the demand is there for the car. Simple supply and demand.

 

Is it really that bad .....tell me NEW 2002 Camaro and Firebirds AREN'T still being sold in 2004 My freakin lord , they werent thaaaat bad .

 

Yeah...they are that bad. A dealer by me is still trying to sell a CETA Vert Trans Am. 200 miles on it...due to test drives.
They have already sold 3 GTO's. Sticker for the CETA Vert is still 33.2k.

 

Ack.

This points to exactly what I'm worried about. The LS2 cars will hit and the dealers will be back to their old ways.

I wouldn't ask them to discount, just sell them at MSRP.

My thought is that the goodwill destroyed by these dealer practices (outrageous markups with no justification other than "we can stick it to them") is not easily won back.

 

Here here!

I have been completely turned off by Pontiac dealers because of my experience in hunting for a GTO last winter. The only exception was a Pontiac dealer in Tolleson Arizona near my sister's place that sold GTOs for list almost from the very begining, and their willingness to find the GTO you want at other dealers if necessary.

 

That confuses me. How does Saturn work, then? Or Scion? Both have "pure pricing" where the car price is set and is not marked up or down. I know that the way the Scion agreement works is, the dealer can charge whatever price they want, but they have to charge the same price for every car and keep it that way for the MY. Not sure of the details on Saturn, but their no haggle pricing is pretty lauded. If it's illegal, how do these brands work?

Personally, I will not tolerate dealer markups. I'll never go back to a dealer that has a big markup on cars. Which is severely limiting the amount of Dodge dealers I can shop at, all of them mark up the desirable cars by $5k.

 

I have a great idea to prevent dealer markup, ship maybe one or two of a hot car to that dealer. (the new Vette, STS, etc.) If the dealer sells it with a markup, GM should refuse to ship that dealer any more Vettes, GTO's, etc. Maybe if the dealer apologized and agreed to sell at sticker price, then maybe ship them some more Vettes or whatever.

Or maybe GM should just refuse to ship a hot model to a dealership that has a history of charging markups.

 

shoot, I'd love to buy a brand new Trans Am or SS, provided its at least 10K off of the sticker price. Because that is how much it will depriciate when you drive it off the lot.