GM to Extend Employee Pricing to Everyone!

[bosl8306]

http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/gm28e_20050528.htm

[Perian]

Hold the phone...this isn't as wonderful as it sounds.

Remember one thing - GM employees get their discount

AND

any current incentives in effect.

Those incentives will now, I assume; be history.

[AdmiralViscen]

I thought they were going to stop doing these sweeping discounts in favor of region and dealer specific ones?

[ronus20]

.....Something seems fishy about this....

[jbernie]

The John Elway Autonation dealers here in Denver are doing an employee pricing promotion at the moment, for various brands (not even sure if GM ones are included).

<shrug>

If vehicles aren't selling you gotta find a way to keep them moving, esp with new models approaching.

James

[usa1]

Sounds like another desparate gimmick. How about making permanent MSRP reductions across the board and make a big deal about it? Reduce rebates and end up selling the vehicles for the same overall price. Good for resale value, etc.

Mark

[Buickman]

Definitely is a gimmick, and a desparate one at that. When you don't know how to sell cars, you give them away. Hot Button didn't work out so Hot. Some dealers will not like the new program. If their inventories are in line, they will suffer shortages and less profit. Dealers around the country often refuse to honor employee pricing to employees as it is their option to do so based upon supply and demand. Dealers who are "forced" to sell at distressed prices will holdback on trade values and send the used market into a tailspin.

[bigdaddycoats]

So, will there still be other cash incentives or just this??

[Buickman]

As General Manager of Suski Buick Chevrolet, I will receive all appropriate information and disclosures regarding this promo. Feel free to post any questions on this thread, and I will do my best to respond as time allows. Probably will take until some time Wednesday for all the parameters to be discerned.

[frenstall]

Well this is stupid, where is the employee appreciation now that everyone gets the same price?? Might as well just say we are eliminating employee discounts and implementing a blanket discount system.

[Buickman]

Agreed, some employees may see this as infringing on their special status. Others may view it as an opportunity to secure their employment. Either way, I don't care for the distress nature of it. Trades will drop quickly, never to recover. Shortages of some good sellers will appear. Profits foregone in the effort of giving away what GM doesn't know how to SELL. Eventually, no one will DESIRE a GM vehicle. We will only have people waiting for giveaways and our image will suffer further. Who wants something that is being "pushed" at you? This is just another example of marketing that sucks.

[Smaart Aas Saabr]

Originally Posted by Freep Creep

"If that's what they're doing, I think that's great," Lynn Thompson, co-owner of Thompson Chevrolet-Pontiac-Saturn-Buick-GMC-Cadillac-Saab in Springfield, Mo.,

Wow that's a lot of brands in one roof...

[LAMRONH]

Originally Posted by usa1

Sounds like another desparate gimmick. How about making permanent MSRP reductions across the board and make a big deal about it? Reduce rebates and end up selling the vehicles for the same overall price. Good for resale value, etc.

Mark

Bingo. Hopefully GMmismanagement will some day emerge from their delusional fog that has saddled many vehicles with prices $3,000 to $10,000 above anything remotely resembling reality.
Meanwhile, I await a coherent strategy to take back ground lost. So far even their rear guard actions do not seem effective. This is looking like the Russo-Japanese war of about 100 years ago. GM/Ford are the Rooskies, and guess who plays the Japanese? If you don't remember, the Japanese kicked serious butt on land and sea, sinking most of Russia's fleets.
Fire some coaches, trade some players. Roto-rooter the incompetent bureaucracies. This is serious business, and if GM doesn't want to look like last year's Detroit Tigers they better wake up and smell the saki.

[silverbugeye]

Maybe some havent been paying attention.


GM is going to slash prices for 06 models. The HHR pricing announcement was the first real sign of that.

So they need to do something to help 05's move when the 06 prices are announced.

Actual GM retirees will proably get more employee bonus cash to make up for the difference.


Also keep in mind that even if you are an employee, A dealer can always discount a car to GMS or below to get rid of it to anyone. Not all cars are this way but some are.

[gmmerc5]

My 2 cents in this matter is this program will only last one month, as someone has said the purpose is to sell the 2005 models and lower the inventories, it is not intended to be a long term program, so employees should have nothing to worry about as far as their discount goes, what worry me more is the perception the public will have is if they wait long enough or delay buying GM vehicles, GM will eventually come out with a deeper price cut on their products, of course as we all know the only way for GM to get out of this hole is to design and build the "gotta have" vehicles and price them accordingly.