G6 Trade-In/Resale

[cmclovis]

I just got a G6 GXP and love the car, but I did a really bad job on researching the vehicle - note that I take responsibility for this. Ater 48 hours or so, I do a little more research on the car and realize that the resale is horrendous on these cars. Most are showing barely 60% value after 12 months retail and 50% trade-in (per Kelley). This is unelievable to me, especially comparing a similar Altima (sedan comparison) and its value is $5000 more or abut 80%.

Am I missing something or are the imports simply holding a signficant resale advantage?

[unkillsam]

Originally Posted by cmclovis

I just got a G6 GXP and love the car, but I did a really bad job on researching the vehicle - note that I take responsibility for this. Ater 48 hours or so, I do a little more research on the car and realize that the resale is horrendous on these cars. Most are showing barely 60% value after 12 months retail and 50% trade-in (per Kelley). This is unelievable to me, especially comparing a similar Altima (sedan comparison) and its value is $5000 more or abut 80%.

Am I missing something or are the imports simply holding a signficant resale advantage?

It is so bad because GM fleet dumps the lower trim level G6 sedans.

In comparison, the 2008 Malibu is showing that projected depreciation is expected to be the same as the imports.

Also, the Aura has BETTER resale then the imports due to no fleet dumping and low availability.

As a whole, GM's resale values are improving. It's just that the G6 needs an update like the Malibu so they don't have to fleet dump to move the car. Malibu is up 200% retail since launch.

[GMCSonoma]

Ironically the Altima, as well as the Sonata are filling the rental lots as I've noticed the last year in my travels...

I can't see why about the Altima with a better resale value...now a Toyota or a Honda...but a Nissan..aka a tarted Renault???

[Buick61]

Ah, yes. G6 resale value.

Have a gander over here:

Tired of the G6, need new car advice!

Mine was the top-of-the line GTP, so it's comparable to your GXP in the G6 lineup.

[cmclovis]

You guys are all correct. Having done even more research on the situation, the G6 is the main issue and all of your reasons make complete sense.

It is disgusting, because the car is pretty nice, but I only intended to keep it up to 18 months. So I dumped a big down payment in and a GM Card rebate and purchased it. The funny part (not really) is that this is the first car that I have not leased in 13 years.

Anyway, I called the dealer yesterday about it and they hadn't processed anything yet. We are going to work something out - probably change the financing out to a lease still using my GM Card money and giving my cash back. I had no trade. The leasing program on GM sites, says this can work out. We will see, but huge depreciation numbers do not lend well to good leases.

However, the G6 should be an embarassing example for GM. People are getting destroyed on them everyday and not knowing about it. I venture to say that this is my last GM car. How the dealer handles it will give me a good indicator.

[unkillsam]

Originally Posted by cmclovis

You guys are all correct. Having done even more research on the situation, the G6 is the main issue and all of your reasons make complete sense.

It is disgusting, because the car is pretty nice, but I only intended to keep it up to 18 months. So I dumped a big down payment in and a GM Card rebate and purchased it. The funny part (not really) is that this is the first car that I have not leased in 13 years.

Anyway, I called the dealer yesterday about it and they hadn't processed anything yet. We are going to work something out - probably change the financing out to a lease still using my GM Card money and giving my cash back. I had no trade. The leasing program on GM sites, says this can work out. We will see, but huge depreciation numbers do not lend well to good leases.

However, the G6 should be an embarassing example for GM. People are getting destroyed on them everyday and not knowing about it. I venture to say that this is my last GM car. How the dealer handles it will give me a good indicator.

Why would this be your last GM car? I gave you an example of the Malibu. That car has excellent projected value, as does the Aura.

Secondly, ever here of the old saying "Buyer beware" It is not the dealers responsibility, nor GM's responsibility to say, "Hey don't buy a Pontiac because the resale value sucks"

However, it is GM's responsibility to start building cars that have excellent resale value and to stop fleet dumping.

And to this effect they have done that with all of their latest product launches post G6 era.

Secondly, if you negotiated properly you probably saved a ton of money in discounts that you would not have gotten with purchasing an import. This mitigates some of the hit that you take on resale value, by not having to put up as much money up front.

[cmclovis]

Originally Posted by unkillsam

Why would this be your last GM car? I gave you an example of the Malibu. That car has excellent projected value, as does the Aura.

Secondly, ever here of the old saying "Buyer beware" It is not the dealers responsibility, nor GM's responsibility to say, "Hey don't buy a Pontiac because the resale value sucks"

However, it is GM's responsibility to start building cars that have excellent resale value and to stop fleet dumping.

And to this effect they have done that with all of their latest product launches post G6 era.

Secondly, if you negotiated properly you probably saved a ton of money in discounts that you would not have gotten with purchasing an import. This mitigates some of the hit that you take on resale value, by not having to put up as much money up front.

First, I agree with everything you say and am not here to fight about it.

Secondly, I agree that it does not fall onto the dealer to "warn" a purchaser about anything. It is clearly their job to sell cars and then hopefully keep customers happy and continuously coming back. It was my "job" to figure this out and I have.

I understand your point and agree that the newer GM stuff is doing clearly better. Hopefully, this trend will continue, but it will not help with this car. I would have considered an Aura had GM Card rebates been available on it.

Lastly, I buy cars and consider them "business decisions." This purchase was solely made because my wife liked the car AND THEN I had a nice GM Card rebate and there were GM incentives involved. Nothing more. If the car were to depreciate in any kind of normal manner, I would recover my down money and lose the rebates inc. GM Card and dealer discounts to depreciation over the next couple of years. This car is not "personal" to me at all, but losing money for no good reason is. Personal is my 1969 Corvette, not a plastic G6.

I have not owned an American car or truck because of this for many, many years. It has been proven over and over again. For many years, I was a loyal GM customer - owning 3 Berettas, 2 Chevrolet trucks, 1 GMC Truck - and wanted to try the "newer" stuff. Whether I return or not for anthing more than a Corvette or truck will be based on this "tryout."

Better adages than "buyer beware" for this situation is "you get what you pay for" and "if it appears too good to be true, it is." Time will tell. Thankully, the dealer does understand how/why I bought the car and the problems associated with resale and will work with me - good sign. I am also glad I found this place to raise the red flag.

I wonder how the Solstice holds up on value.

[unkillsam]

Originally Posted by cmclovis

First, I agree with everything you say and am not here to fight about it.

Secondly, I agree that it does not fall onto the dealer to "warn" a purchaser about anything. It is clearly their job to sell cars and then hopefully keep customers happy and continuously coming back. It was my "job" to figure this out and I have.

I understand your point and agree that the newer GM stuff is doing clearly better. Hopefully, this trend will continue, but it will not help with this car. I would have considered an Aura had GM Card rebates been available on it.

Lastly, I buy cars and consider them "business decisions." This purchase was solely made because my wife liked the car AND THEN I had a nice GM Card rebate and there were GM incentives involved. Nothing more. If the car were to depreciate in any kind of normal manner, I would recover my down money and lose the rebates inc. GM Card and dealer discounts to depreciation over the next couple of years. This car is not "personal" to me at all, but losing money for no good reason is. Personal is my 1969 Corvette, not a plastic G6.

I have not owned an American car or truck because of this for many, many years. It has been proven over and over again. For many years, I was a loyal GM customer - owning 3 Berettas, 2 Chevrolet trucks, 1 GMC Truck - and wanted to try the "newer" stuff. Whether I return or not for anthing more than a Corvette or truck will be based on this "tryout."

Better adages than "buyer beware" for this situation is "you get what you pay for" and "if it appears too good to be true, it is." Time will tell. Thankully, the dealer does understand how/why I bought the car and the problems associated with resale and will work with me - good sign. I am also glad I found this place to raise the red flag.

I wonder how the Solstice holds up on value.

I understand where you are coming from, and yes GM has been saying that their best product "is right around the corner" for years.

What the problem here is that GM did not make a commitment to really start producing world class cars until 2004. By then the G6 was already on the drawing board.

The G6 is a great car, with many of the same internals as the Aura and Malibu. It is just that because of GM's new commitment, these cars have had more attention and money dumped into their developement and thus GM does not have to rely on fleet sales to move the metal, because the consumers are responding.

Right now GM has 3 tiers of cars right now, great, good, and bad.

The great cars are all post 2004 "drawing board wise" and include the Lambda's, the GMT-900 products, and the "Gen II" Eplison I products like Aura and Malibu, as well as the refreshed Sigma products like CTS, STS, and SRX

The good cars are all pre 2004 products that are not bad cars but are missing a lot in terms of refinement and small touches that are noticable to the consumer. These cars are the Delta's G5 and Cobalt, the old style Aveo, the GMT-360's Trailblazer, and the GMT-355 trucks like Canyon.

The bad vehicles are in my opinion basically the old minivans which after 2008 are gone permanently.

And in the coming years GM is continuing new product launches that will elevate the "good" cars to "great" cars.

[Ed753]

Originally Posted by cmclovis

It is disgusting, because the car is pretty nice, but I only intended to keep it up to 18 months. So I dumped a big down payment in and a GM Card rebate and purchased it. The funny part (not really) is that this is the first car that I have not leased in 13 years.

This is probably the biggest part of your problem, if you drove/kept the car for 5-6 years and gave it away at the end, it ultimately wouldn't cost you as much to own as what your intentions here are. I guess the flexibility of selling in 18 months vs. leasing for 36-39 months is a bigger cost than you thought.

I worked with a guy that was going to trade in his Acura MDX after 18 months, when the Ridgeline came out, he paid $43,000 for the MDX, the dealer was going to give him $25,000 on trade yes, ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS a month, it would have cost him, he's still got the MDX 4+ years later .......

[cmclovis]

Originally Posted by Ed753

This is probably the biggest part of your problem, if you drove/kept the car for 5-6 years and gave it away at the end, it ultimately wouldn't cost you as much to own as what your intentions here are. I guess the flexibility of selling in 18 months vs. leasing for 36-39 months is a bigger cost than you thought.

I worked with a guy that was going to trade in his Acura MDX after 18 months, when the Ridgeline came out, he paid $43,000 for the MDX, the dealer was going to give him $25,000 on trade yes, ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS a month, it would have cost him, he's still got the MDX 4+ years later .......

You are right, but for unforseen circumstances. A 50% residual value after 12 months is the issue. Even in your case study, the guy was still holding 73% after the 12 months in theory. I would accept that loss is high, but may be the cost of doing business in short cycles. But 50%?

I would love to find another vehicle that loses 50% in the first year, but can't. The Solstice runs about 75% in the first year and I would think those would be far harder to place used - they can't get placed new.

unkillsam is correct that this is a micro-economy effected by GM and its fleet management skills.

The G6 is just not a good "investment" in a puchase format, unless you want to invest for a long term from my perspective. It may work better in a lease format or it may not - low residuals are usually bad. It is a good car and probably built for a long haul purchase, but that is not me.

[member12]

The G6 is a rental queen with virtually no name recognition. GM changes their cars' names too often.

The good thing is that your loaded up model will probably hold it's value fairly well over a longer period of time seeing that it isn't the most popular model to Avis.

There is also no advertising for the G6 whatsoever anymore.....but you also got a loaded sedan for 25K that you couldn't do at a Nissan dealership.

The best way to avoid the huge hit on resale would be to buy a stripped down 4 cylinder version.

That being said, you bought a Pontiac for two reasons: To look good in it and to drive it.

You didn't buy it to sell it....and trust me, no car (or boat, RV, motorcycle...any iron with moving parts) that normal folks can afford will appreciate.

[member12]

Wow.

Not to make anyone here feel bad, but I just did an appraised value on edmunds and kbb.

They both said that my truck is worth roughly 25000-26000 if I sold it private party.

Considering that I bought it for 27000 and put about 12,000 miles on it, I'd say that that's pretty good.

I'd ask for $27000 because of the pace edwards tonneau cover.

That's not bad at all for depreciation. Maybe next week I'll go down to the Toyota dealership and trade it in for a Tacoma.....


That last part was a joke.

[smokyn454]

Originally Posted by cmclovis

You are right, but for unforseen circumstances. A 50% residual value after 12 months is the issue. Even in your case study, the guy was still holding 73% after the 12 months in theory. I would accept that loss is high, but may be the cost of doing business in short cycles. But 50%?

I would love to find another vehicle that loses 50% in the first year, but can't. The Solstice runs about 75% in the first year and I would think those would be far harder to place used - they can't get placed new.

unkillsam is correct that this is a micro-economy effected by GM and its fleet management skills.

The G6 is just not a good "investment" in a puchase format, unless you want to invest for a long term from my perspective. It may work better in a lease format or it may not - low residuals are usually bad. It is a good car and probably built for a long haul purchase, but that is not me.

So let me get this straight, you went and bought a new car to have for 18 months. What investment pays off in 18 months? Were you expecting to make money?

I realize the G6 depreciates pretty fast and there isn't much you can do about it. It is your fault though, own up to it. Quit being a crybaby about how much money your going to lose. If you have enough brains to make money to buy the car, you should have enough brains to realize you are going to lose money on it. The #1 worst thing you can do with your money is buy a new car. It is one of the worst investments you can make. If you were only planning on owning it for 18 months, why didn't you go buy a two year old G6 and pay half the price? That seems like a smarter idea to me.

Then you say you got lots of incentives and GM bonus points on it as well. Probably much like I did. I bought a fully loaded G6 that stickered for around $24000 and I got it out the door for $19000. Let me see you do that with a Nissan or anything else.

After the 5 year/100,000 warranty, I will be turning in my lease and not losing a thing on the car. I highly recommend you lease it if you want brand new.

[F14CRAZY]

That was a major reason I didn't buy GM

[Ed753]

Originally Posted by cmclovis

You are right, but for unforseen circumstances. A 50% residual value after 12 months is the issue. Even in your case study, the guy was still holding 73% after the 12 months in theory. I would accept that loss is high, but may be the cost of doing business in short cycles. But 50%?

I would love to find another vehicle that loses 50% in the first year, but can't. The Solstice runs about 75% in the first year and I would think those would be far harder to place used - they can't get placed new.

unkillsam is correct that this is a micro-economy effected by GM and its fleet management skills.

The G6 is just not a good "investment" in a purchase format, unless you want to invest for a long term from my perspective. It may work better in a lease format or it may not - low residuals are usually bad. It is a good car and probably built for a long haul purchase, but that is not me.

I give you a personal example, my wife's Rendezvous, which I bought 11 months ago, brand new, residuals as follows:

2007 Buick RENDEZVOUS 2WD 5d Wgn CX
MSRP $27,050 ALG Residual - 24 months 35%; 36 months 28%; 48 months 24%; 60 months 20%

Now I'd be PO'd, but I got it for under $18,000 +35% off sticker (My MSRP was $27,700)

So based on sticker it drops like a rock, but in reality it really won't lose 65% after the first two years (under 30%) But I plan on keeping it for 4, 5, 6+ years, and after the first few years, it almost stops going down in value (only 4% a year from year 3 - 5) not even $100 a month!

Again, comparing that to my buddies Acura, which you said you'd accept his depreciation ........... He lost in the first 18 months what I paid for my wife's car!? Screw residuals, its about dollars and cents (and common sense)