Filed under: Car Buying, Sedans/Saloons, Chrysler, LLC., Ford, Honda, Nissan, Toyota
Take our Sebrings, please! $1,000 for your sedan
In a move of incredible faith or outright desperation, Chrysler will slap $1,000 on the hood of their newly released Sebring for owners that are willing to part with the sedan's closest competitors. The offer is good through select dealerships up until November 30th and is only available to lessees of the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Ford Fusion and Nissan Altima.
Obviously, this effort by Chrysler is to prove that they can one-up their competition by not only offering a superior product, but at a price that may substantially undercut some of the foreign competition.
Whether or not this kind of tactic will work in the highly competitive four-wheeled appliance market is open to debate, but whenever an automaker starts offering up cash incentives, we get a little worried about their confidence in the product.
[Source: Detroit News]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
laserwizard 8:51AM (11/07/2006)
Pay me $30,000 and I'll drive your $25,000 ugly piece of junk. This car is one of the worst looking cars ever made. GM is thanking Chrysler for making such a turd - it removes the Cobore and Ion as the worst vehicles currently sold.
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Piter 8:52AM (11/07/2006)
The Sebring will depreciate 10x as much as soon as you drive off the lot; it will be worth less than the Accord or Camry you trade in.
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Clayton W. 9:00AM (11/07/2006)
Dear editor, I believe you meant to say "lessees" and not "lessors".
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Eric B 9:01AM (11/07/2006)
Only problem is that these cars are marginal at best - and that's before taking the... errr... styling into account.
If you can call it that.
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G. Snyder 9:05AM (11/07/2006)
"Dear editor, I believe you meant to say "lessees" and not "lessors"."
They did not mean either because they are bad journalists. This would suggest that only previous lease holders of Accords, Camrys, et al would be eligible. The deal is extended to those who trade in one of the competitors. You certainly do not trade in a leased vehicle.
Autoblog is getting worse and worse. My take is the "editor" (a big stretch) thought they were using a big fancy word and did not understand it. I wonder if anyone bothered to even read the news release.
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DC_1 9:15AM (11/07/2006)
This will again become the sweetheart of Avis.
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Charles 9:20AM (11/07/2006)
This is actually a really brilliant move. One of the biggest problems US automakers have been facing is the perception, and sometimes mis-perception, that Americans make crap cars. Most who buy American have been buying American, and those that buy Japanese rarely consider buying American. Chrysler is reaching conquest buyers, a critical group of people that Chrysler, and any US automaker, needs to succeed in the long run.
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Rob @ School 9:29AM (11/07/2006)
I don't think it's ugly. In fact, if given to me, I'd gladly drive a chrysler product. But I'd never buy one EVER again, thanks to their atrocious resale value. They plummet faster than a falling sack of lead bricks. I don't know why anybody in their right mind would purchase a brand new chrysler, considering how they're only worth like 3-5 grand in just 3-5 years. Talk about losing money... if Chrysler really wanted an incentive that worked, they'd let you buy the car with the deal that if you wanted to sell it, THEY WOULD BUY IT BACK for a reasonable price. But right now, the only people who buy new Chryslers are either complete morons or people who don't care about losing 10-20,000 dollars.
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Shawn 9:32AM (11/07/2006)
DC is not American. "Foreign competition" it faces are non-German products.
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Michael Karesh 9:42AM (11/07/2006)
The Sebring's price is high, suggesting that it had a rebate baked in to begin with.
In a way this is a really bad move, as exposing drivers of foreign sedans to the Sebring will convince them that they've been correct to not even consider a Chrysler product. The product itself is mediocre, and the styling is awful.
I said as much last July in a design study published by TTAC: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/?p=1791
For price comparisons and a link to my review of what the car is like to drive:
http://www.truedelta.com/models/Sebring.php
My site won't be including this $1,000 incentive because it's not available to everyone. And very few people it is available to will be using it, anyway.
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cl2 9:45AM (11/07/2006)
Ugly, Ugly, Ugly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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yeahright 9:55AM (11/07/2006)
#5, you're right that this site needs a better editor. But in this case, give Damon a break. His source (which he credits) was the Detroit News. And that's where the confusion began: the Detroit paper's lead says the deal is available to people who "trade in" a Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Nissan Altima or Ford Fusion. Yet the very next sentence says the offer is "available through Nov. 30 to customers who are currently leasing the rival sedans." As you say, something doesn't gybe.
In any event, my guess is that the deal is open to anyone currently driving one of those four vehicles, whether they own or lease. If nothing else, the offer will probably entice some of them to cross-shop the Sebring. And any time you can convince people to cross-shop, some of them WILL wind up buying your product, regardless of whether you or I think it's inferior.
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olddavid 10:18AM (11/07/2006)
The bias on this site is atrocious.The price is very reasonable at the price schedule posted by #10, certainly with actual transaction prices being calculated into the equation. The Touring model with most options that I recently drove was, I admit, an appliance. However, that is what we are comparing, yes? And as I have stated before, I can do a lot of driving and depreciation absorbing for the $5k I will keep over a like Honda.
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Gardiner Westbound 10:19AM (11/07/2006)
Throwing cash incentives at consumers to buy substandard, over-priced goods will fail. The public is too smart and has been burned too often to be scammed again.
Better to spend the money on improved design and quality, and build consumer confidence with superior warranties. It worked for the Koreans.
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Stphane Dumas 10:30AM (11/07/2006)
DC_1, I heard some rumors then Toyota is also interested to sell some Camry to Avis too.
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Jimmy 10:42AM (11/07/2006)
Sebring looks better than the sixth generation Camry! I also disagree with the "truedelta" review, the car looks much better in black than light colors (seen both in person).
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Idahoivan 10:43AM (11/07/2006)
It seems that we are forgetting who the most important buyer to DC is right now - their dealers. Remember DC has over 50,000 cars sitting in lots around the country and can't book revenue for those units until a dealer agrees to take them.
This kind of program will have two benefits to their dealer network - it generates foot traffic and potentially replenishes their used car lots with dependable, desireable used sedans that should be fairly profitable when resold.
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Piter 10:58AM (11/07/2006)
"This kind of program will have two benefits to their dealer network - it generates foot traffic and potentially replenishes their used car lots with dependable, desireable used sedans that should be fairly profitable when resold."
What Camry or Accord buyer is going to consider an Chrysler mid-size product in the first place? Its a lost cause, and the perception that they have to be bribed to buy one of their products doesnt help.
Sebring should sell based on its own merits; this promotion says that it cant.
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MikeW 10:58AM (11/07/2006)
Variable valve timing? camswitching?
The biggest change, chrysler put eEGR back on the engine. big deal, cam phasers work better-allowing a higher percentage of egr, and have quicker response so they can work more often. cough-2gr-fe.
Chrysler does have variable resonance and a dual length intake manifold, but that '6 speed automatic' just outsource, please.
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Presto 11:08AM (11/07/2006)
Just wait one year and you can get a program car Sebring for $8,000.
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