Filed under: Car Buying, Trends, Hybrids/Alternative, SUVs, Trucks/Pickups, Green, Chevrolet, GM, GMC, Earnings/Financials
GM jacks up incentives on trucks and SUVs
click above image for a high-res gallery of the Chevy Tahoe 2-mode Hybrid
We've been waiting for General Motors to step up to the plate with its own incentives now that Ford has offered employee pricing on its F-Series trucks and Dodge has offered $2.99 fuel to go along with its various incentives for the Ram. It seems that GM has finally anted up and increased the incentives for the Silverado, Avalanche and Sierra trucks, along with the Tahoe, Yukon, Escalade and Suburban. The pickups all get $2,000 in customer cash to go along with an extra $3,000 if you already own a GM product for a total of $5,000 total off the sticker price. Those shopping for an SUV will even get an extra grand. In what may be an even larger sign of the times, for the first time ever GM's hybrid Tahoe and Yukon get $4,000 off, but only if you already own a product from the General.
If you want to get in on the savings and don't mind guzzling some gas, you have until June 7 to make it to your nearest Chevrolet or GMC dealer. No rush, we doubt there'll be a line.
[Source: Bloomberg]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
catgirlshyla 8:06AM (6/10/2008)
1. Find Chevy Nova/Toyota Rebadge car for the cheap.
2. Drive into lot with said car.
3. Argue with the dealer over legality.
4. ????
5. PROFIT!!
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catgirlshyla 8:06AM (6/10/2008)
"If you want to get in on the savings and don't mind guzzling some gas, you have until June 7 to make it to your nearest Chevrolet or GMC dealer. No rush, we doubt there'll be a line."
Today is June 10th. Slowpokes aren't we?
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Rogue_G 8:28AM (6/10/2008)
Todays Lesson: Click the Source, read it for yourself.
Program STARTS June 7, runs to the end of the month. GG Autoblog.
tekdemon 8:21AM (6/10/2008)
lol, surely the best way to fight for marketshare is to offer incentives only your existing customers can use!
I mean, it's not like this will jus a Gt mean more used GM vehicles for sale as people trade them in, further driving down resale.
But seriously, this promotion is retarded. I'm all for small customer loyalty rebates...but these insane rebates are just going to make it very unlikely for any Ford/Toyota/etc owners to convert after seeing the GM repeat buyer in front of them get 3000 more off.
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Disgruntled Goat 8:28AM (6/10/2008)
Yes, that's retarded but no one's ever accused GM management of making wise decisions. Don't worry though, the way things are going we'll see the same incentives for all very soon.
Chris 8:46AM (6/10/2008)
I always thought loyalty money was a joke. I did notice that VW offers you money if your driving other foreign models which is a far better idea.
mike 9:04AM (6/10/2008)
If GM can not sell hybrids without discounts to rich people (Tahoe Hybrid is pricey) during record gas prices, how will they sell Volt if gas will become cheaper?
I guess this is where GM pays for its dirty image, this is where Bob Lutz starts eating his shoes, no one believes that GM can make fuel efficient vehicles.
PS just for the record, Toyota DOES make more efficient vehicles.
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SkiD666 9:17AM (6/10/2008)
And Toyota doesn't make gas guzzlers? (Tundra, FJ, Sequoia, etc.)
BTW, Ford, Chrysler and Toyota won't be far behind in offereing incentives on full size trucks.
Frylock350 9:21AM (6/10/2008)
Really Toyota makes more efficient vehicles? Time for a reality check. If you compare classes where GM and Toyota compete GM usually wins the fuel efficiency battle. Just because GM's trucks are actually desirable doesn't mean they don't make efficient cars.
A quick rundown of the popular classes of compact/midsize/fullsize sedans and pickups/big-SUVs
Silverado > Tundra
Cobalt > Corolla
Malibu > Camry
Tahoe > Sequoia
Impala > Avalon
psarhjinian 9:51AM (6/10/2008)
Frylock et al,
Toyota also sells far more fuel efficient vehicles, as a percentage of it's fleet, than GM does. Yes, Toyota makes gas guzzlers, but it's not their lifeblood and, if they had to pack in the Tundra, Sequoia, Land Cruiser, 4Runner, GX and LX, it wouldn't realistically dent them as they still sell Corollas, Yarises, Camrys and Priuses in _far_ greater
The A and F in CAFE stand for Average Fleet. GM's fleet is top-heavy in terms of mileage because they've allowed their economy car offerings to atrophe. There's a reason why Toyota and Honda scoooped the first four places in sales last month, and it's because, despite what brand fans might think, they make fuel efficient vehicles that appeal to most of the population.
GM's current state is twofold: failing to use their windfall truck profits to bolster the rest of their lineup (a failure of GM's accounting and leadership) and failure to develop a cohesive product mix and marketing plan (a failure of marketing and product planning, and thusly of leadership).
These groups (accounting, marketing/planning and senior management) are responsible, through their ineptitude, for ceding the market to Toyota and Honda. GM might make good products, but that's not really the point anymore: they've failed to develop good products in markets that are recession-resistant, and they've failed to convince people to buy them. And it's not like this is a new thing: they've have five to eight years of good engineering and assembly, and all they can do is whine and cry about how unappreciated they are.
rouse42 10:02AM (6/10/2008)
A quick rundown of the popular classes of compact/midsize/fullsize sedans and pickups/big-SUVs
Silverado > Tundra
Cobalt > Corolla
Malibu > Camry
Tahoe > Sequoia
Impala > Avalon
i think you got that wrong
it should be
Silverado < Tundra
Cobalt < Corolla
Malibu < Camry
Tahoe < Sequoia
Impala < Avalon
Judy Zik 11:06AM (6/10/2008)
This is a foolish argument. The only reason Toyota isn't just as top heavy on trucks as GM is because buyers didn't embrace their trucks. So Toyota made a brand new Tundra and a big honking plant to build them. They invested a fortune in truck building capacity just before the bottom fell out of the truck market so it is pretty hard to make the argument that they were looking through a crystal ball. It is not like the mighty Toyota decided they were only going to build fuel efficient cars. It is more a matter that the car buying public in the Truck and big SUV market stuck to the domestic products.
It is all about the buyer. The car makers Toyota included build what their customer wants to buy. Fortunately for Toyota their reputation with small car buyers was better than their rep with truck buyers. Yes Toyota was smart to build a hybrid but it isn't like they were sitting around hugging trees and telling Tundra buyers to buy a Prius instead.
why not the LS2LS7? 11:25AM (6/10/2008)
I'm with Judy here. Toyota's lower dependence on trucks was not for a lack of trying. If gas had not risen, Toyota's product mix would have become near identical to GMs in another decade, because Toyota has been making more and more guzzlers in order to sell more vehicles.
Remember, the easiest way to make conquests (increase market share) is to sell a car in a market you've never been in before. You know people who buy that vehicle are not trading in another one of your own to buy it. Toyota has been executing on this by growing to larger and larger vehicles.
psarhjinian 12:43PM (6/10/2008)
Judy & LS,
It's not that Toyota couldn't have been top-heavy--you're right, they might've--it's that they didn't forsake their entire model range for the sake of quick truck profits, an action for which they're reaping the benefits. The "Toyota also makes trucks, too" is a red herring that lets GM Management off the hook for poor planning, just as "Public perception of Toyota small cars/Domestic trucks is better..." is because that lets both companies' marketing departments off the hook for not being able to sell product. If you have a good product that you cannot sell, either marketing is doing a bad job at promotion and/or product planning did a bad job at market analysis (and you shouldn't have made the car in the first place).
Either way, blaming the customer or pointing to your competitors is really just sophistry. You screwed up. Toyota made a mistake with the Tundra, but it's one of very, very few strategic mistakes they make, and the burn wasn't significant, so we can let them off the hook. GM, on the other hand, is a long-running soap opera of incompetent marketing and leadership strategy, so we're hard on them--even moreso when you realize that GM's management has actually earned _performance bonuses_ for making year after year of strategic mistakes.
Frylock350 9:22AM (6/10/2008)
Wish I waited a year to buy my Suburban. I could have used $5k off the sticker.
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adrenalnjunky 9:37AM (6/10/2008)
Trade your 1yr old in on a new one, with trade + 5K off sticker, I can't see you coming up terribly bad off, unless you are way upside-down on your note.
gstillmilkman 9:50AM (6/10/2008)
The trade-in value on a year old Suburban probably isn't too good. If they can't move new ones off the lot, they'll have a hard time moving a used one.
Of course, that extra $5000 could've bought three-months worth of gas in a new Suburban.
Frylock350 10:20AM (6/10/2008)
My Suburban's got 38k on the odometer now, I'm pretty sure that's killed its resale as its out of basic warranty. However I am going to go in and see if I can score a new one for a break even price. Heck its even worth 1-2k to get back to no miles. I tend to rack the miles up on my cars (I travel all over to fish/ATV). My Silverado had 315k on it when I swapped it for the Suburban.
Disgruntled Goat 1:06PM (6/10/2008)
A new Surburban (depending on how it's equipped) will still run you a little over $30 OTD even with the discounts. You'll be doing good to get $18,500 in trade for a used 2007 LT2 with 38k miles.
gstillmilkman 9:35AM (6/10/2008)
I'm waiting for one of the original "Big 3" to start a promotion where if you trade in an auto from one of their competitors, you get the heavy incentives. Seriously, if someone wanted to trade in their Tacoma or Tundra for a Sierra/Silverado, don't you think GM would be peeing themselves in excitement and happiness?
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