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Filed under: Car Buying , Marketing/Advertising , Buick , Cadillac , Chevrolet , GM , GMC , HUMMER , Saab , Saturn It is no secret that the automotive industry is hurting for sales to close out 2008. Over the past few months incentives have been thrown out left and right to draw in more buyers. The deals have not done enough to bring folks into the showroom, though. With all the media talk of bleeding Detroit, consumers know that the domestic manufacturers have been holding out on their best offers. Perhaps the memory of 2005's employee pricing incentives has kept many waiting on the fence. With 2009 models heading to dealerships as we speak, General Motors is hoping to end the stalemate. It will be testing the waters of employee pricing yet again beginning Wednesday, August 20th and running through September 2nd. The employee discount program will apply across all 8 GM brands. Buick, Pontiac and GMC dealers will mark down 91 percent of their inventory on all 2008 models, along with...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Etc. , Marketing/Advertising , Videos , Bentley , Kia Kia's hungry for your business, which explains the pending arrival of the Forte. The Spectra is a good car, but blends in far more than the attractively turned out Forte. It seems the Forte also has an appetite, and it's for the good stuff. Kia wants to bolster its image, so what better way than a clever commercial that infers that inside the Kia is all the goodness of a partially digested Bentley? Of course it's hyperbole, that's why it's so cool! Video embedded after the jump. Thanks for the tip, Alberto! [Source: kia-world.net ] Continue reading VIDEO: Kia Forte eats a Bentley, yum! Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Car Buying , Marketing/Advertising , GM Used car sales as a profession has a rather sullied reputation. Some establishments deserve the distaste, while others work hard to take care of customers and stock their lots with good merchandise. Certified Pre-Owned vehicles are often a good bet, because they're automaker-sanctioned and undergo an extensive checklist before hitting the lot. GM is making a frontal assault on non-CPO used cars by launching UsedCarAmbush.com , expending lots of hidden camera effort and Mission: Impossible trappings to put home the point that GM's Certified Used vehicles come with a multitude of benefits. Unfortunately, it's an epic fail, mainly because private sellers were targeted instead of shady operators. Who ever heard of a private sale offering financing, roadside assistance, or warranty? Does GM (or its agency, Mullen) really think that the guy with 8 cars on his front lawn is their sales arm's competition? It's a case of a...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Etc. , Marketing/Advertising , GM This Independence Day might be the time for waving the red, white, and blue, but GM wants to nab some green, too. The automaker is extending its 0-percent financing sale, which it kicked off on June 24th as the "72-hour sale," until July 7th. The extension of the special financing offer allows dealers to capitalize on the increased floor traffic that GM's advertising onslaught generated. The sale and advertising frequency get people in the door, but many car buyers hem and haw, making it tough to close a deal in just a week's time. The extension gives salespeople a reason to ring up prospects and offer them the sweetest deal they can muster on a new General Motors vehicle. While we'd love to get a C6 Corvette for $20,000 off invoice and 0 percent terms on the loan, our blogging income likely supports a Certified Used vehicle instead. On that end, GM is also offering financing between 2.9 and 4.9 percent on...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Marketing/Advertising , Chrysler , Dodge , Jeep Chrysler's Project Genesis plan has been gaining traction as of late. The goal is to cut out redundant models between the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands, which would also mean consolidating its entire product line into one dealership which offers all three marques. While there are some dealership owners fighting the strategy, The Detroit News reports that Chrysler already has fifty-eight percent of its dealerships offering its three brands, and its been able to cut out some smaller, less profitable sites in the process. While franchise laws prohibit Chrysler from requiring the switch, reducing its model line can have the same effect, forcing its dealers to offer the entire product catalog from the company in order to offer a full line of vehicles. As a side benefit, the automaker hopes that its dealers can upgrade their franchises, offering a modern look and high-tech features such as Wi-Fi and a cafe on site...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Auction Action , Marketing/Advertising , Chrysler , GM , Lexus Way back in February, General Motors announced it would be listing all of it Certified Pre-Owned vehicles on eBay Motors, and it took until now to actually make that happen. To go along with GM, Chrysler and Lexus have also joined up, with eBay Motors making a special section of its website specifically for CPO vehicles. The new site, which can be found here , went live yesterday and is sponsored exclusively by Lexus. It's also provided at no cost to any dealer looking for another outlet to advertise its inventory. A quick check of the new hub shows that both eBay's classic auction-style listings and regular classified ads are listed together. The site's search functionality allows users to find vehicles located near their zip code, meaning it should prove awfully easy to find that brand-spanking-used Chrysler Sebring you've been foaming at the mouth for. [Source: Automotive News - sub...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Marketing/Advertising , Chrysler , Dodge , Jeep , Earnings/Financials It looks like car shoppers have been smart enough to see past Chrysler's cheap gas guarantee . Despite Chrysler's extension of the offer for an extra month, a very small percentage of actual consumers have actually chosen the gas guarantee over the old fashioned cash back options. As we've reported in the past, the incentive wasn't really as good as it seemed once the math was done. As was pointed out by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a 3 mpg bump in efficiency would be equal to the savings Chrysler was offering. Additionally, Chrysler not only has the worst fleet in terms of fuel efficiency, but many of its products haven't exactly set the world on fire based solely on their own merit . The performance of the incentive deal suggests that in today's world average consumers may not want to be seen driving gas guzzling vehicles, regardless of what they're paying...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Marketing/Advertising , Chrysler , Dodge , Ford , Earnings/Financials Times are tough in Detroit these days as each of the Big 3 saw drastic drops in sales for the month of May. It's not surprising, then, to see that Chrysler , Dodge and Ford have increased incentives in an effort to get those cars off its dealer's lots. For instance, prospective buyers for the Hemi-powered Chrysler 300C can now choose either $4,000 cash back or $2,000 plus Chrysler's $2.99 gas promotion , known as Let's Refuel America. Choosing Chrysler's full-size SUV, the Aspen, will net you $4,500 cash back or $1,000 in cash, plus the Let's Refuel deal. Dodge too is heavy into the incentives game, especially on fuel-gulping SUV's and trucks. The largest savings come with the 2008 Ram truck, which gets you $5,000 in cash or $3,000 plus the cheap gas card. Realizing the sorry state that sales of the F-Series are in, Ford has chosen to offer employee pricing for its...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Sedans/Saloons , Marketing/Advertising , Ford , Lincoln Click above for high-res gallery of the 2009 Lincoln MKS The first 2009 Lincoln MKS is still a couple months away from arriving at your local Lincoln dealer, but Ford has announced that 8,600 customers have already signed up for the all-new sedan. The MKS has garnered this hefty dose of interest no doubt due to Lincoln's new design language, its well-crafted interior and large number of high-tech gizmos, but Ford's marketing team deserves some credit, too. They began their work announcing the sedan's starting price of $37,895 way back in November during the L.A. Auto Show , then followed up by giving would-be customers early access to a build and price tool on the Lincoln website. The marketing team is also reportedly training dealerships to be knowledgeable about the MKS months ahead of the usual timetable, which has helped salesmen secure preorders for the vehicle sight-unseen. Preorders traditionally...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Trends , Japan , Marketing/Advertising , Lifestyle Could the country that gave us the NSX, Godzilla -- and the other Godzilla -- and The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift be on the verge of giving up cars for good? With car buying down by close to 33-percent since 1990, Japan is claimed to be in the grips of kuruma banare , which, for Japanese carmakers, is the polar opposite of hakuna matata . It's being labeled the "demotorization" process, and it involves large numbers of people in Japan's urban centers not buying cars. Surveys have revealed a variety of reasons, from the cost of purchase and ownership, to vehicles simply not being status symbols anymore, to cars being passé -- as in "so 20th century." The greatest worry is that young folks are simply not into cars, preferring cell phones and gadgets to Cubes and keis. Losing their audience before the love affair has even begun is no doubt causing JDM manufacturers to lose...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Marketing/Advertising , Chrysler Much hubub has been made over the current Let's Refuel America program in which buyers can choose to lock in the price of gasoline at $2.99/gallon for three years courtesy of Chrysler LLC, but the incentive has apparently been successful. Chrysler announced this morning that the program, launched on May 7th and scheduled to end May 31st, will continue for more than an extra month to July 7th. The deal is that purchasers who choose the Let's Refuel America program will get a gas card that's linked to their credit card. They can use the gas card at 97% of the nation's gas stations, and while the price on the receipt will reflect the actual price/gallon of gasoline, only $2.99/gallon will show up on the purchaser's actual credit card. The deal doesn't apply to every Chrysler vehicle (the Viper, Challenger, Crossfire, all SRT models, Sprinter, Ram Chassis Cab and Jeep Wrangler are excluded), and there are limitations...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Time Warp , Marketing/Advertising , Videos , Pontiac Click above to view the video after the jump. If the ad campaign is any indication, those of us born in the late 1970s are the demographic Pontiac's aiming at with the G8. First, there was the Spy Hunter themed TV spot, and now this one, which pays homage to the seminal car-guy experience of zooming around on a carpet in 1/64 scale. Hey, we're cool with that. The G8 GT does induce heart palpitations in many of us who still cling to our battle-scarred collection of now-vintage Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars with our initials etched into the underside. Like many of the other tiny cars we racked up miles on, a miniature G8 would have made us wish for either a shrink-ray, or a personal fortune by the time we hit 16 so we could buy a real one. Video embedded after the jump. [Source: AdGabber ] Continue reading VIDEO: Another Pontiac G8 ad that goes after our childhood Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Car Buying , Minivans/MPVs , Marketing/Advertising , Volkswagen Click above for high-res gallery of the Volkswagen Routan The new Volkswagen Routan minivan hasn't even gone on sale yet and there is already an incentive on its hood. This one, however, is not your typical cash back deal. Instead, Volkswagen is working under the assumption that the people likely to actually purchase a Routan are those with kids to haul. As such, VW of America is teaming up with Upromise to provide buyers with $1,500 towards a higher education savings plan. Upromise is a company that works with retailers to provide cash back bonuses when one of their registered credit card is used for purchases. Those rebates can then be transferred to a 529 education savings plan . To be eligible for the college bonus, you have to pre-order the Chrysler-built Routan by the end of August and take delivery by the end of November. Gallery: Volkswagen Routan [Source: Volkswagen] Continue reading More creative...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Trucks/Pickups , Marketing/Advertising , Chrysler , Dodge A tight credit market, slumping construction, an economy on bed rest, an end-of-model year, and high gas prices mean one thing for pickup trucks: lots of brand new trucks waiting for buyers. Dealers trying to shift their 2008 Dodge Rams before the 2009s arrive are taking as much as $13,000 off the bill to try and convince buyers to come forth. That means you can get a Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab SLT 4x2 for $19,995, instead of $32,795. With consumers being more picky about what and when they buy, it also doesn't help that dealers really don't want trade-in trucks either, since they can't do anything with them. What Dodge dealers hope for now is that Chrysler will manage the build-out of the 2009 models to give them a chance to get rid of the 2008s. Chrysler says it has a plan that will keep it competitive and keep the changeover orderly. For now, the Ram is the most heavily discounted vehicle out...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Marketing/Advertising , Ford After spending a few days with Ford's main-marketing-man Jim Farley and his team, we can truly say that the excitement surrounding the company's new Drive One marketing strategy is palpable. They believe that the story they have to tell is rather compelling; the real struggle will be convincing car-buyers that their vehicles are every bit as good as their competition from Japan -- as recent studies indicate . To show people what's going on behind the scenes, Farley and his posse brought Ford's best and brightest engineers with them to Las Vegas to introduce their dealer-base to the new campaign. They let us tag along so we could see what all the fuss is about, and the dealers we spoke to seemed pretty pumped about Drive One and felt that Farley's new team at Ford was finally listening to them and doing something with their input. Keep reading to find out what else we heard in Sin City. Continue reading Ford's...
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