I'd like to know how some of you feel about this.

The 3 major US auto manufacturers have now campaigned to give their customers the same discount as their employees get.

I gotta say. If I was an employee of any one of these companies, I would be so hot, I would walk off the job.
Basically they are spitting in the face of their employees, the people who are responsible for making these vehicles and keeping these companies afloat.
By extending this "employee discount" to the public, they are lowering the morale of the employees. It's one of their benefits, taken away.
After all, if it's in the employees contract to get a discount, then the auto companies should extend the same discount to their employees, above and beyond what they are giving the public. Maybe they are doing this ?? I haven't heard of too many disgruntled employees voicing their disgust.

Who's idea of a sales promotion was this ? This is absolutely the worst idea for a sales promotion that I have ever seen.

And where is this going to lead ? Is the public now going to use this idea as a bartering advantage by asking other companies to give them a discount "like their employees get" because that's what every other company is doing ?


Nate

Actually, my brother in law works for a Chevy dealership and he just bought a new family car. He got that "employee discount" they are giving to everyone plus the real employee discount. He was pretty happy, you know that GM is doing what they can to stay in business so all the people that are supported by that can continue to have jobs.

Bad sales promotions are ones that fail. GM seems to be doing pretty well with this one.

K

I don't think I know of any employees that are upset with the deals.


I do wonder about the long term effects though..... For one, the impact on the used car market. A couple people at Ford are trying to trade in their 2 year old explorers, paid $38k and the dealer will only offer 16-17k on trade in. Seems to me that the added new car sales will fill the used car market bringing used prices down - good for buyers, bad for sellers. (i'm gonna be looking for that perfect used pickup :) )

Also, what happens when the new car deals are over? Who will buy a new car for full price? Anybody that wants a new one, will be buying it now, not in 6 months. So while the deals are creating record high sales now, once the deals are gone, I wonder if there will be record low sales.... :(

I'm a GM employee and I dont see a problem. All the benefits in the world wont do you any good if they cant sell enough cars to stay in business.

Keep buying those new GM cars.
Ron

Sure beats the alternative which is those employees getting layed off due to poor sales

GM sales in June were up 41%. If I was an employee, I'd be happy as hell.

FYI: The GM discount ends next week because they can't keep up with demand

Why should they be "hot" as you say??? It's none of there business WHAT offers the companies are shelling out, they're still getting paid right? So whats the problem?

I work for a big Power Co. I pay the same rate as joe blow down the street. Now if they were getting a cheaper rate than I, I would be ticked........

I work for a GM dealer. We sell more than anyone in the state. I an happy as he**.

A few points not brought up:

1-same price as employees- The only way to buy cheaper is if the dealer also gives their manufacturers reimbursement back-in most cases no! You buy the same as me.

2-Before this program, I could not go buy a cadillac for employee cost. A dealer employee does not get the deal on any GM, just what his dealer/group sells.

3-We had LOTS and LOTS of new 05 vehicles sitting. They are almost all gone. GM sold more than 1/2 million vehicles in June! When you have the inventory sitting idle, you must cut prices and run. The pricing is about the same as what it would have been cut to.

4-on certain models (chrysler products I have heard), you don't get the loewst price. Cash back incentives actually make t cheaper than employee price.

5-GM is changing it's pricing structure to a lower sticker price, and this is a way to lead into it.

and finally

6-After 9/11, there was the 0% financing. All those vehicles are now 3-4 eyars old, and just about in the trade-in timeframe. Those vehicles have less trade-in value, and when looking at current sticke pricing, it would be a huge price jump. GM saw this and was first to get realistic. Dealers are also giving less for trade-ins because of this. If you want a good deal, go buy a 1999-2002 GM truck. There's about 300 on my lot right now.

Odd thing. No matter what a vehicle is bought for, the value in 3 years will be constant. It is how much a vehicle can hold it's value, not how cheap you could buy it for. Good example in my area is Chevy vs GMC truck. GMC trucks are hard to find cheap, even though they are similarily priced brand new, and are very similar except for cosmetics.

all being said, I'm happy there are more new GMs on the road now. It makes my job easier to keep current on problems, and I can buy a nice newer used truck for less than 6 months worth of mortgage payments.

The way I see it, GM had too many 2005 models in inventory. Not only that, it is changing it's pricing with the 2006 models. So you'd end up having 05 models priced higher (MSRP) than 06 models. GM had to do something drastic to move the 05 models out of inventory. I would have to say the majority of GM employees would be happy that GM did what they did instead of laying off employees. Salesmen on the frontlines at the dealerships should be happy because they are selling more vehicles. More sales = more commission. I'm sure the sales levels will drop a bit in the next few months, but if GM pricing is good on the new 06 vehicles, people will be back in the dealerships buying product.

I just scored a new GMC Sierra 1500 series and it was hard to find a truck with the options I wanted. Inventories are much lower now than on May 31st.

I bet those GM salespeople really felt like they were getting spat on when they sold a record number of cars.

I work for a GM dealer.

Any ideas on how the pricing plan affected the $ that sales people made? Do they see less per car as a result?

Any ideas on how the pricing plan affected the $ that sales people made? Do they see less per car as a result?

I believe they do, but they probably also have bonuses based on units sold.
We sell A LOT of vehicles at our dealership, so I think volume is the key here. We sold exactly 1000 new vehicles in the first 6 months this year. I have not heard for July, but with as bare as the lot is looking, it will be a lot.

I was in sales in a different industry, and I would sell more at less profit just to get the higher units sold. I was able to make more that way than on individual sales, plus you had a better shot at referrals and long-term relationships. It was frowned upon to sell so cheap, but I also had a higher close rate than most. They overlooked it when the boss's total unit sales also went up. I was not the best, but 3 of us sold more than the other 14 sales people combined. Too bad the hours sucked, they pay was nice.