Perfect way to discourage potential customer. Pfft, like they need them anyway.
Way to go GM/Ford.
Your tactics in luring in customers with once-in a while interesting models, then trying to beat them for every penny you can sure makes YOUR car saleman look like the typical sleazy bastards people percieve them to be.

Sorry for the rant. Just venting.

^comment directed @ dealerships

Supply and demand, but its good to see that GM is thinking about punishing the dealerships, cause those markups arent gunna help out GM just the dealers.

Andre Neves, couldn’t agree more. Kudos.

At MSRP is enough… stop ripping people off…

Dealers who mark up cars above MSRP are whores, but they are not forcing anyone to buy it.

The customer that pays these obscene mark-ups deserves to get raped. I never do business with dealers who mark up stuff. Like Ford and Chrysler dealers of late.

They are discounting Honda S2000s all over the place; so go get a better built, better designed machine for less money.

There’s no way in hell I’d pay above MSRP for anything.

It’s their own profits they’re cutting into. I wouldn’t pay $33,195+ for a Sky, much less a BASE model. Sorry GM dealers.

you’d have to be mad to buy a Sky

It’s really too bad the dealers are such asswipes. They really don’t realize they are cutting their own throats. Unfortunately it’s typical of the extremely short-term view that business now takes in the US. Sure, they’ll rip off a few suckers who have to have a Sky now, but the majority of folks will just walk away. This problem isn’t limited to “Domestic” brands though. A few years ago the new MR2 spyder came out, I was in my mid-twenties, had cash to spend. The Spyder MSRPed for about 23K. I couldn’t find one for less than 28K, some were over 30k. Instead of Toyota getting a new customer, I told them to kiss my ass.

Renton- good pick on the close-out S2000s, It’s better car that much is for sure.

Saturn should be focusing on selling a better product (which it is getting) at a good price. That’s the only way they’ll gain marketshare. Gouging customers is only shooting themselves in the foot.

Dealers have always been underhanded. This is no surprise. It will be good for the GM image to deal with these jerks properly.
By the way, you will find this at almost any dealer from time to time, even BMW, toyota etc…

Andre Neves and Renton, I agree with both of your comments. The S2000 is an infinitely better vehicle, while this is typical of domestic auto’s, they make a sort of interesting car for the first time in a decade and what do they do? they push customers away. seems like all u.s. cars are either thousands below MSRP just to move the trash heaps off the lot, or in this rare case, thousands above MSRP because the brands from the Big 3 think they can actually pull that **** off

Fastrat – I know that if BMW corporate catches a dealer doing mark ups, they will seriously screw them in allocated vehicles. The better dealers always have access to the better allocations.

Mark ups are verboten to BMW dealers.

Supply vs. Demand economics. The dealer is entitiled to sell the car for whatever he can get out of it. If you don’t want to pay the price, go elsewhere or wait until the price drops in a year or so. That’s free enterprise. Dealers spend millions on facilities, inventory, staff, service equipment, parts inventories, etc., etc. When a “halo” car comes along, it doesn’t matter if it is a Toyota, GM, Nissan, Honda, DCX, Mercedes, Lambo, Porsche, BMW, Ford, Lexus, Acura Infinity, etc. every manufacturer line runs into this supply and demand issue at some point and quite frankly if the customer will pay, they should be able to get max price. They settle for little or nothing on some lines. All other consumer products you and I buy are the same way, the only difference is the automotive industry is the only one that you negotiate pricing.

chuckles –When the E46 M3 it was a hot seller. Very hot. They got MSRP for like 4 years, maybe 5. Never saw one mark up. I read that BMW does not allow gouging. M6s go for MSRP.

Of course the only ones avaliable will be loaded to the gills. Custom orders may take a lot longer than usual. But no “market adjustments”.

So you can take BMW ( at least in NA) out of that collective.

You know, when Civic Si’s came out in Arizona they were marked up, and they still are. I could get a much more utilitarian WRX or STI for that kind of money. I don’t see Honda going “Wait, hold on, don’t do that.” At least GM is making some kind of effort to put an end to that business. No matter the what the car, just make supply equal demand and it will work itself out. GM, you know you want people to buy this car. So make enough of them so dealers won’t gouge. Come on. Maybe you should get some of those laid off people to come in and make some more, heh.

The Saturn Sky/Solstice/Opel Vauxhall Speedster VX220 SUCKS!!!!! GM hard at stupidity.

Renton
I can tell you from personal experience that BMW dealers are not immune to this.
I believe what you say, that corporate policy is against it, and that penalties are probably stiff. But these are car dealers and they will sell their children to make a buck. I don’t care if the product is made in the US, or Germany or Japan etc…

It has nothing to do with Dealer mark-ups as every manufacturer/dealer does it – for BMW look at the old M5, for Porsche the Boxster, the S2000 when it first came out etc etc. In this case, what intrigues and upsets me is WHO is doing the mark-ups – of all people, SATURN – the one car brand that claims to be “different” than the rest in this regard.

In fact, their “service” and “no haggling” mantras are what attract Saturn buyers in the first place – a good place for a person who knows nothing about cars to NOT get screwed by the savvy sales pros. And yet, here is Saturn dealers doing what I feel is truly the UNTHINKABLE.

Again, any other manufacturer/dealer, I could not care less about mark-ups – its Supply and Demand. BUT NOT WHEN your entire corporate philosophy – the exact philosophy that actually somehow works to sell your cheap, plasticky cars – is completely and conveniently DISREGARDED and overturned just to make a few extra bucks.

Talk about ruining a reputation quickly – the others mfrs. can get away with it as they sell product – Saturn on the otherhand can NOT as they sell Service(and Integrity etc.)…

It is a shame that some Saturn dealers are throwing the corporate philsophy out the window to make a little extra money. What does Saturn offer now without it’s upfront pricing and no haggling promise?

As for those paying the market up price – all the power to them. Though I cant see someone putting that much value in a Saturn, some people do mistake Red Lobster for 5-star dining.

James

Fatstrat– OK. If you are not caught. Who cares. A few thousand here and there adds up. If you can get it grab it.

No doubt they will.

James…Asher… true. They just threw an entire corporate philosophy out the fukkin’ window.

Saturns suck anyway……….so we should not even mention them here.

The funny thing is that I always here the same thing from everyone when I talk about dealers and price gouging and Manufacturers not doing anything about it. “Dealers are privately owned blah blah blah.”
Who cares!? Maybe that’s the mistake, too much control on the wrong side. Do you think the average consumer know that the manufacturers dont’ have control over their pricing? No. As far as the customer is concerned, it’s GM marking up prices because of demand, not the dealers.

GM can always put a huge penalty like $10K for every Saturn sold at markup. At least that’s what Honda did over here.

Paying over list for a Saturn, now that is dumb

Actually … just walking into a Saturn dealership is dumb in my book.

Andre Neves said it all.
Ta bem.

Saturn doesn’t have the the reputation to be demanding. They loafed along for 10 years on just one little tin can SL-class and then another 5 with a lame midsize and POS SUV. So now they have a car that has potential to sell and dealers think they can ask the world for it? Talk about arrogance, this is not the time to get ****y boys…

Agreed. Saturn should take this as an opportunity to introduce more customers to its brand and maybe they’ll become a loyal base. This is *not* the time to piss people off, because this chance may never come again.

Saturn dealerships were spot on in their one price-no haggle sales philosophy and the only reason I would ever consider buying one. Only problem was their vehicles were POS… now they finally get what appears to be a decent vehicle and they pull this? Bad idea Saturn. Now you’ve got the car but still lose the sale. Car dealers are such stupid greedy bastards…

I’d make this very argument to a Saturn dealer if I were really interested in buying one. More than that, I’d ask them why on Earth they think marking up a basic car to the high performance model’s price is going to make any significant number of buyers care about the basic entry level trim when they can make a better case for buying a Redline at MSRP?

There is a lot to hate about this Sky. Beneath the pretty skin is a mediocre under engineered economy car. A Miata is night and day compared to this thing.

GarbageMotorsCo, i agree with you 10000%, and nice name too.

Both your names suck, I’ll tell you that much.

I picked my Sky Red Line on 9-11-2006, a full 10 months after I saw a nad-built Sky at a roadshow and placed a deposit. After the rumor was confirmed, I said that I would rather wait a little longer for the high performance variant to roll out. I was the first to take delivery of a Red Line at Saturn of Bowie. Black exterior, black and tan leather interior, tan soft top, all option minus the spolier.

The Red Line is a very different animal from the original 177 horespowered

rollout version. I know because I test drove both the 5 speed and automatic

versions of the original Sky, and was quite pleased with each transmission

set up. I am ecstatic with the Red Line’s rear wheel drive, pick up, performance, speed, and handling.

It’s a great high performance car for the money, not to mention a great value as well when another $15,000 will buy a car in the same performance league and with higher maintainance costs. That said, the Sky’s enduring value willutlitmately rest on the quality of the overall car over time.

I foresee this car becoming the next best selling roadster given the responses I have experienced in just one week. Kids in the community shout out and run alongside in awe as I drive up the street. Older women roll down their windows and say, “That’s a chick magnet!” Men and women make detours when walking to ask me questions regardless if I am at a Starbucks, a gas station, or at a grocery store.

I had written the trunk space off as useless. But, I was able to get three bags of groceries into the trunk with the top down, and another bag behind the passenger seat when pulled forward. Not bad. But, this car is really about the top down driving with great performance in good weather and this quite satisfied driver’s elation.

Thanks for the laugh Peter. The Sky has minimal maintainence and reliabilty history and the R/L is brand new. Let’s check back in a couple of years when the newness wears off before claiming the Sky is as reliable or durable as the competiton mkay?

In the end you’re still driving a Saturn.

GarbageDude: don’t let your bias blind you from the *fact* that this car is selling very well and minimal complaints have been noticed so far.

Rear diffs and automatic trannies appear to be a weak spot in the Kappa cars. In my experience, my biggest complaint was the horrid seats, the balky shifter and the build quality sucked in typical GM fashion. (I should know, my 60k dollar SRX exhibited some of the worst interior build quality I’ve ever owned and the only reason I bought it was the N-star motor)

Again, like GMC said, the Sky is too new to talk about stellar dependabilty and reliability that matches the competition like the S2000, 350Z and venerable Miata. That is a “*fact*” too and has nothing to do with “Bias”.

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