Topic: Car Buying incentives just released by GM in the US

[21Rouge]

I see these incentive are now available on GM products in the States.

http://www.gm.com/total-confidence/?brandId=gm&src=van&evar27=vanity_gm_c

I dont see some of these yet offered here. i.e. CANADA.

ie. Payment Protection:
"..provides up to nine months of payments on vehicle loans or leases with a  maximum of $500 a month if the buyer loses his or her job for economic reasons..."

AND

Investment Protection
"..during the first two years of ownership, Vehicle Value Protection protect customers against steep depreciation..."

[toolatecrew]

Hyundai already has a similar "if you lose your job program" that seems to have been popular.

A couple of ironic things in the fine print IMO

The Investment Protection Program that protects against sharp depreciation:

Only [bold]Saab[/bold] vehicles, medium duty and heavy duty trucks are excluded.

Even GM knows that Sabbs depreciate like a rock. Be interesting to hear the Sabb salesperson spin that one.

Payment protection program in case you lose your job:

You are not eligible if you are an active GM employee,

So we won't protect you if you are actually in a job that you have a high risk of losing? Kind of ironic don't you think.

[sailor723]

If steep depreciation wasn't such a problem they'd still be leasing.

I think I saw a statistic that said something like 45% of new car sales in Canada were leases....anyone know if that's true?

If it is, it would seem like GM has walked away from almost 1/2 the market here 

[y2chuck]

thought I saw a Ford ad in the paper that had some type of 'job loss' protection incentive...can't remember for sure tho and far too lazy to get up and check.

[airbalancer]

thought I saw a Ford ad in the paper that had some type of 'job loss' protection incentive...can't remember for sure tho and far too lazy to get up and check.

In a radio add, the local Ford dealer is including it in every car sold,

[Thinking Out Loud]

If steep depreciation wasn't such a problem they'd still be leasing.

I think I saw a statistic that said something like 45% of new car sales in Canada were leases....anyone know if that's true?

If it is, it would seem like GM has walked away from almost 1/2 the market here 

I don't think it was by choice....the credit market tore them a new one from capital perspective and GM was having enough of it's own problems looking in the seat cushions to find money to keep their own lights on.

They switched to cheap finance rates and massive discounts to keep vehicles moving-ish. 

Leasing can work if the residual value is REALISTIC.  The domestics (more so than many) ran into trouble over-valueing their product.

And that GAP coverage has been around before, and had the)(%@#!@#$$ kicked out of it due to unreasonable res-vals, but likely delayed the inevitable end of leasing as we know (knew?) it.

[toolatecrew]

No wonder they won't put depreciation protection on Saab. 9 3 has 10,500 (28%) in delivery allownace on it this month. Imagine what that is going to do to the already flimsy residual value.