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Posts Tagged ‘general motors’

Saturn cars on sale

People shopping around for cars and auto loans should take notice: You might have an opportunity to get a brand new Saturn car for a used-car price. The same thing goes for Pontiacs.

General Motors is discontinuing both brands, so Pontiac and Saturn cars are basically going into fire sale mode now. I am still trying to understand exactly how this sale works, so perhaps someone out there who is more business savvy could leave a comment to fill in the missing information.

Incentives plus price slashing

First of all, GM says it will pay dealers “$ 7,000 for every new Saturn or Pontiac on their lot that is moved to rental-vehicle or service-vehicle fleets operated by the dealers,” says the Wall Street Journal. Essentially GM is paying dealers to take ownership of these cars. So that’s weird and backward. Right?

Then, dealers must label these cars as “used” because technically the dealers are the first owner, not the customer. Obviously, most of them won’t be used, and they’ll have either zero or test drive mileage on the odometer.

A little help?

What’s missing here? This strategy really makes no sense to me. Why doesn’t GM simply give a bonus for Pontiacs or Saturns sold? Why not just slash prices instead of going through the process of justifying and slapping a “used” label on there?

I’m still waiting for this to click. The brands have gotten the big ugly axe, so obviously there isn’t much, if any, value left in either Saturn or Pontiac brands. I don’t know what to say. Let me know what you think.

The bottom line

Anyway, regardless of exactly what GM and its dealers are doing and why they are doing it, you could be able to buy Pontiac and Saturn cars for super cheap, so if you’re thinking about getting a new car sometime soon, you might want to set your plan in motion sooner rather than later.

The Buick Motor Division of the General Motors Establishment is in transition, much like the rest of the venerable auto company. Old models have been canceled, new models added, and this line up is radically different from just 3 years earlier. Now down to 5 models, the leftover cars in the Buick line up are all winners. We’ll take a look at each model and what they have to supply to you, the consumer.

Lucerne – Buick’s Roadmaster and LeSabre are both gone, but the full-size Lucerne have taken their place. Featuring V8 power and lush appointments like warmed seats, liquid heated windshield fluid, and leather appointments, the enormous Lucerne is predicated on the Cadillac DTS, but the car sells for more than its up market Caddy cousin.

Lacrosse – This 5 seat sedan is sleek, aerodynamic, and quiet. With beginning prices in the low twenty thousand dollar range, the car competes against the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.

Rainier – The larger of 2 Buick SUVs, the Rainier comes standard with a 275hp I6, Stabitrak suspension/steering system, 8 way driver powered seats, leather seating, and more.

Rendezvous – As Buick’s first SUV, the Rendezvous has succeeded where its Pontiac cousin, the Aztek, failed. Available in 2 or 4 wheel drive, the Rendezvous features seating for 5 [with available seating for seven], four wheel disc brakes, and a large number of asked for outdoorsmen desired accessories.

Terraza – Is it a minivan or is it an SUV? The Terraza is a part of a family of GM crossover vehicles introduced in the 2005 model year. This seven passenger automobile comes equipped with a 3.5L I6 engine and is available in either front wheel drive or all wheel drive. As GM considers losing its aging and disliked line of minivans, the Terraza and its cousins will possibly step in and fill the hole.

General Motors has been fairly silent regarding the way forward for the Buick division. Some have been worried by the steady depletion of models while others are seeing Buick make a clean break from its past that has included many uninspiring models like the Century and the Roadmaster.

In spite of everything, the Buick Enclave, featured at the latterly finished Detroit automobile Show received rave reviews. The Sanctuary is yet one more crossover automobile and it should hit Buick showrooms by 2008.

Clearly, Buick could use a better variety of autos to ensure its long term success. Perhaps the kind of success the division had when the Regal was part of the fold would reinstate the division to its past glory, if a vehicle matching the Regal’s caliber was developed.

Do you know which cars are super fast and are among the fastest cars in the world? Visit thesupercars.org to view all the fast and exotic cars. Also take a look at Buick Lucerne for sale.

The giant of the motoring industry, General Motors, who own brands like Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, Pontiac and Buick, have reveasleda line-up of new cars. Less than a month ago, General Motors recovered from 40 days of bankruptcy where the government pumped over $50 billion into the company, now making it 60% owned by the taxpayers.

Now that General Motors have managed to get out of their bankruptcy rut, they are starting to look to the future and see how they can change. At the beginning of August they announced how they are exploring new ways to sell their cars. A trial method they are running from August 11th is selling the new cars on eBay, the online auction site.

Last Tuesday, August 11th, General Motors invited a group of hand chosen consumers to Detroit for a special event. The reason for the event was to show off the new series of cars that General Motors are releasing for various brands. After they bounced back from bankruptcy, General Motors have been looking at their current car models, and they want change.

At the moment, most of their cars are large tank like vehicles that do very little miles per gallon, at one point these were very popular with Americans, however, motorists are choosing smaller and more greener cars these days. To try and attract younger and greener customers, they have created a series of new models for their brands that are smaller and more fuel efficient.

A couple of the cars announced that will be very popular is the Chevrolet Volt. This car is scheduled for release sometime in 2010 and it’s become popular due to the number of miles per gallon it can do. Currently, it’s been reported that the new Volt can do around 230 miles per gallon of city driving.

The other note worthy car is the new Cadillac that’s been announced. The new model Cadillac, that comes with either rear wheel or 4 wheel drive, is going to be a small sport sedan. The new car came with no release date, but it is said to be smaller than the very popular CTS model.

During the event, a number of planned changes were announced by General Motors, all of which are expected to take effect within the next 3 years. Some of those plans included doubling the amount of models Buick have, going from the current 3, up to 6. We’ll have to keep one eye open to see what cars are released first and what sort of effect they have on General Motors’ market share. Hopefully we’ll get some of these new models coming to the UK contract hire market. Currently, the only big American you can really lease is a Chrysler lease. Alternatively, another option to you would be to opt for cheap van leasing simply because they are almost as big as a Chevrolet.

Ford has released details that it has seen improvements in it’s market share of the US. The US car manufacturer announced that they sold 155,954 vehicles in May. Although this figure is down 24% from the same month last year, it’s actually a 20% increase on last months sales.

The increase in sales that Ford have seen could be down to the other car manufacturers such as Chrysler and General Motors who have both recently files for bankruptcy.

General Motors announced their figures the day after they filed for bankruptcy. They reported 191,875 vehicles sales last month which is a 30% drop on May 2008 sales, however, this is an 11% rise on last months sales. The worst performance in sales come from Hummer, Saab, Saturn and Pontiac, all of which GM are planning on selling on.

As for Chrysler, they filed for bankruptcy on April 30th and announced that they saw 79,010 sales from May which is a 47% decrease in US sales from the same month in 2008. They said that the majority of their sales have been down to a price cut from a huge number of dealers, this is because 789 dealers are planning to stop selling Chrysler cars next week.

Ford is currently in the process of changing their production strategy to try and take advantage of the bankruptcy situation. Ford have planned to put an extra 52,000 vehicles into production during the next 2 quarters.

The majority of car manufacturers have seen a drop in sales during the economic downturn, however, the drop in sales is not all down to a drop in public sales. Corporate sales have also been on the decrease, companies that offer Ford leasing aswell as a number of other makes such as Peugeot leasing are buying less cars because they are being hit by the credit crunch. The problem is that people rarely think about leasing a car which is generally the cheaper option, they normally think about buying a whole new car, and if they can’t afford it, they don’t bother.

General Motors, one of the world’s largest carmaking companies, has filed for bankruptcy protection in America. For as long as cars have been around, General Motors (GM) has been one of the three largest producers of cars in America as well as one of the world’s biggest car companies. Now the car industry is on its knees, and of the three biggest car manufacturers in America two have now been forced to seek protection from their creditors by declaring themsleves bankrupt. But what difference will all this make to us?

Well, for car buyers in the UK, the answer is probably not a lot. If you have a car that was made by GM, you don’t need to worry about the possibility that you might not be able to get parts for it in the future, as the company is still in business and hasn’t ceased trading. With the financial protection of the US government, they predict the company will be reconstructed in as little as three months. In addition GM Europe, which consists of the British brand Vauxhall and the German Opel, has already been sold off to a Canadian company who have agreed to do everything in their power to save the 5,500 UK jobs that could be at risk.

For consumers looking to purchase a new car in times like these, it could well be that leasing or contract hire could be a better option than buying outright, as it gives you more freedom of choice and wouldn’t leave you in the lurch later if the manufacturer did go out of business. Certainly if you are worried about buying a car by one of the main manufacturers tied to one of the companies that is at risk such as Vauxhall or Ford, car leasing could put your mind at ease.

Whether you’re looking for a handy little car about town or a fancy new BMW, car leasing gives you a wider choice of vehicles including those that may otherwise have been out of your price range for buying outright. Your agreement takes into account your projected mileage and wear and tear, so your car won’t decrease its financial value over the course of the contract and at the end of your contract you can simply trade it in for the upgrade of your choice. While the car industry is struggling to stay afloat, leasing could be the most effective method to ensure that any future disasters don’t affect you too much!