Should Saturn Lower Their Prices or Continue to Offer Incentives?

[Charlie]

Industry observers see no end to the incentives automakers are putting on cars in the near future. In the spirit of being "different," when the 2005 models debut later this summer, should Saturn continue to offer incentives or just lower their prices?

Post your thoughts.

Thanks!
Charlie

:flag:

[silverblueL200]

Drop the prices, I'm tried of doing math just to figure out the price on a car.

[wlhawk]

Drop the prices. :D

[SMARTDOGS]

I think one of the advantages to incentives (annoying as it is trying to make sure you got every one you could) is that it preserves the value of the car. If Saturn starts devaluing the new cars, it will affect your current car's value. With incentives, when the auto economy gets hot again, the incentives simply evaporate and the car values are likely to come back. Tell ya this, if VW had simply made incentives available on the Passat I was looking at when I bought the L300.2, I'd probably be driving one now. But if they simply dropped prices, I would have assumed the car was overpriced to begin with and they were having to chop the price to get someone to buy them. As it was, tho, the VW salesman tried to play hardball over a lousy $800 and lost a sale. (Frankly, I am now glad he did.)

[eRic 02sc2]

lower prices. incentives are so annoying. either way the resale is devalued.

[rossao1]

Stop the madness. Lower the damn prices and be done with it. And shout it out to the mountain tops! And then dare other car companies to be honest about their prices too.

Be a leader Saturn and be different!

[Twin_Cam]

Lower prices.

[HiWire]

Lower prices... incentives are not fooling anybody.

[Uglier]

The real advantage to incentives is the flexibility, they can be changed on a monthly basis and not wreak havoc with the system, whereas when you put a price sticker on a car you're stuck. I noticed at Edmunds' Saturn has very few incentives now, just $500 on Ions, nothing elsewhere, versus the three grand I got off on a 2004 4 cyl L just 3 months ago. I bet it has something to do with high gas prices bringing up demand for their product so they'll make some bucks while they can.

[David 93 SL2m]

Fluctuating monthly incentives makes buyers wonder when they will lock in the best deal, sort of like homeowners trying to guess the best time to lock in a mortgage rate. Deal? I thought Saturn was about treating people right and offering fixed prices! :hmpf:

Once or twice a long time ago Saturn lowered the car prices during a model year after a number of cars from that model year had already been sold. To prevent "buyer's remorse" Saturn issued refunds to those people so in effect they realized the lower prices too. Very slick marketing. I guess those days are gone now... :no:

[GR898SL2]

Lower prices, please.

:flag:

[MydnightMyst]

Incentives was not supposed to be a part of the Saturn way. It was always supposed to be no haggle no hassle... Low, honest, prices. Saturn is already losing a lot of what the original philosophy it stood for with selling cars that have no polymer, same platforms and same things as other cars, and now more and more incentives? Sure incentives look good at first, but all they are is a cover for jacked up prices and dishonesty.
Let's keep it real. Coporate discounts, such as employee discounts are one thing, but keep the prices low for the general public. Incentives make it harder to guess when someone will be getting the right price and what exactly is the right price. It makes it seem dishonest and unreal.:no:


Just keep the prices low and fixed. We understand a car company needs to make a profit.

[Citation84]

At the GM dealer in Van Nuys where I bought my 99 Cavalier, all the prices are " best price, $xx,xxx including all incentives" and the incentives are listed on the price tag, subtracted from the retail. There is no haggling, that's the price up front. This seems fair to me and I KNOW it would never have occurred without Saturn's pioneering the no haggle pricing. The salesmen are all on salary, not commission as well. Seems like my dealer added a twist with the pricing minus all the rebates so there is no question what you're paying. They have dealerships all over the country and it's known as a "company store". I don't know what that means, but I loved the process. I would never consider buying a car that didn't post the bottom line price up front. That eliminates the source of a lot of ill will toward the dealership and makes the buying experience less adversarial.
The dealer where I bought my 95 Saturn was an independent, no hard sell, ["take it and drive it around, we'll talk] , I liked the car, it seemed like a fair price, I pulled out the plastic and charged it. [I've always wanted to do that. Now it's on 0.0% for the life of the loan transfer to another card].
Saturn's way of doing things seems to have filtered down to even the smallest dealers. So simply lower the prices and hit the media with it till there's no one out there that doesn't know what the policy is. It is so much more pleasant this way when there are no surprises at signing.

[Citation84]

Do any of these topics and opinions ever get back to Saturn?

[SpeedPlayer 97sl2]

I imagine lower prices will increase showroom traffic. A lot of people don't take into account incentives when initially shopping for a car, only considering the "MSRP range" of what they're looking within.

[motorheadkev]

Incentives, this is what drew me to a saturn in the first place they had a good car and the the best incentives.

[JCampbell]

As I am in the retail end, I can definitely say that the lower prices do nothing to attract clients, while the huge incentives are what drives any traffic. does it make sense? No, but we sold more L200s in '03 than L300.1s in '04, even though the '04 carried the $16,995 tag.

Of course, this will mostly be a moot point with the upcoming Customer Warranty/Personilization allowances due for '05.

[Hodado]

I think that Saturn has forgotten how they got where they are.They need to go back to producing a car that is inexpensive;gets great gas milage; and is simple enough that the average person can do most all of the work on it.It seems like all we have now is more glitz...

[1995 SC2]

Lower the Prices! Especially on the Ion Redline "Competition Package!"

[MKD]

Haven't bought a new car in more than 10 years and those vehicles were Ford and Chevy. So, I have never had the pleasure of buying a new, "no haggle" Saturn. I believe cars/trucks are way over-priced and just cannot conscionably shell out $20-$30k (plus interest!!! :upset: ) per vehicle. That money has to go to more important things...

The bottom line in my case, and I wish Saturn and the other carmakers would grasp this, is that I (and a lot of people like me) are simply never going to buy another new car as long as they continue to approach what my parents paid for their dream house. :no: