Sunday, May 25, 2014

The Worst Pricing Strategy Ever for a Car


Dear Cadillac/GM,

I just finish reading yet another article about your difficulties selling the new ELR.  May I suggest that you fire the idiot(s) that suggested a 76 grand MSRP.  Almost all the reviews I’ve read and watched on YouTube agree that you have the luxury and design aspects in the ELR, BUT most will also agree that there is no performance in that vehicle that would justify that price tag.  Your CTS-V coupe cost less than the ELR and it have the luxury, looks, AND performance to justify the cost. 

So, eat some humble pie and admit you were wrong and sell it at the correct price of 50 or 55 grand and give all the people that already bought one a refund.  You are not helping the EV movement or your brand by just bribing your dealerships or reducing production of the ELR.  The ELR is a great product but has lousy pricing, which fortunately is an easier problem to fix than if the problem was the other way around.
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Thursday, June 02, 2011

RIght Wing Nuts will Say Anything

Topic: Auto

I've been seeing a lot of news agencies linking to this story a hack wrote about the Volt and GM dealerships. A lot of liberals and conservatives tell you that the media is bias against them and sometimes they're right. However, I just think they don't do their homework and check out the story. I don't blame the hack for writing it; after all, it's his job to lie. However, if any of these agencies even bothered to read the article, warning bells with of sounded immediately. Heck, if they'd just reading the first paragraph they'd know it was some right winger out to get GM, Unions, and/or Obama.
The only news blog that caught this propaganda piece and wrote an article exposing it for what it is, was Jalopnik.com.  So, kudos to you Jalopnik for not only checking the facts but correcting a lie. If you don't believe me, do a search on Cars.com and see how many used Volts there are right now. I did and got only 18 listed for the entire country, and out of that, only 7 of them had less than a 1,000 miles. It doesn't sound like a massive fraud to me.
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Saturday, December 26, 2009

Hybrid are luxury items

Topic: Electric Cars

I read an interesting article today in ENN about Honda's slow sales for their Insight car. The writer argues that for right now, hybrids are still luxury items and the 2 grand difference between the Insight and the Prius hasn't persuaded many buyers to switch. He makes a good point but didn't include the fact that almost all the reviews for the Insight were bad. That's saying quite a bit considering how badly the Prius drives.

Another good argument that hybrid or electric buyers aren't that price sensitive is the Tesla Roadster. When Tesla up the price from $100k to $110k, there were only a hand few who took their deposit back. The real test of price sensitivity will be next November when the Chevy Volt goes on sale. For all the Volt's technological and environmental advantages over the Prius; $40k is still $40k. Granted, the Fisker Karma is supposedly going on sale earlier then the Volt, but the Karma is $80k and truly a luxury car. While the Volt is targeted for the same potential buyers of the Prius.

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