Props to Penske...trying to make it work...

 

Maybe I can transfer over to a saturn dealer.... :lol:

Way to go boss! :thumbup:

 

My thoughts exactly.... and I believe he WILL make it work.

 

Big smiley quote fail.

Suicide for Penske?

-spatakula

 

Penske is pretty shrewd and won't walk into a sucker deal, so we shall see.

What he is essentially buying is a pretty strong dealer network with fairly new, stand-alone facilities. The BIG question is, what will they sell in 2-3 years after the current crop of Saturns runs out?

The two front-running schools of thought are either, strike a deal with Magna (the new owner of Opel), or import a line of vehicles from South Korea's Samsung Renault.

*Magna is one of the largest automobile parts manufacturers and third-party assemblers in the world. They are already taking heat from their clients (namely VW) that their ownership of Opel is a conflict of interest and could jeopardize their relationships with many auto companies.

 

Not surprising, Penske and GM have struck a deal to keep the Auras, Vues, and Outlooks flowing.

 

Not surprising, Penske and GM have struck a deal to keep the Auras, Vues, and Outlooks flowing.

For two years, and then he is free to buy whatever he wants to sell as a Saturn.

I think he's gonna make this work. Penske is no dummy.

Hell, he could bring the Holden Commodore over... maybe even the ute. :lol:

 

I see alot of potential in this deal! Maybe Penske can keep the Saturn ideals from launch alive while also bringing over better models from Europe...

 

I see alot of potential in this deal! Maybe Penske can keep the Saturn ideals from launch alive while also bringing over better models from Europe...

A to the ****en Men! :thumbup:

The one thing I LOVE are Saturn dealerships. It is so much more comfortable of an experience where the salesman is clearly just there to HELP you, to serve your needs, rather than the conflict of interest of selling you the most expensive car he can get you to buy today with pressure and back and forth waiting and fighting about price.

 

I don't mind no haggle pricing schemes if they don't try to game that system. But, when I go into buy a new car at a dealership I've never dealt with before, I go in on the offensive:

1. I dress casually upscale
2. Tell them I don't have a lot of time to waste, so don't whip out the Four Square
3. Drop the fact that I work in the automotive industry
4. Let them know I'm ready to buy today
5. Tell them to give me their best price first, no BS
6. Counter with the amount I've figured that I am willing to spend
7. Tell them I'm prepared to turn 180 and walk out and stick to it

Unless the dealership is super sleazy it almost always works. Other times, they let me walk, but called within 24 hours and had magically found a way to make my offer work.

And when I'm ordering, I say I'll put a fully-refundable deposit down today, sometimes I even negotiate that down. But, I want the final cost on a dealership document, signed.

I don't consider myself a Grinder, but when I say no BS, I mean no BS. Once, when buying one of my wife's cars, they tried to change the deal when it was time to sign. This was after a longer than normal negotiation. It was late (dealership closing time) and I was tired. I'm not normally violent, but I punched a huge dent in a steel cabinet when they tried to do their little bait and switch number. That got their attention. :lol:

 

I don't mind no haggle pricing schemes if they don't try to game that system. But, when I go into buy a new car at a dealership I've never dealt with before, I go in on the offensive:

1. I dress casually upscale
2. Tell them I don't have a lot of time to waste, so don't whip out the Four Square
3. Drop the fact that I work in the automotive industry
4. Let them know I'm ready to buy today
5. Tell them to give me their best price first, no BS
6. Counter with the amount I've figured that I am willing to spend
7. Tell them I'm prepared to turn 180 and walk out and stick to it

Unless the dealership is super sleazy it almost always works. Other times, they let me walk, but called within 24 hours and had magically found a way to make my offer work.

And when I'm ordering, I say I'll put a fully-refundable deposit down today, sometimes I even negotiate that down. But, I want the final cost on a dealership document, signed.

I don't consider myself a Grinder, but when I say no BS, I mean no BS. Once, when buying one of my wife's cars, they tried to change the deal when it was time to sign. This was after a longer than normal negotiation. It was late (dealership closing time) and I was tired. I'm not normally violent, but I punched a huge dent in a steel cabinet when they tried to do their little bait and switch number. That got their attention. :lol:

:lol::thumbup:

I do a similar routine except I dress like a slob and basically out a-hole the dealer.

I recall one time when the salesman pushed the foursquare sheet across the desk to me I crumpled it up and tossed out of the office into showroom and went back my mantra.

What is the price.

One of the benefits of living in SoCal is that there are plenty of dealerships.

I've walked out of the finance office before over document fee's.

The guy following me out was all "you're give up this car over $40?"

I replied, "no you're giving up a sale over it!"

I'm not there to make friends.


Anyway as to Penske, it'll be interesting to see how this works and what cars eventually get called "Saturn".

 

Oh.... to be a fly on the wall in Roger Penske's office today!!! :lol:

 

I don't mind no haggle pricing schemes if they don't try to game that system. But, when I go into buy a new car at a dealership I've never dealt with before, I go in on the offensive.

So have I, and thats how we basically walked away with $14K off MSRP on the RAM. But it was a HOSTILE experience. You had to treat the dealership and the salesman as an ENEMY, someone AGAINST YOU.

Thats not something you look forward to, and it doesn't make sense that some people should pay more or less than other people for the exact same product.

Thats why I love Saturn. You already know the price, and the salesman is your friend just there to help answer questions and convince you why the Saturn is a good car for you and help you with the sale without having to haggle at all. Hell, if I've already driven it, I might as well just order the exact car I want off a website and just go pick it up since I usually pay cash. :thumbup:

PS: Off-topic, but props should be given to Toyota too with Scion when it comes to the "Saturn like" experience. When I wanted to test drive a Scion, there was just a super friendly (and finger licking good) girl there who just tossed me the keys since she was helping another customer at the time! Didn't even check my driver's license. When I got back, she gave me her sales pitch and I was very pleased with the experience (although the xB itself was so damn slow I just couldn't do it heh).

 

Not surprising, Penske and GM have struck a deal to keep the Auras, Vues, and Outlooks flowing.

Still no extension for the Sky / Solstice

This is good news as at least we won't have 350 practically brand new buildings sitting there boarded up with towering weeds.

 

Still no extension for the Sky / Solstice

This is good news as at least we won't have 350 practically brand new buildings sitting there boarded up with towering weeds.

It is good news, but I'm sure if they were nice buildings up for sale that another manufacturer would have purchased them for the right price.

Switching the sign on the pole isn't that much of an undertaking.

 

I was canned form a Chevy dealership for not being hard nosed with the potential buyers. AT the start of the day, I would pick out about 4-5 cars and find the rock bottom price and try to sell those. People would treat me like **** because they thought I was trying to do the bait and switch with them. But in all honesty, I didn't want to bother with the 4 square and I was too lazy to try way to hard for a sale. I made pretty decent money doing this and moved cars. But the dealership didnt like the fact that I was making them a ton of money. So I was sadly let go.

I found that once people saw that I wasn't trying to give them the once over they kind of let their gaurd down. another reason for doing this is I hated that people didn't like me before they even knew who I was. I at least wanted a chance to offend them once or twice for that. - ha-

 

I was canned form a Chevy dealership for not being hard nosed with the potential buyers. AT the start of the day, I would pick out about 4-5 cars and find the rock bottom price and try to sell those. People would treat me like **** because they thought I was trying to do the bait and switch with them. But in all honesty, I didn't want to bother with the 4 square and I was too lazy to try way to hard for a sale. I made pretty decent money doing this and moved cars. But the dealership didnt like the fact that I was making them a ton of money. So I was sadly let go.

I found that once people saw that I wasn't trying to give them the once over they kind of let their gaurd down. another reason for doing this is I hated that people didn't like me before they even knew who I was. I at least wanted a chance to offend them once or twice for that. - ha-

Thats sales for you. For better or worse thats how it tends to go. There tends to be two kinds of sales people.

Those who are new and haven't realized what a horrible job it is

and complete a-holes.

I know there are exceptions but they are exactly that exceptions.

 

yeah, there were some serious slime balls that I worked with there. I honestly didnt mind the job. I liked being outside and being able to take the random corvette off the lot.

The worst of sales people are from "luxury" euro brands. The guys who drive up in there grand prix and think they are better then everyone else because they sell Mercs. Drives me nuts.

 

Thats sales for you. For better or worse thats how it tends to go. There tends to be two kinds of sales people.

Those who are new and haven't realized what a horrible job it is

and complete a-holes.

I know there are exceptions but they are exactly that exceptions.

There are actually a lot of exceptions to those rules, although yes, unfortunately we're in the minority. But it's so funny that I can spend 3 hours with a customer, and I am the most sincere, laid back, and easy to read guy in the world, and some customers still look at me like I'm the devil. It's usually older guys, I guess for buying cars from shady sleazebags for 40 years.

I love selling cars. I also love not being a douche about it. And customers love me for it.

As far as the not playing games over best price thing, I don't play games. "Best price" is a very relative term. What I do, is I will do my damndest with my presentation of the vehicle and the brand during the time I spend with my clients. I go above and beyond, and I fully prove to the customer that they are justified in spending full MSRP for a car if I ask for it.

It's all about percieved value. And if you walk in, tell me right off the bat that you want my best price, it's a two way street. I'm not giving you my best price unless you show some sort of interest in me, the dealership, and doing business with us. If you bark "I want your best price on that car over there!" it usually means you are taking it right back to the other dealer you normally buy from and I am just a bargaining chip then. And I will get sassy right back in your face just to F with you in that case.

That, plus we can't give away every car. Every car I sell somewhere closer to MSRP than invoice, means that there's room in the forecast to sell to some dude who comes in insisting on a triple net deal and threatening to go across town to the other Scooby dealer, even though I just spent two hours with him answering every question and meeting every concern he had.

But I don't play the games, I almost bought an SVT Focus once and the salesman was playing the 4 square thing, and I was like "WTF dude, really?"

Anyways back on topic, I am glad that Penske is giving it a go. He's a very very shrewd businessman, and every company he's had the reigns of has done very well.

 

Another reason why the two phrases "Penske" and "financially poor" should never be in the same sentence.

 

the dealer network was the whole reason GM did not close saturn a wile ago and they tried to bring them up-market. I know the companies flagship store is actually like 45 minutes away from where i live i should check it out sometime.

The thing with sales people is they really are in the middle. the consumer wants to pay as little as they can for something, but the dealership does need to make money to stay in business so you keep your job. To a degree i can understand when people say "why shouldn't everyone pay the same price for a car/product" well the simple answer some people make a company more money than others. Most places realize this and try to protect those customers, even if it means a lower margin on a particular sale. If you drive your car for 30k miles a year and do ALL the service at a dealer, and have for years, don't you think they are more likely to give you a good deal on a new car to keep your future service business?