GM flies 500 to Phoenix and puts them up at golf resort & spa

Re: GM flies 500 Phoenix and puts them up at golf resort & spa

I read this thread title a good five times before I understood there was a dropped word. I was thinking it was a plane name, or the bird rising from the ashes or something.

 

Re: GM flies 500 Phoenix and puts them up at golf resort & spa

Instead of all that money hoping to boost fleet sales -- which have a slim profit margin anyway -- perhaps they could use the money to come up with a car that people actually want to buy.

 

LOL, fixed.

 

Foreign car makers don't want fleet sales because of the stigma attached (lower resale value).

 

For the cost of sending 500 folks to a lavish resort for a week, GM could have taken out a couple newspaper ads.

 

Did you vote for the current administration? If so, then you are the moron who voted for the moron in the White House who is giving money to these businesses - so stop bitching.

And this is reason number 12,345,643,324,322,123,456,987 why these fucking bailouts are/were an awful, awful idea. We don't need conspiracy theories invented every time one of these companies does what companies normally do.

This is the cost of doing business and anyone who is "outraged" by this is either (a) clueless (b) a whiner about class envy or (c) a socialist.

Companies wine and dine and schmooze in order to make sales because you have to because, well as someone pointed out -- it is extremely competitive.

I have some very good friends in the sales industry and I can assure you that if their company can afford it, they are doing it.

 

OK, then.

 

If you can sell cars to anyone right now, you're doing a hell of a job. Now more than ever GM, Chrysler and even Ford need to be working the loyalty/mutual back scratching angle. Drive by a car lot sometime anywhere in America and you see brand new 08s and 09s parked in identical row after row after row. They're marked way down but they're still overpriced given their hideous styling and atrocious build quality. To top it all off, all the layoffs, foreclosures, etc., have created a tremendous buyer's market for used cars that undercuts even these historically low dealer prices by 30-60 percent on most used cars.

New car dealers are in a quandary. The sentient world knows their product isn't close to being worth what they are charging and hasn't been for years, yet in most cases over the last year or so they've already cut the prices back to within a few percentage points of invoice, one way or the other. Existing contracts lead to cars piling up regardless. Do you sell at a loss to clear space and maintain some cash flow while ultimately bankrupting yourself? Do you hold onto cars until you become insolvent and have to liquidate at auction or through bankruptcy proceedings? It's a lose-lose.

Even the fleet market is dry; fewer vacationers, looking for value rather than extravagance, means there isn't as much of a demand for those Sebring convertibles anymore.

Sure, fleet cars have lately been dominated by Malibus and Accents and PTs and Stratuses, etc., but in specific locations renters are now seeing and in the future will see some higher-end products on the rental lot. Certain carmakers are already liquidating obscure/unpopular models in large quantities at unbelievable prices to taxi companies, etc., just to get rid of them. Said taxi companies, when asked, state that, no, they did not need a 4WD SUV to make airport runs, but the cost savings was unbelievable and it gives a great curbside image to their fleet.

The state of the Prius is an excellent example. For a long time, you could barely get one and if you did, it often involved a waiting list and close to MSRP plus plenty of fees. Now, they're piling up at the port of Long Beach, etc., there are buyer incentives, production plans have been altered, the used car market is no longer yielding 80-90 percent return on late-model Priuses, etc.

The upside to all this is that this is a historically amazing time for fleet buyers, small business owners, transportation companies, classic car collectors, etc., to stock up on quality and/or classic products at remarkable products.

 

Folks:

The people who work at the golf resort and spa need their jobs too. They just got an infusion of revenue; maybe it will prevent a "cutback" there?

If there were a "cutback" there and folks went unemployed, it would be taxpayer money that kept them afloat until they found a new job - - if they could find a new job.

 

Well spoken. The financial hit being taken by people who depend on tips right now are being hammered. Volume of business is down and their tips are way, way down. One person I know who manages an establishment said tips (by the customers they still get) are down 40 percent since things hit the fan.

 

ANGRY MAN!! ANGRY MAN!!

Jesus, you're fucking tiresome.