Yesterday I ran into one of those UNGODLY Vehicle Surveys.

I had a little extra time... and decided I could spare a couple of minutes...
Then I got to the 3rd page and it said 1% done and I thought oops!!!!

Anyway, for the first time in my life, I believe that if I could find a new/newish car that I would be happy with, I would buy it in the next 6 months or so.

So, they had me rank about 50 manufactures and "brands" of vehicles on whether I would be likely to buy their vehicles or not...

And, I must say that I don't envision myself buying a single car that GM offers, so they got ranked pretty low.

Then it followed up on the general ranking by asking:
If I would buy GM with better incentives.
If I would buy GM with Employee Pricing.
If I would buy GM with Closer Dealerships
If I would buy GM with more rebates.

next hit with...
If I would buy Saturn with better incentives.
If I would buy Saturn with Employee Pricing.
If I would buy Saturn with Closer Dealerships
If I would buy Saturn with more rebates.

next hit with...
If I would buy Chevrolet with better incentives.
If I would buy Chevrolet with Employee Pricing.
If I would buy Chevrolet with Closer Dealerships
If I would buy Chevrolet with more rebates.

next hit with...
If I would buy Saab with better incentives.
If I would buy Saab with Employee Pricing.
If I would buy Saab with Closer Dealerships
If I would buy Saab with more rebates.

next hit with...
If I would buy Pontiac with better incentives.
If I would buy Pontiac with Employee Pricing.
If I would buy Pontiac with Closer Dealerships
If I would buy Pontiac with more rebates.

next hit with...
If I would buy Cadillac with better incentives.
If I would buy Cadillac with Employee Pricing.
If I would buy Cadillac with Closer Dealerships
If I would buy Cadillac with more rebates.

And, actually what I'm looking for is a small pickup that gets about 50 MPG, and is a Diesel with flex fuel rating and the manufacturer recognizes B100 as a fuel option.

Now, Cadillac does make a convertible. I guess that is close. I could drop the top and fill the back with cow manure.

The whole point that the survey missed is the fact that these companies and subsidiaries of the same company don't sell a single new car (IN THE USA) that I'm interested in at the moment.

And, it is not dealer incentives, low interest loans, employee pricing, and etcetera that will bring me in. And, I can find a dealer if I was so inclined. Oh, and the loan thing... I will not take a loan out on a vehicle purchase. If I can't pay cash, I won't buy it.

It is the quality and selection of vehicles that they need to work on, and certainly the fuel efficiency, not more ways to jerk one around with the prices. Wasn't that the Saturn Concept... no more jerking people around with prices? And, now GM is convinced that Saturn should be cast off and left for dead.

Now, GM does have the Mystery-Volt somewhere in the design pipeline. It is only coming out about 5 to 10 years too late, twice the price it should be, and I'm anticipating that people will be pretty ho-hum about it when it finally hits the dealerships.

It's a shame thay won't just ask, what are you looking for in a new vehicle? Or, what could we do that may encourage you to purchase a new vehicle from us? I guess that would be just a bit too wise, and too hard to use as mass marketing. After all their goal is to try convincing people that they have what we need, not actually provide what we want.

quote:

Originally posted by Double D:
It's a shame they won't just ask, what are you looking for in a new vehicle? Or, what could we do that may encourage you to purchase a new vehicle from us? I guess that would be just a bit too wise, and too hard to use as mass marketing. After all their goal is to try convincing people that they have what we need, not actually provide what we want.

Precisely..
It's too expensive to do more than keyword recognition on a couple of very limited fields.
It doesn't really matter that GM lost $38 billion in 2007, and over $30 billion in 2008.

The auto industry is being run like the clothing industry.

The Designers set the trends.
The Designers determine what people want.

Well, except for those of us stuck in the mud wishing to just find a nice plaid shirt.

Anyway, those few people who manage to wander into the Cadillac dealerships (generally to ask for directions to another dealership) should be representative of the general population that don't make it in.

quote:

except for those of us stuck in the mud wishing to just find a nice plaid shirt.

People who dress like me

don't buy new vehicles, designer clothes, i-pods, or lattes...etc.
We're not the sheeple the marketing mavens are targeting.

Yeah I can say, I encourage my children to be very scepticle of anyone trying to sell them something and determine the quality of what they may be buying. I can't remember the last time I purchased a piece of everyday clothing. My wife does that but she knows I won't wear any shirt with a designer name/logo on it (I'm not a walking advertisment). Matter of fact the last garments I purchased were new hunting clothes from Cabelas.
Do you think one day they may wake up and figure out that the advertisers aren't really as sucessful as they want to beleive.
Why are the car companies some damn pig headed? I can just envision a board room full of sales people discussing what new scheme they are going to use to increase sales yet the quiet new guy/gal in the corner is silently thinking "why not just ask your non customers want instead of focussing on what our insufficient number of customers want".

No new vehicle in the last year (wifey), no designer clothes (me), no Ipod, but man I do like an occasional Latte.

One thing that just drives me crazy about the domestic makers:
Not many people purchasing a used vehicle want to buy a 5+ year old vehicle that is recognized as a 5+ year old vehicle. It seams that the domestic auto makers have a nack for changing body styles every few years that are so differnt from the old body styles that it stands out like a sore thumb.
The older toyota's and others kept the same body styles year after year that I beleive helped retain resale value. Maybe that should be considered in the overall design scheme when they build vehicles.

quote:

Originally posted by Double D:
Not many people purchasing a used vehicle want to buy a 5+ year old vehicle that is recognized as a 5+ year old vehicle.

Whew,
I'd love to buy a 5 year old vehicle that was recognized as a 5 year old vehicle.

The problem is that the only vehicle in the USA that matches my criteria...

Pickup that runs on B100, and gets 45+ MPG

Is a 30 year old vehicle... and certainly is recognized as such.

Oddly enough, a 30 yr old Volkswagen pickup in excellent (or excellent restored) condition is worth almost as much as a brand new Ford Ranger.

Part of the problem with the vehicle manufacturers is that they are run like walmart...

only sell the "big ticket items".
No custom "little things".

They don't want to mess with designing and supporting a vehicle that might only have 100,000 sales. Not to mention, if they started selling cars that got spectacular fuel mileage, it could hurt the sales of other vehicles.

Thus, if they think they can sell... say 100,000 "specialty cars", it isn't even worth bothering.

Look at the GM sales figures for 2008.
http://www.gm.com/corporate/in..._deliveries_0901.pdf

GM sold 206,000 Saturns in 2008, as well as 382,000 Pontiacs, and 93,000 SAABs.

Put those together, and you have over 650,000 cars, or nearly 10% of the total GM sales.

Add that to 1.5 Million Opels...

So,
If GM gets rid of Saturn, Pontiac, SAAB, and Opel... they will get rid of over 1/4 of their sales.

They are, of course, keeping the Cadillac, which they sold fewer Cadillacs than Saturns.

BTW:
Who is making the military grade Hummers?
I guess the Markup to the US Military is so high that the number produced really doesn't make any difference.

Toyota has made trucks like that for years. OK, not 45 MPG but 30 MPG, but with B100 or V100 is 45 MPG that important? They sell hundreds of thousands all over the world. Here's a 1990 model. 100,000 kms, 3L-2800cc DIESEL, 5 Speed Manual Transmission, used ones like this sell for about $15,000 in Canada.
The problem is the US govt. not just the vehicle manufacturers.

ditto with jg...