Pontiac

A “Beef” With General Motors

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Recently, I received an email newsletter from my local GMC, Pontiac, Buick dealership. Looking over the “deals”, I decided to pay their website a little visit. Here is what caught my eye:

pontiac-ad

Sweet deal isn’t it? I mean, 0% financing for 60 months for most 09 Pontiac certainly does get me excited about the possibilities of getting a G8 GT or maybe GXP. You know, like the one on this ad. But wait!!! Did you read the fine print? It says “Offer EXCLUDES the newly designed 2009 G8”. So tell me, WHY ON EARTH IS THAT CAR PICTURED ON THIS AD!?!? Who’s the smart Marketing Director that approved this ad?  What’s sad about this whole entire fiasco is that no Pontiac, besides the G8, is worth owning.

Word of advice to General Motors, if you do not want your reputation tarnished any further, stop being such boneheads by putting out stupid advertisements like this. It’s not like you need this kind of bad PR right now anyway.

05/14/09 UPDATE! JAS, you don’t happen to work for GM do you? LOL. You are correct by the way, the fine print DOES in fact say G6 instead of G8. Upon closer inspection, you can sort of make out the 6, so the ad IS in fact correct. I will go on record to say that GM actually did not falsely advertise the “TOTAL CONFIDENCE” promo. So we should have “Confidence” in them, for now anyway. Now indulge me with the opportunity to constructively critique this ad for a second. From a design standpoint, I would commend that the snippet about the G6 be placed near the “60 months”, maybe go with “0% for 60 months on 2009 Pontiac models (except the G6)” instead. I think this would clear up any possible misunderstanding since the 6 would be much larger and more prominent. Again, bad call on the poorly designed ad and marketing direction. The good news is that at least the info isn’t wrong and you can in fact get yourself into a G8 GXP for 0% over 60 months. Good deal!

Here’s a closer look at the fine print:

2009g6

Tough call, but you can sort of make out the 6, so GM wins. LOL. Thanks again for pointing this out JAS. And here I thought nobody reads my rants. LOL.

The Most Reliable Brand?

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Consumer Reports’ most reliable brand is Honda, followed by Acura. No big surprise there. It is well-known that Honda makes great cars, so I won’t disagree with Consumer Reports on this one. A few brands seem out of place, like Buick rolling in at 10th.

Here is a quick summary of the top 10 most reliable brands.

  1. Honda
  2. Acura
  3. Scion
  4. Subaru
  5. Toyota
  6. Lexus
  7. Infiniti
  8. Mitsubishi
  9. Porsche
  10. Buick

Buick sticks out like a sore thumb here. Considering Buick is a GM, that’s some serious reliability there.
So who are the bottom-feeders of the list?

  1. Land Rover
  2. Hummer
  3. Cadillac
  4. Mercedes Benz
  5. Pontiac
  6. Volkswagen
  7. Chevrolet
  8. Jeep
  9. GMC
  10. Suzuki

What I find surprising is how GM has 50% of the crappiest brands out there. OUCH! I take back what I said about GM not making crappy cars. What is interesting to see is that only one Japanese automaker on the 10 worst list is Suzuki, which also happens to be 10th worst (not exactly bad if you ask me). We also see only 2 Germans and the rest are all American. That’s 70% of the of that list. Pretty sad.

Keep in mind that it doesn’t mean ALL cars of that brand are bad, the CR report gives you a visual range of how good/bad this brands models are.  For example, Pontiac has the widest range of good-to-bad models of any manufacturer, with the Solstice being pure garbage and the Vibe being their best model (It’s no coincidence since the Vibe is the Toyota Matrix’s cousin).

CR brand reliability report [PDF]

Your thoughts?


GM Employee Pricing For EVERYONE!

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By now you have probably seen the commercials. This program ends Sept 2nd 30th.  It is a good time to buy a GM vehicle. They aren’t all crappy cars…REALLY! It’s like picking apples, we know apples can be good, just make sure you don’t pick one with a worm in it.  GM is serious about pushing sales right now (they must be hurting real bad this quarter) because they are having a clearance on EVERYTHING that’s a 2008 ! YUP! you can get a hefty 10k off MSRP on the Corvette, yes, even the Z06. Some 2009 models are included, like the Cobalt and the Caddy CTS, HRR and Vibe (Toyota Matrix’s American relative). Looks like they aren’t holding back this time.

Click here to see available models and how much they are being discounted.

This is probably one of those few times when I’ll be pitching an American car, so at least take the time to check it out. I don’t recommend all GMs obviously, but in that list, there are a few cars I would personally like to have in my garage. Here’s a short list…

  • Caddy CTS
  • Chevy Corvette
  • Pontiac G8 GT
  • Saturn Sky Red Line (which happens to have an additional $500 bucks back)
  • Pontiac Solstice GXP ($500 bucks back too on top of the employee discount)
  • GMC Acadia ($1500 cash back + employee pricing)
  • Chevy Malibu

There are more cars on my list, but I am tired of listing them since they are re-badged versions of these same cars.

Now the questions is, does employee pricing + cashback work with leases? That I don’t know. Maybe a dealer might be kind enough to share some of that insight?

July 2008 Lease Rate for 2008 Pontiac G8

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2008 Pontiac G8 Sedan
24 mo/15k mi – Residual Value 59% of MSRP – .00208 Base Money Factor Rate
36 mo/15k mi – Residual Value 51% of MSRP – .00208 Base Money Factor Rate
48 mo/15k mi – Residual Value 40% of MSRP – .00208 Base Money Factor Rate

2008 Pontiac G8 GT Sedan
24 mo/15k mi – Residual Value 59% of MSRP – .00208 Base Money Factor Rate
36 mo/15k mi – Residual Value 51% of MSRP – .00208 Base Money Factor Rate
48 mo/15k mi – Residual Value 40% of MSRP – .00208 Base Money Factor Rate

* Residuals posted are for 15K miles/year. Add 2% to Residual for 12k mi/yr and 3% for 10k mi/yr on all terms
** Rates provided by Tarry Shebesta from Leasecompare.com

My Take: Looks like the rates improved ever so slightly over the last two months. Compare July’s numbers with the quote I got last May and you’ll see why:

36mo/10k – residual 56% – lease rate 5.5% (MF .00229)
36mo/12k – residual 54% – lease rate 5.5% (MF .00229)

The MF is .00021 lower and the residual only dropped by about 1%. You aren’t really saving much to be honest you with. Maybe $2. As impressed as I am with the G8 GT, I still think there are better options out there for the price. Maybe things will improve in the coming months.

The GM 72-Hour Sale, Ends June 30th

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GM is current offering a 0% APR financing for 72-months (about 6 yrs) on the following 2008 models:

  • Chevrolet: Suburban, Avalanche, Equinox, Colorado, Tahoe, Silverado, TrailBlazer, Uplander, Impala, HHR
  • Buick: Lucerne, Lacrosse
  • Pontiac: Torrent, Solstice, G6, Grand Prix
  • GMC: Yukon and Yukon XL, Sierra, Envoy and Canyon
  • Cadillac: All Escalade models, SRX, STS, DTS
  • HUMMER: H2 and H3
  • Saab: 9-7X, 9-3 Convertible
  • Saturn: Sky, Aura and Vue

Unfortunately, It doesn’t apply to all models. However, it does cover an extensive list of pretty “cool” cars, such as the Saturn Sky (including the Red Line) and it’s twin, the Solstice. Unfortunately, the other models are less than desirable. At least you get free financing, which can’t be beat.

If any residents in or near Southern California end up getting a Sky/Solstice and would like to take it up a notch, check out Race Precision and their RPi Sky 24GT. One of the owners, Apex/Gabe, has his Noble M400 featured here on The Wall.

GM’s 72-hour sale ends June 30th, 2008.

May 2008 Lease Rate for 08 Pontiac G8 GT: My Last Quote

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Indulge me with a quick rant for a minute. I have given up on GM in terms of leasing. Sure, if you want to BUY one, I think the price is amazingly low for such a well-built, equipped and powerful vehicle. It’s probably the best price I’ve seen for a sedan packing 330+ horses. It seems that G8 GT’s are released in very limited quantities, which somewhat explains the hefty finance charge. Bottom line is if GM believes in the quality of their cars, they should try harder with their lease programs. If they don’t even want their cars back in 36 months, why would I even want to buy one to begin with? The thing about lessing is that automakers will always get a steady group of people every month. When people’s leases terminate, they will be looking to get into a new ride. Make good cars (which they are trying to), promote good lease programs and they’ll have customers month in and month out. Then MAYBE they won’t lose 3.3 BILLION dollars every quarter.

Without further delay, here are the May 2008 numbers for the Pontiac G8 GT:

Options include:
– Premium Package
– All-Season Blackwall Tires

MSRP $31,395
Invoice $29,693
Selling Price $29,955 (this includes a $500 rebate for non-GM owners. You can get another $500 if you are a current GM owner)

Essentially, we’re looking at a $262 over invoice price if you are a non-GM owner and $238 under invoice for GM owners.

36mo/10k – residual 56% – lease rate 5.5% (MF .00229)
36mo/12k – residual 54% – lease rate 5.5% (MF .00229)

Whatever the drive-off is, the deal killer right now is the money factor more so than the crummy residual value. Quick payment calculation here for the 36mo/12k lease.

Depreciation charge is about $361
Finance charge is about $107
Subtotal $468
Total with sales tax (8.25%) $507

And you would still have to pay the drive-off of 1st month payment, bank fee, doc fee, tags, etc…which is easily over $1000 dollars.

My Take: Love the car, even before driving it. Just looking at the specs makes you say “wow”. Problem is, when you look at the lease rates and residuals and your reaction is “DOH!”. Despite that, this is still a fine car. As stated by Jim Hall from Road and Track, “…the new Pontiac G8 GT shines in many areas — outright speed, good fuel economy for its big V-8, easy-on-the-eyes inside and out, nice cabin materials and comfort, and that huge back seat. Factor in price and it is, essentially, in a class by itself. Nice.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Eye-Balling the 08 Pontiac G8

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In my quest to find my next lease, I had initially narrowed it down to the following cars:

  1. Infiniti G37
  2. Infiniti G35
  3. Honda Accord V6 Coupe
  4. Mazda CX-7 GT
  5. Toyota Camry V6 SE
  6. Nissan Altima 3.5 SE Coupe
  7. Lexus IS250*

Then, I thought to my self, the Lexus IS250 is kinda nice, although sort of underpowered compared to the other cars I have on my list. Since I figured that the refinement of the IS would make up for the lack of power, I added it into “The List”. Now, I’m thinking of adding another car, the Pontiac G8 GT.

Last Thursday, after I got off work, I noticed a pitch black sedan roaring down the street. As it passes me, I thought to myself…is that the Pontiac G8?? After a double-take, I realized it was. Not just any G8, it was the GT with its 6.0 liter V8 packing a whopping 361 ponies under its dual-vented hood. That is one sexy/muscular car I thought…I could see myself in it.

So today, I shoot over an email to my nearest GM dealer to see what kind of deal they got. Well, they only got two. A Panther Black GT and a nasty Orange. The price quoted was $1000 under MSRP, and that is IF you are a current GM customer so you can get the rebate. I don’t know about you, but last time I checked, not that many people where GM customers. I haven’t been one since 1992. Then again, I wasn’t really the customer, it was my sister’s car.

So whats my take on the G8? Its a nice car obviously. I wouldn’t mind getting my greedy hands on it. The raw power itself makes it very enticing. The G8 is based on Australia’s Holden Commodore, so its not exactly BRAND NEW, so hopefully, we won’t need to be GM’s guinea pigs. For 31-32k this car is a deal, even if you pay sticker for it, but I wanna save money and paying MSRP for a car is never “saving” money. My recommendation is to wait it out, the car might not sell very well for all we know. I just hope, for their sake, they are willing to go closer to invoice and introduce more attractive lease rates by July. Otherwise, no American car for me.