Chevy Volt Sales Slump, Prompting GM to (a) Ask for More Taxpayer Handouts; and (b) Introduce New, Unsellable _Convertible_ Volt "Itâs electric unless youâre driving in it." Need a $41,000 gas-electric-nuclear-and-coal-powered hybrid? Well, neither did everyone else in America. Recent reports find that General Motors (GM) is lobbying for the passage of legislation by Michigan [Democrat] Senator Debbie Stabenow that would turn a $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit into a rebate that will be available to all consumers at the point of sale. It's been dubbed "Cash for Clunkers II". ...Apparently, Chevy is not pleased with its sales -- 321 units sold in January and 281 in February -- out of 30,000 cars made for 2011, and a planned 45,000 to be made in 2012... At that rate, just 3,600 of the cars will be sold this year, [only] 12 percent of the supply. ...Since GM's initial public offering in November, the government sponsored automaker has been desperate to boost overall sales on a monthly basis. As such, GM boosted buyer incentives for the past four months. GM's incentive spending averaged about $3,663 per vehicle in January, and $3,732 in February, more than $1,100 over the industry average. ...According to the CarConnection.com, "That's increased GM's market share - albeit at the expense of image, resale value, and even company profits - oddly, at a time when most other automakers have admitted that such a strategy doesn't make long-term business sense." Since they can't sell units to actual customers, GM has convinced Barack Obama to buy costly, inefficient, ghastly vehicles on your dime. Which also prompted the geniuses at GM to introduce a... yes, you asked for it... a Volt convertible. http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/04/chevy-volt-sales-slump-prompting-gm-to.html
This kind of corporate welfare makes my blood boil. Hopefully the republican congress won't let the bill pass, lets cross our fingers.
If you want to make any sense out of that data you will need to know what "expenditures" includes. I stand by my prior statement.
I respect the fact that Sandy has some insider knowledge of what's going on at the dealership. A few things that immediately come to mind...First off, he/she is working at dealership outside of D.C.; probably one of a handful of areas in this country that has not been dramatically impacted by the events of the past 3-4 years. Second, it's an area with many government employees that may or may not have department heads that are going to mandate Chevy Volt useage for the employees. Lastly, while we are hearing all about the Volt, there is plenty of public information about the massive inventory glut of all the other GM lines. So, I view this rebuttal by Sandy as a bit misleading. Sure, a limited production of the most hyped vehicle in recent memory might show demand, but what about the massive inventory glut of everything else GM makes?
Consumer Reports was somewhat brutal regarding the Volt: http://www.insideline.com/chevrolet...-lukewarm-reaction-from-consumer-reports.html "We would have really liked to have loved it," David Champion, director of Consumer Reports auto test center told Reuters on Monday after announcing the organization's top picks for 2011. "It was fun to drive and the ride quality was pretty good. But when you look at the finances, for us it doesn't make any sense," Champion said.
Consumer Reports was brutal on the Camaro!! It "didn't maneuver in parking lots very well" or something like that!! They are the type of people that love to look at their phone bills and understand what every little item on there is LOL My last Camaro was a joy to drive but it's my last GM car probably... the lack of engineering with regard to the engine cooling was just an ongoing disaster for me in the summer heat in California... on a hot day the thing would blow a head gasket just idling! And the cooling system was doing what it was designed to do!! They can only sell an individual consumer something like that once in a lifetime. US car makers are very heavily dependent on fleet sales to the public sector. Many public sector entities have ruled that they can only buy American cars.... the thing with GE buying the Volts is just a more convoluted version of mandating "buy American"...
In spite of how much I dislike GM and its taxpayer funded dysfunction, I'm hoping the concept of the Volt works out. Obviously it's not going to be efficient for long trips, but for many commuters it should hit the efficiency sweet spot while still allowing them the option of longer trips if need be. If I commuted I'd strongly consider buying one. The Volt may not be ideal but I think it represents progress.
Actually I do work at a DC area dealership and have sold 5 or 6 Volts and have a few more on order. If we had 100 of these, I could actually make some decent money. I have not heard of any government agency's mandating it's use. I'm not sure what you mean by the inventory glut of other GM lines. Everything is selling just fine. Sure some of it sits around but that's mostly because the right buyer hasn't come along yet (Corvette's). Often Cruze's and Equinox's are sold just 2-3 days after they get off the truck. People are picky, as they have the right to be. They want what they want and they want it when they want it. That requires dealers to have as much inventory in stock as possible. If they don't, they lose sales. Although it does seem like GM is always trying to cut our inventory. It seems there goal is to sell as few vehicles at full price, rather than have have more inventory and maybe have to come out with a rebate on something. That seems to work against them because dealers often don't have the car people want and they buy elsewhere. The phrase "if you build it, they will come" is very true in the car business. Believe me, I'm not going to sit here and defend GM. I've got plenty of issues with them. I just wanted to correct some of the misleading info I see here.
From my viewpoint, Americans want to see GM succeed. It's the idea of the government choosing and financing winners and losers in the free enterprise system either through direct bail-outs or tax breaks that galls many of us and indeed provides the friction point that you observe, Sandy. Personally, I wish you the very best.