my xmas eve volt shopping expience in CA 7373.00 markup

[airjim22]

So I went into a dealership in the Sacramento area. They had notified me the volt for sale has arrived. When getting to the dealership the volt looked great. The only problem, the sticker price 51,473.00

1295.00 extra for tint
588.00 for jle protection package
2495.00 vehicle shield

ADDED mark up 2995.00

A total of 7373.00 in dealer add on's.
The salesman pointed out immediately I could buy 2 cruzes for the price of the volt.
This really killed my volt experience

I took a picture of the sticker.

[sabr2th]

Whoa, my dealer wanted $299 for tint and $299 for vehicle shield (don't know what jle is). I took the tint since I live in Texas, but I didn't notice until I got it home that they "forgot" to do it.

[twist]

My local dealer will receive 14 2011 Volts. They have sold 10 and are holding 4. The ordering manager mentioned this, I didn't ask why. Good guess is they will trick them out a little and go above MSRP.
When I signed for the sale yesterday I mentioned "No Plug, No Sale". Joe in finance gave me a look like "Huh, what was that?". I told him this means No Plug-in, No Sale. And that he will be hearing more about this in the future.
Passed on the $1800 extended warranty for now. The dealer has a 30 day window to offer the extended plan as "new". GM should be lowering the price of the extended warranty plan as more Volts are delivered. This is a typical incentive pattern and was the same with the new body style Camaro. The number I want to hear is under $1400.

[George Parrott]

It took me about two weeks of trying EVERY Sacramento area Chevy dealer back in late July trying to ORDER a Volt before I gave up. I was ready to give up entirely on replacing my 2007 Camry Hybrid with the Volt and simply go to the upcoming Sonata Hybrid. I was consistently told, "we are NOT taking orders; we are going to get our allocation on the floor and then....set....MARKET prices."

I finally widened my search area and found Fairfield Chevrolet about 40 miles west of Sacramento (salesman was Danny Austin) who would take my order at MSRP. I have not paid MSRP for ANY new car I have bought in the last 40 years, but...at least it was not gouging.

My Crystal Red Volt, premium neutral leather interior and backup camera package is #679 off the line and should arrive at the dealer in the next 10 days.

Let these Sacramento area dealers play with the cars while they sit there. It was a horrible "buying experience" but once I connected with Fairfield Chevy, it has been highly positive. I am also getting a new LEAF, and that was just the opposite, in some respects. My Petaluma dealer is also wonderful, and I could not find any Sacramento area Nissan dealer actually "dealing" on the Leaf, but Nissan corporate made buying a Leaf a "buyer's power" process since the buyer got to allocate THEIR "corporate order" to a specific dealer. Many (and my) Leaf dealers are selling the LEAF at $1000 to $1700 UNDER MSRP. Ordering the LEAF was a most positive experience, but then Nissan Corporate, in the minds of most of us waiting for our early confirmed orders, have simply disrespected us as customers. We had been told that we would get our cars in December...for several months after the orders were confirmed and then...we started to see delays on our "expected delivery date" on the order website. My Leaf, ordered in the first 200 accepted on 31 August, is now scheduled for February delivery !!! No actual ability to track production, no actual communication from Nissan, no apology, no nada. Oh yes, Nissan has sent out two mailers: 1. A beautiful packet of the color options and interior material samples (We don't need that, since we have all confirmed and locked our exterior color and option package with the original order), and 2. An invitation to log back on to Nissan corporate and order a free "Leaf T-shirt."

IF, there was any other available full EV choice I would bail on my Leaf order just for the Nissan Corporate attitude. They are actually delivering ONLY 6 cars by Xmas, and it is unclear if they will get as many as another 40-50 into customer garages by 31 December...But Nissan made major PR activity over those totally token deliveries.

So, it is MUCH, MUCH easier and less painful to "order a Leaf," but getting one after the order....

[neutron]

When that "game" is played by a dealer one should remind them there are a lot of cars in the world. Greed is never good against a customer that may buy more cars in the future. Plus there IS competition in the market for reducing oil consumption. Not a smart move to alienate a customer. If my dealer does that I WILL go somewhere else and not be back. I love the VOLT and have one on order with the delivery already pushed back so I am already sensitive to this type "musical sales game" Good luck and if you did buy it hope the experience has not been tainted too much by your dealer. (now will you be able to trust them on maintenance visits??)

[igotzzoom]

Yeah, $5,000 to $7,000 over sticker is ridiculous. The max I would consider under any circumstances is $1,000. Thankfully, I have a contact with a PR agency that handled the media ride & drives at the L.A. show, and I specifically asked him about dealer allocation, and if he was aware of any dealers gouging customers. But considering they're just barely trickling into dealers now, it's probably hard to judge at the moment.

If my local dealer is willing to give me a reasonable offer (below $1,000 markup) I'll probably go with them, but if they're going to jack me around with "protection packages" and window tint, I'm just going to keep calling around until I can find one that will be reasonable. I have a feeling that the sticker gouging is only going to last for a few months. If/when some dealers have cars sitting on the lot for 2-3 months with an outrageous mark-up, they'll figure out it's not the wisest business strategy.

[MarvK]

I paid sticker, zero add ons, from Steve's Chevrolet in Oakdale. Unlike several (many?) urban dealers, these guys are tehmost honest car sales people I've ever known. Call salesman Alan.

My Volt is way more than I could have imagined. Superb GM engineering. Hard to sleep at night with it in my garage, waiting to be driven .

M

So I went into a dealership in the Sacramento area. They had notified me the volt for sale has arrived. When getting to the dealership the volt looked great. The only problem, the sticker price 51,473.00

1295.00 extra for tint
588.00 for jle protection package
2495.00 vehicle shield

ADDED mark up 2995.00

A total of 7373.00 in dealer add on's.
The salesman pointed out immediately I could buy 2 cruzes for the price of the volt.
This really killed my volt experience

I took a picture of the sticker.

[MarvK]

My GM VOlt ordering and buying experience was unsurpassed! Incredible at avery step. I highly recommend Steve's Chevrolet in Oakdale, CA. Ask for Alan. Excellent experience and I am totally thrilled with my Volt.

Thanks for sharing the other kind of car copmpany: Japanese!!!! Haven't you been following the Toyota lying bast**ds and their 3 known violations and $48 million in fines? Remember they bombed Pearl Harbor? THink they changed all that much in 69 years? They're sticking it to Americans now by cheating them on safety. Nissan obvioudly doesn't care about YOU!!!!!

Check this out: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/exclus...&tqkw=&tqshow=

[Xzlon]

MarvK: I bought my Volt from Alan also. We went in yesterday and did the paperwork. Our car should be here next week. Only downer was they did not want to talk trade on my BMW 840C. No surprising as Oakdale is not BMW country.

[bjhorton2005]

This is just about one of the most idiotic posts I've seen on this forum.

MarkV: "Thanks for sharing the other kind of car copmpany: Japanese!!!! Haven't you been following the Toyota lying bast**ds and their 3 known violations and $48 million in fines? Remember they bombed Pearl Harbor? THink they changed all that much in 69 years? They're sticking it to Americans now by cheating them on safety. Nissan obvioudly doesn't care about YOU!!!!!"