Will GM Dealers Ever Wake-Up to Reality?
One last perspective. In Nov. 2003 when I was trying to find a SSR to purchase I spent lots of time on the internet, phone, and traveling to Chevrolet dealerships in an effort to: 1. Find a SSR. 2. Get the best price that I could. Towards the end of Nov. I found a small Chevy dealership about 50 miles from my home that actually had a new 2003 Redline Red SSR ON THE LOT for sale. I talked with a salesman, then the General Manager, and finally the Owner of the dealership. I convinced them that I was for real, a serious potential buyer not just a tire-kicker, and that I had the financial ability to buy the SSR without a trade-in. The best and final offer from the dealer was $60,000 cash for the $46,400 window stickered SSR. I explained this was not realistic to me, I WAS going to buy new SSR as soon as I found one at sticker price. The dealer chuckled at me and wished me the best. Three days later (thanks to the internet) I found one 250 miles, and one state away. I was ecstatic to buy serial# 1375 for sticker price on 11/29/03. I was in the small rural town town 2 wks. ago and there on the lot was the same 2003 SSR that I had negotiated on a yr. earlier (serial# in the 1200 range). It has 300 Demo miles on it, showing some "dealer lot wear", and a Must Sell sign on the windshield of $39,995. A young salesman approached me and asked if I had interest(I was not driving my SSR that day). I asked what the bottom-line price would be and he said the owner was firm at the $39,995 figure and that they had turned down an offer of $39,000. Of course, this may have been a salemans tactic. I didn't have the heart to tell him that 2 other dealers in the area were advertising new 2004 SSR's for $34,995. Regardless, this SSR has been on the lot for over a yr., it's now a 2 yr. old model, got 300 miles and some wear on it. If the dealer would have only been less GREEDY a yr. earlier we both could have been happy. Instead of 8,000 unsold SSR's sitting around on dealer lots a lot more would have been sold had dealers not "jacked" the prices up over window. Now the supply far excedes the demand and that helps no one. Not GM, not the dealers, not the buyers. I'll quit this rant but I get so frustrated at GM when they let dealers screw-up a great idea like the SSR. GM should have ridden roughshod with the Chevy dealerships to have prevented this price gouging to have taken place. Perhaps then the demand would exceed the supply which would make everyone happier or would that make the greedy dealers gouge even more? I'll have to think about that!