Sunday, July 13, 2008

Financing sales

Flint Expatriates reader slick told us last week that G.M.'s financing offer of 72 months at 0% interest was attracting buyers to Flint auto showrooms, and he was right.

Matt Franklin of ABC12 reports:

The week of the sale, dealers were very busy. A salesperson from Hank Graff Chevrolet in Davison says more than 100 cars were sold during the initial three-day period of the 72-hour sale.

At Saturn of Flint, since last week when the sale started, they sold more than 100 vehicles. It was a similar story at Applegate Chevrolet in Flint.

Many of the smaller cars were the vehicles of choice for customers, but just as many decided to choose pickup trucks and SUVs, despite the high gas prices.


This left me wondering just how high gas prices will have to go before people stop buying SUVs.



4 comments:

  1. Let me point out a simple fact, now that property tax increases and unequal treatment from City Hall (and the self interested Con Williamson administration) has pushed out Superior Pontiac, Flint only has ONE car dealership remaining within the city. I am not going to count the corner lots with 8 cars each, so Applegate is the sole remaining place. Interesting note, since Williamson became Mayor there has been almost unending road construction on all paths leading to Applegate. Add in the amazing property tax increases and I have to wonder how much longer it will be before they are gone. Then you can leave the city to go to Grand Blanc and buy from Al Serra, or sell your soul AND leave the city to buy from Patsy Lou.

    Boycott Patsy Lou, make her hurt like the Con has hurt the city!

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  2. Many people are already no longer buying SUVs, and haven't been buying them for at least three years. Within a couple years only the people who NEED them things would buy them, if it were up to me.

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  3. I think GM more than anything pushed out Superior....GM wants fewer dealers and multi line dealers. The days of the one brand stand alone dealer is limited.

    There are a lot of rumors of GM streamlining its nameplates. Take a look at Buick...they have 3 models to choose from, that's it.

    I love jacob's observation of road construction.

    Yes it is amazing that the city which gave birth to GM now only has one dealer in the city limits.

    Actually when Clyde Applegate bought the property to move the dealership to in 1950 from downtown where city hall now sits people told him he was nuts for moving so far out of downtown.

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  4. i think jacob may have jinxed us

    now the street is caving in out in front of the dealership.....we have had road and or sewer crews out here for i would say 6 months out of the last 12

    actually i would venture to say that somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 of a mil is buried out here in the sewer line

    so here we go again....more demolition and rebuilding???

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.