Automotive News - June 30, 2008 - (Page 6)

6 • JUNE 30, 2008 GM ends employee discount on Saab 9-3 Jamie LaReau jlareau@crain.com DETROIT — General Motors, citing the weak U.S. dollar, is ending its 7 percent employee discount on the Saab 9-3 sedan for the 2009 model year. “Our business is under quite a bit of pressure,” says Saab spokesman JanWillem Vester. “A big part of that is the euro against the U.S. dollar, and the 9-3 is built in Europe. …This was something to protect the profitability on the vehicles.” One dealer source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said GM also may scrap employee discounts on other imported vehicles, such as the Korean-built Chevrolet Aveo, the Australian-built Pontiac G8 and the Belgian-built Saturn Astra. GM declined to comment. The base-model 2008 Saab 9-3 sedan has a sticker price of $29,190, which means the 7 percent discount amounts to about $2,000. Saab builds the 9-3 and 9-5 sedans in Sweden. The employee discount still is offered on the 2009 9-5 because GM sells fewer 9-5s, Vester says. GM sold 22,979 9-3s in the United States last year — about 1,000 to 1,500 to buyers using the employee discount, he says. One Saab dealer, Lynn Thompson, says GM’s move makes sense because of the cost to import the 9-3. At Thompson Sales Co. in Springfield, Mo., he sells few cars to buyers using the employee discount. But a Detroit area dealer who asked not to be identified says employee discounts account for nearly 40 percent of his annual sales.c © GM CORP. The GM employee discount doesn’t apply to the 2009 Saab 9-3. Ghosn: U.S. outlook bleak Hans Greimel hgreimel@crain.com YOKOHAMA, Japan — Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn offers a grim outlook for the United States in 2008. Vehicle sales are poised to plunge below 15 million units, he says. And sticker price increases are a question of when, not if, as steel prices soar. “If you take May and June and try to say that’s how it’s going to be looking like the next months, this year is going to be way below 15 million,” Ghosn said here last week after Nissan Motor Co.’s annual shareholder meeting. “We have to be prepared for the worst.” In May, the seasonally adjusted annual selling rate was 15.1 million. In 2007, the United States posted sales of 16.2 million. Nissan is boosting capacity for passenger cars A version of Kia’s Koup Concept, shown, will replace the Spectra next year. A sedan will go on sale by mid-2009, and a coupe will follow a couple of months later. The Spectra hatchback no longer will be sold in the United States. Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn: U.S. vehicle sales are likely to fall below 15 million units in 2008, and soaring steel prices will result in higher vehicle sticker prices. in the United States, as drivers drop pickup trucks and SUVs in favor of more fuel-efficient offerings. The challenge is making the shift fast enough, Ghosn said. He said climbing steel prices will bring higher sticker prices. “Nobody can escape readjusting prices,” Ghosn said. For the first five months of the year, Nissan’s U.S. sales were up 0.7 percent to 446,474 vehicles. The overall market dropped 8.4 percent during the period.c How GM kept America rolling in 2001 If you want to touch off a lively debate among auto people, just mention the word incentives. You’ll get as many points of view as there are people in the room. General Motors considered all those opinions after Sept. 11, 2001, the day terrorists hijacked four airliners and crashed two of them into New York’s World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon. It was a frightening time. Car sales ground to a halt. People were afraid to buy big-ticket items or much of anything else. And GM shouted, “Keep America Rolling,” offering 0 percent loans on all its cars and trucks. The plan jump-started auto sales and the entire U.S. economy. America breathed a massive sigh of relief. The rest of the industry joined the parade. GM estimated that it added about 1 million total sales of cars and trucks by the end of the year. That’s a shot in the arm of more than $20 billion in sales. Incentives are still abundant; they have been for more than 30 years. They have their supporters; they have their detractors. But there’s no question about GM’s Keep America Rolling campaign. It was the right promotion at the right time. For the rest of the story, read Automotive News’ GM 100th anniversary edition, How General Motors Changed the World, on Sept. 15. For information about the special edition, go to www.autonews.com/gm100. 1st Kia coupe to debut in ’09 Kathy Jackson kjackson@crain.com LOS ANGELES — Kia will get its first coupe when the replacement for the Spectra goes on sale next summer. A version of the Koup Concept, shown at this year’s New York auto show, will replace the compact Spectra, said Lee Hyun-soon, president of Hyundai-Kia Motors’ r&d division. Lee said the Spectra name may change. A sedan will go on sale by mid-2009, and the coupe will follow a couple of months later. The Spectra hatchback no longer will be sold in this country. “We believe the coupe will sell better than the hatchback,” Lee said here at a ceremony for the new Kia Motors America $130 million design center. The hatchback will be sold mainly in Europe as the cee’d, he said. Kia aims to transform its bland looks and attract younger buyers. The U.S.-designed Koup Concept is much sleeker than the Spectra. U.S. stylists also designed the Soul — a boxy, fiveseat subcompact that goes on sale next spring. “The Soul and Spectra Coupe — that’s our opportunity to pick up steam in the future with Gen Y,” said Tom Loveless, vice president of sales at Kia Motors America. “We haven’t done a lot in that arena.” The Spectra was Kia’s best-seller through May at 35,826 units, up 18.6 percent from the same period last year. c Few Mahindra dealers add U.S. showrooms Lindsay Chappell lchappell@crain.com Few dealers who have signed to sell Mahindra vehicles in the United States have built showrooms or dealerships for the Indian brand. Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. plans to sell SUVs and pickups, two segments whose sales are plummeting this year as gasoline prices have skyrocketed. But William Goetze, president of Mahindra’s U.S. importer — Global Vehicles U.S.A. Inc., of Alpharetta, Ga. — says the dealers remain enthusiastic about launching U.S. sales in nine months. He says he expects most of his committed 315 retailers to be selling the light trucks from temporary show- rooms or under shared dealership roofs at next spring’s launch. The dealers agreed to pay $125,000 to $195,000 for franchise rights. Goetze is not requiring stand-alone dealerships for Mahindra vehicles. He estimated that 25 dealers are building new facilities. “The dealers who finalize all their plans will be the first to get vehicles,” he added. Mahindra’s Scorpio SUV Steve Taylor, a Toledo, Ohio, Cadillac-Hyundai-Kia dealer, says he has bought property in Toledo to build a Mahindra store but is reviewing architecture plans for the proposed dealership. “I’m very enthusiastic about Mahindra,” Taylor said. “Yes, truck sales are down. But Mahindra will offer something the market needs: a truck with good fuel economy.” The Mahindra lineup initially will consist of a pickup in two- and fourdoor versions and a four-door SUV, all with four-cylinder diesel engines. The Indian-made vehicles will use a new generation of diesels that must meet more stringent EPA guidelines on emissions.c ‘Appalachia’ ditched for alphanumerica Mahindra & Mahindra’s U.S. importer has dropped plans to call its pickup the Appalachia. American sales and marketing officials now want to use alphanumeric names. Instead, Mahindra plans to sell an SUV, called the Scorpio in India, and a pickup. Global Vehicles U.S.A. Inc., the independent importer, is not tipping its hand on specific vehicle names. But Xavier Beguiristain, Global’s vice president of marketing, says the switch makes sense for an unknown brand. “When you’re introducing a new brand, the focus should be on the brand name, not the product name,” Beguiristain says. “We want customers to get to know the Mahindra name.” He said the undetermined alphanumeric names probably will reflect the model and engine characteristics of the products, which eventually will include crossovers. — Lindsay Chappell http://www.autonews.com/gm100

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Automotive News - June 30, 2008

Automotive News - June 30, 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.