Production
The Letter To Saab Automobile USA Dealers Concerning Exclusion In the GM Confidence Plan
April 6th, 2009, 7:06pm by Ryan - 3 Comments
First, I would like to take a moment to thank you and your teams on your March sales performance. Saab retail sales were up almost 80% versus February and 2008 inventory was reduced by over 27%. A key component of that sales reversal were strong, straightforward incentives that were easy to explain to your customers. This direction was strongly encouraged by your Saab Dealer Council. I am pleased to report that those same strong, simple incentives have been carried over into April and should result in another strong sales performance.
This leads me to some questions I have received today regarding Saab not being included in the GM Confidence Plan that was rolled out today. I want to be clear that it was our decision to not include Saab in this plan. As I stated earlier, we have a retail formula that is improving our sales. If we had included Saab in the GM April retail offering we would have to remix the incentive support creating more complexity for your customers and lower cash/APR offers. I think we would all agree that this is not our best interest.
In addition, as was stated on today’s IDL, Saab provides a warranty and prepaid maintenance package for our customers that is different from the other GM brands. As you will recall, in mid-2008, Saab AUtomobile USA eliminated the GM 100,000 mile/5 year powertrain limited warranty for the 2009 model year, instead choosing the original 4 year/50,000 mile bumper-to-bumper limited warranty coupled with roadside assistance, courtesy transportation and no-charge scheduled maintenance. Given the differences in the warranty coverage, we would have had to further alter the April retail support.
I hope that you will agree that staying on a play was successful in March was the best option for us in April. I would ask each of you to ensure that your teams stay focused on selling more Saabs in April than we did in March.
Regards,
Categories: 2000-2009
3 Comments
Please note that the U.S. federal backing for GM’s ongoing product warranties should not be confused with the GM Total Confidence Plan, which is a different topic altogether. Saab can’t be part of this most recent GM initiative, as Saab does not offer the GM 100,000 mile Powertrain Warranty because of low interest in it from customers and dealers. Instead, Saab keeps offering other valuable owners privileges such as 3 years/36,000 miles no-charge scheduled maintenance as part of its very competitive warranty package – which in itself remains backed by General Motors as usual. Hope that clarifies, thanks.
I was told that SAAB did offer the GM 100,000 Powertrain Warranty on 2008 cars; does the federal government backing for hold for Saabs that do have that warranty? Where will Saabs under warranty be serviced if Saab goes out of business and GM no longer owns them?
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