Overclocker

By BRADFORD WERNLE | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS
AutoWeek | Published 07/10/06, 10:21 am et

DETROIT -- So far, General Motors and Ford Motor Co. are declining to follow in the footsteps of the Chrysler group with its Employee Pricing Plus blowout sale.

GM has dropped its 0 percent holiday weekend financing incentive, and Ford is sticking with its Drive on Us incentives, which feature $1,000 debit cards.

Chrysler, which has the industry's highest U.S. inventory levels, had hoped to lure GM and Ford to match its offer to start a summer sales frenzy.

At Chrysler, no firm data are available, but anecdotal evidence suggests that its program is taking off slower than last summer's employee-pricing blowouts. "We're off to a pretty slow start, but I think the weather is more to blame than the program," says Ken Zangara, owner of Zangara Dodge in Albuquerque, N.M. "It's been raining almost every day here."

CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore., interviewed 3,500 customers leaving Chrysler group dealerships last week in 27 major markets.

Employee Pricing Plus "has not generated a whole lot of floor traffic," says CNW President Art Spinella. "There has been a slight bump," he says.

Sharp contrast

That contrasts sharply with last summer, he says.

"A year ago, when General Motors did the employee pricing, floor traffic went up almost 60 percent," he says.

But auto dealers say it will take time for the Chrysler program to gain steam. Chrysler is offering customers employee pricing on most 2006 models, along with 0 percent financing and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

The hot-selling Dodge Caliber car, launched this year as a 2007 model, is not included.

Jon Myers, owner of Naples Dodge in Naples, Fla., says of the incentives program: "I feel real positive about it. I think it's going to really drive some traffic, which we needed. I think it will help with our truck sales and our Durango sales. I even think it will resonate well with our car buyers, specifically the Charger."

Another dealer says the program gained momentum last week.

"It wasn't until yesterday (July 5) that we started getting a pretty large influx of people who understood there was employee purchase," says Thomas Vann, owner of Hillsdale Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep in Hillsdale, Mich., a dealership specializing in Internet car sales.

"Yesterday was quite a successful day for us, as we had seven people purchase or commit."

Flurry of ads

Chrysler launched Employee Pricing Plus with a flurry of advertisements featuring DaimlerChrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche, who is renamed "Dr. Z." Zetsche will continue as Chrysler's spokesman, stressing its ties with its German parent company, after the summer incentives.

Florida dealer Myers likes the ads.

"We got to see those ads a little early when they were doing storyboards with them," he says.

"I thought they were very good. We liked that it talked about the heritage, the German-American heritage and the quality. That's a story we have that nobody else has."

But CNW's Spinella says the ads send a mixed message by talking about quality one moment and low price the next.

"The whole notion of German engineering has deteriorated over the last 10 years, anyway. Mercedes is not representative of the finest engineering in the world anyway. Lexus is."

Source: http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...1/TOC01ARCHIVE