The first follow-up email went out yesterday, and the total number of responses now stands at 2,170. This translates to a response rate of 31.3 percent. The goal for the month remains 3,000 responses. If not a single other response came in, next month’s official results would cover 44 models, and the asterisked results would cover another 37. But many… More →
Month: July 2007
GM’s answer to “absolutely horrific” June sales: smaller rebates
Despite a Transformers promotion that added $1,000 to many rebates and zero percent financing, GM’s sales in June were, in the words of Automotive News, “absolutely horrific.” Translation: they “plunged 21.7 percent…from last year.” Well, the post-holiday rebates are out and, shockingly, they’re lower in nearly all cases. In the case of the Cadillac DTS the rebate is $3,500 lower… More →
Detroit: where’s the bottom?
Automotive News reported today that the domestics’ market share could slip below 50 percent for the first time this month. As little as five years ago few analysts thought this would happen. General Motors in particular has been losing market share since hitting a peak back in 1962, and more quickly since 1982 or so. I spent nearly two years… More →
Updated the “most popular” list — and a Buick is in the top 20
I’d update the list of the 40 most common price comparisons more often, but it simply doesn’t change that much. I just updated it for the first time in 75 days, and it only goes back 90. Despite the minimal amount of overlap between the two periods, and the fact that the new totals include considerable traffic over the last… More →
Early returns to this month’s survey
The initial email for this month’s survey went out Thursday afternoon. So far the response rate is a couple points below normal, but this could be because of the July 4th holiday. Even so, over 1,500 responses came in in the first 48 hours. This is about half the expected total for the month.
Cadillac learns to do the right thing
Last year I posted an editorial about how manufacturers who don’t stand behind their products will lose customers. Well, it appears that Cadillac might have learned this lesson. Over at GMInsideNews I learned of Don Hammonds’ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article on Cadillac’s high customer service scores. An especially encouraging excerpt from the article: What’s Cadillac doing right? Giving dealers lots of… More →
Busy getting the 2008s into the pricing database
I haven’t been very good about posting entries to the blog lately. Nor have I started going through the photos many members submitted for use on the site, though I’ll do this in the next few days. Instead, after being on vacation last week, I’ve been working hard to get pricing for 2008 models into the database, since manufacturers have… More →