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Archive for the 'Dealers, deals and for sale' Category

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Saab deal goes bust, brand future unknown

November 24th, 2009, 10:48 am by Matt Degen

2010-saabs

General Motors has just announced that the buyer for Saab has pulled out of the deal, leaving the future of the Swedish brand up in the air.

GM was to sell the brand to a partnership led by Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg Group AB and China’s Beijing Automotive Industrial Holding.

“We’re obviously very disappointed with the decision to pull out of the Saab purchase,” GM President and CEO, Fritz Henderson, said in a statement this morning.

“Many have worked tirelessly over the past several months to create a sustainable plan for the future of Saab by selling the brand and its manufacturing interests to Koenigsegg Group AB. Given the sudden change in direction, we will take the next several days to assess the situation and will advise on the next steps next week.”

The unvraleing of the proposed deal is the second such misfire for GM in the past few months. In September, GM announced that Penske Automotive Group pulled out of a deal to buy the Saturn brand.

As part of its resturcturing effort earlier this year, GM said it would shed the Saab, Saturn and Hummer brands, and ultimately kill off Pontiac. The Hummer brand of SUVs is being sold to a Chinese industrial company.

GM plans to just focus on a quartet of brand moving forward: Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac and Buick. Overseas, it is also keeping its Opel brand.

Koenigsegg had agreed to the preliminary deal to buy Saab about five months ago, and was to close the deal before 2010.

Moving forward, GM will now have to decide what to do with its Saab brand and its network of more than 200 dealers. Stay tuned.

Also see:

Posted in: Dealers, deals and for sale • • • • | 2 Comments »

Door-buster deal offers new BMW for half off

November 23rd, 2009, 4:13 pm by Matt Degen

328i_sedan

How’s this for a holiday deal: a brand new 2010 BMW 328i for 50 percent off. As in down from $33,675 to $16,838.

That’s the juicy incentive being offered Monday, Nov. 30, by the American Express Network to its card members on its Daily Wish Web site.

While the site offers American Express card members deals year-round on cars and other items, Monday’s BMW offer is pretty unreal. It makes those usual Black Friday door busters on toasters and TVs look paltry in comparison.

American Express says the car, which has an MSRP of $33,675, will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis for $16,838. That’s like getting a BMW 3 Series for a Mazda 3 price.

Of course there are caveats, the biggest being that only three cars will be available at this price. The way it works is, card members log on to the DailyWish.com Web site as early as they can on Monday (12:01 a.m., perhaps?) to find out when the deal will go live later that day. When it does, you and a zillion other card members can see who’s the fastest draw on the mouse to click for the deal.

If you are lucky enough to be one of the three to get this machine at a fire-sale price, an Amex rep will contact you within three days to set up an arrangement to pick up the car from a local dealer. With any luck, the engine — a 3.0-liter inline six making 230 horsepower and good for up to 28 mpg — will also be included.

(See full details including an FAQ page.)

Did you miss?

Posted in: Dealers, deals and for sale • • | 8 Comments »

Like bowling? You could win a Mazda 3

November 19th, 2009, 7:50 am by Matt Degen

smile1

Ever the sharp-eyed deal spotter, my colleague Marla Jo Fisher on her OC Deals blog presents this piece of news about a local Mazda dealer offering a unique giveaway opp:

If you bowl two games at Fountain Bowl in Fountain Valley and get a frequent-bowler card, bring that card to Huntington Beach Mazda to be entered in a drawing to win a 2010 Mazda 3.

The car will be awarded Jan. 23, 2010.

Not bad, huh?

You can also use that card at one of two Mazda dealers — Huntington Beach Mazda or Tustin Mazda — to get a coupon for a free game at Fountain Bowl if you take a test drive.

For more information about the contest, consumers can visit www.ocmazda.com or call 714-848-7739.

(Read Marla’s full post and check out other deals)

Faithful readers of Auto Motion might remember that we loved this little sedan and gave it quite a good review back in June. (See: 2010 Mazda 3 has plenty to grin about.)

Earlier this year, Huntington Beach Mazda performed a major revamp of its store to make itself more appealing to car shoppers, adding amenities like a living-room-type setup and children’s play area.

In other news:

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Will Chrysler survive? McCain isn’t so sure

November 16th, 2009, 4:18 pm by Matt Degen

Arizona Senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain has some stinging words regarding the fate of Chrysler, which like GM, went into bankruptcy this year and took billions of dollars in tax money for a bailout.

According to the Detroit News, McCain on Sunday said, “I don’t think we ever should have bailed out Chrysler and General Motors,” while he was serving as grand marshal of at the NASCAR Sprint Cup series race at the Phoenix International Raceway.

The News goes on to quote McCain as saying: “It was all about the unions. The unions didn’t want to have their very generous contracts renegotiated so we put $80 billion into both General Motors and Chrysler, and anybody believes that Chrysler is going to survive, I’d like to meet them.”

Read the full report about McCain and Chrysler.

Back in January while speaking to Orange County auto dealers, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich had this to say about the ailing Detroit automakers when asked his prediction: “I think a reconstituted Big 3 or 2 will be created. They need to move more toward change than subsidy.”

Months later, Chrysler would declare bankruptcy and accept $15 billion in bailout money. It emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June, and Italy’s Fiat group formed an alliance with the Detroit automaker, saying it intends to share technology and platforms in the coming years, while also bringing back Fiat cars to America.

Chrysler is also parent to the Dodge and Jeep brands.

In related news:

Posted in: Dealers, deals and for sale • New cars • • | Post a Comment »

‘Millennium Mercedes’ is alive in O.C.

November 13th, 2009, 10:49 am by Matt Degen

Earlier this week I wrote about a real gem here in Orange County, the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine, where you can see dozens of vintage M-B’s in pristine condition, and get parts for just about every Mercedes ever made.

What I didn’t get around to sharing in that past story was that the center also houses arguably the most unique Mercedes-Benz on the planet: The “Millennium Mercedes.”

This one-of-a-kind car has the body of an SLK 230 roadster and the chassis of a G-Series wagon, Mercedes-Benz’s military-grade off-road vehicles.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Car buyers: You have until Dec. 31 to get a tax break

November 12th, 2009, 12:09 pm by Matt Degen

taxbreak

(Updated with info on multiple car purchases)

First-time homebuyers aren’t the only ones getting a tax break this year from Uncle Sam. The IRS wants you to know that under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, car buyers are also eligible for a tax break on new vehicles.

Under the government’s Sales Tax Deduction for Vehicle Purchases, car buyers can take a deduction on state and local sales and excise taxes paid on the purchase of new cars, light trucks, motor homes and motorcycles bought after Feb. 16 of this year.

But the time to take advantage of the break is quickly coming to an end. Dec. 31, 2009, is the last day to get the tax break, and in case you haven’t noticed, the new year is just several weeks away.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Dealers, deals and for sale • New cars | 5 Comments »

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