What's the deal with Saturn dealers?

esquire415 · 04-15-2007, 05:01 PM

So do you pretty much pay for MSRP? No haggling? Is this set in stone? If it is, anyone know if they have any rebates or lease incentive programs coming out for the Sky? Anyone hear leasing a Sky and had to negotiate the price?

I hear that the best deal you can do is to have the salesguy throw in some accessory like rubber mats.

ThunderSky · 04-15-2007, 05:20 PM

Hi Esquire

Given the fact that the dealers could probably sell 10 skys for every one they actually get, they really don't negotiate at all. Saturn has always run on the "no haggle" concept. The problem is now that they finally have a hot car some dealers are insisting on a premium above MSRP (this is pretty much against Saturn policy) or insisting that buyers take a bunch of dealer installed options at huge markups (alarms, paint treatments etc.).

Stay away from dealers that are pulling that stuff.

GaryH · 04-15-2007, 06:00 PM

MSRP. No more. No less. As ThunderSky said, if the dealer wants to sell you a lot of add ons, find another dealer. Most dealers are on the up and up. You can find one. But, don't expect less than MSRP.

ctyankee · 04-15-2007, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire415

So do you pretty much pay for MSRP? No haggling? Is this set in stone?

I actually paid more because I didn't want to wait like 15-30 months. The sales guy said, "You're #30 on our list and we may get one a month."

lostcause · 04-15-2007, 06:24 PM

Yep. Ditto what everyone else says. I ended up paying a premium over msrp because I simply didn't know any better. Most dealers it seems will sell at msrp, but a few unscrupulous ones will charge a premium. After doing some reading, it seems that some of the ones who charge a premium tend to keep one or two in stock and use that to get people to pay over msrp. Basically it's a "you can pay a premium and drive it home today or you can order it at msrp and hope it doesn't take too long" type of thing. Some of them won't even want to order one for you.

As high as demand seems to be, it's unlikely you'll get any kind of incentives or special deals. The best you can probably do is msrp.

Eyre · 04-16-2007, 03:16 AM

After reading other posts, I feel lucky. We nabbed the showing room model for MSRP, plus we got $1000 off with a bit of haggling.

Rick Tinley Park · 04-16-2007, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire415

So do you pretty much pay for MSRP? No haggling? Is this set in stone? If it is, anyone know if they have any rebates or lease incentive programs coming out for the Sky? Anyone hear leasing a Sky and had to negotiate the price?

I hear that the best deal you can do is to have the salesguy throw in some accessory like rubber mats.

At Saturn - you basically pay Sticker.
Now let's look at that price. If you compare it to stickers of comparable cars you'll see that it is less. When I shopped for my first Saturn I found that the sticker price was pretty much what I got on a comparable car after 1.5 hours of haggling.
But also there are sometime incentives, discounts, your trade etc...
For the SKY - most places stick with the price but some want to add-on. Our advice is walk away. BUT if you want to pay it -- that is up to you.

**KimberlySky** · 04-16-2007, 08:43 AM

Ha ha does it count the Window Tint company came out and tinted the wrong Sky so I got my tint for free? Lol

I paid what my Work Bench came out to be the day they put the order in.

xmicro_Redline · 04-16-2007, 09:41 AM

It depends on the area you live in. Around the New York area most are paying premium for the Redlines. I have seen a couple of base models go at MSRP, seems they are in less demand around here at least. I hear a lease you get hosed on because it is the first model year and resale has not really been established yet.

Shop with SCC Summit, they are a dealer supporting this forum that had some cars delivered to some satisfied members and they will ship it to a local dealer as a courtesy pick up for a small extra fee, if I am not mistaken. Maybe he will see this post and chime in!

HoldHard · 04-16-2007, 09:44 AM

I paid about $800 less than the original MSRP quote, the saleswoman quoted the price increase and then the order got "bumped-up". It was built and delivered just before the increase went into effect....

HoldHard

Scottoj · 04-16-2007, 11:49 AM

I dont know exactly how much i got off, maybe a few grand??? but i bought the car right off the lot and paid just under 30k out the door. That is for a fully loaded Redline with tax title and tags... you just have to ask

mriley61@earthlink.n · 04-16-2007, 12:46 PM

I got mine at GM Employee discount by mistake at the dealership. They sent the figures to the bank at the GM employee price instead of the "price protection" price I was standing firm on so it was too late to change it. I was just telling them that I was not going to pay the "jacked up price" since I knew I had price protection. I had so many issues with my dealership that I think they realized I deserved some kind of break. My Redline was just under 30K fully loaded minus spoiler, out the door so I saved about $3,300 bucks

.

SSC_Summit · 04-16-2007, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xmicro_Redline

Shop with SCC Summit, they are a dealer supporting this forum that had some cars delivered to some satisfied members and they will ship it to a local dealer as a courtesy pick up for a small extra fee, if I am not mistaken. Maybe he will see this post and chime in!

Thank you for the kind words!

A minor correction - we are not currently able to sell via courtesy delivery. Simple english - if you're not local you would have to drive or fly to us to take delivery.

JHen66 · 04-17-2007, 05:22 AM

I got to Saturn and there were 2 Skys on the lot. One was sold and the other wasn't. The sales guy told us there was a waiting list but if we were really interested, he would let us test drive it. We had not done too much research and didn't know if this was a ploy. We test drove it and loved the car, but we wanted to look at a couple of others before we purchased. He told us it would be gone before we got back and we wouldn't be able to get one for months. We took our chances.

We came back 2 hrs later. Car was still there. While we were sitting in the showroom filling out the paperwork, someone informed the salesman the car was sold! He came and told us about it but guess what... they had another Sky that had just come off the truck... exact same as the one we were buying. This still sounded like crap to me so we demanded to see the car. Took an 1 1/2 hours for them to show us the car. We had to drive to their storage lot a mile away to see it. It was there and still had the plastic on it! I was happier to get this one since no one else had test drove it or breathed on it or anything!

Why do I ALMOST feel bad? Because the salesman had bypassed everyone on the list to sell me 2 different Skys in the same day! I almost feel bad... but I get over it when I see the chrome wheels sparkle, drop the top and turn the key... I feel MUCH better then.

By the way, I saw 4 on the lot over the weekend. Saturn of Torrance in Torrance, CA

**todaresqSL2** · 04-17-2007, 06:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xmicro_Redline

It depends on the area you live in. Around the New York area most are paying premium for the Redlines. I have seen a couple of base models go at MSRP, seems they are in less demand around here at least. I hear a lease you get hosed on because it is the first model year and resale has not really been established yet.

Not most... some NY locations... I know mine didn't and doesn't mark up.

skl8260 · 04-19-2007, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by todaresqSL2

Not most... some NY locations... I know mine didn't and doesn't mark up.

It's probably a NYC area thing, the dealers I know of in eastern upstate NY sell at MSRP.

**reedred** · 04-20-2007, 01:01 AM

Long Island too, unless something's changed.

jarcher · 04-20-2007, 03:18 AM

A dealer in RI charges a premium and has mandantory add-on options.

30 minutes away, a dealer in Raynham charges MSRP.

Go figure.

tjb30i · 04-20-2007, 10:05 AM

I went to 9 dealers in the Atlanta area and all of them play the game where they will offer you the car at MSRP and make it mandatory for you to buy dealer installed options such as Low Jack, Window Etching, Fabric protector etc etc. They range from $400 to $2,000 additional to MSRP. In the end I guess I will go with the $400 guy.

I also have GM preferred supplier pricing through our company. Only problem is that this is not mandatory and I could not find a dealer willing to offer that on this car.

MileHiSky · 04-20-2007, 11:27 AM

My husband had been talking about a convertible for 2 years. One Saturday in September we were driving down the road here in Colorado Springs and one came by. I made him do the typical “catch up, slow down, look it all over” things..(which happens to us all the time when we are driving).

I said to heck with the chores/errand, we are going to the dealership. You see, he wanted a Solara or a Sebring (gasp). While the sighting of the Sky was hot I took advantage. We went to the north end, where they had 3 base Sky’s on the lot…and were taking Redline orders, we could be #2 on the list…would see one in 6 months - March! We had never heard of such a wait (know better now), and got in the car and went to Motor city.

We were both in jeans, sweatshirts, and looked like a frumpy middle aged couple driving up in our 8 yr old Explorer. Motor city has SAAB, Toyota, and Chrysler all on the same street…we went to all… The guy in Motor city would not allow us to touch the car, or test drive the Sky unless we placed a deposit and did a purchase contract FIRST. Unbelievable. He was rude, interrupted me, and only spoke to my husband. I knew all the stats of this car, wanting it all along. My husband told him to answer my question, and things went downhill. Mind you the sales manager was popping in and out, and they really treated us like country bumpkins first time in the city.

Drove back to the other/North end of town. Test drive? Sure! We ordered the redline, and placed a deposit. No add on, no dealer prep charge other than $75 (reasonable). Best of all, they took my GM discount. Humored me and my bi-weekly call to check on things. Gave me my order number. Could not say enough about them, they have my business.

04-15-2007, 05:01 PM	#1 (permalink)
esquire415 Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 3 My Photos: (0)	What's the deal with Saturn dealers? So do you pretty much pay for MSRP? No haggling? Is this set in stone? If it is, anyone know if they have any rebates or lease incentive programs coming out for the Sky? Anyone hear leasing a Sky and had to negotiate the price? I hear that the best deal you can do is to have the salesguy throw in some accessory like rubber mats.

04-15-2007, 05:20 PM	#2 (permalink)
ThunderSky Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Montreal Posts: 107 My Photos: (0)	Hi Esquire Given the fact that the dealers could probably sell 10 skys for every one they actually get, they really don't negotiate at all. Saturn has always run on the "no haggle" concept. The problem is now that they finally have a hot car some dealers are insisting on a premium above MSRP (this is pretty much against Saturn policy) or insisting that buyers take a bunch of dealer installed options at huge markups (alarms, paint treatments etc.). Stay away from dealers that are pulling that stuff. __________________ ThunderSky Graphite RedLine, Red / Black Leather, Manual Tranny, Windrestrictor, Monsoon with XM , Spoiler, Drilled/Slotted Rotors, Painted calipers, Magnaflow 3" Quad Tip Exhaust, CAI Ordered 9/12/06 In My Garage 6/13/07

04-15-2007, 06:00 PM	#3 (permalink)
GaryH First 2000 Sr. Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Fairhope, Al Posts: 1,302 My Photos: (0)	MSRP. No more. No less. As ThunderSky said, if the dealer wants to sell you a lot of add ons, find another dealer. Most dealers are on the up and up. You can find one. But, don't expect less than MSRP. __________________ Silver Pearl Black/Black leather LSD CD/MP3 XM satellite 5 speed manual VIN#1745 Fiamm horn Magnaflow Quad Tip Exhaust

04-16-2007, 08:43 AM	#8 (permalink)
KimberlySky Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Orlando, Florida (Windermere) Posts: 1,402 My Photos: (11)	Ha ha does it count the Window Tint company came out and tinted the wrong Sky so I got my tint for free? Lol I paid what my Work Bench came out to be the day they put the order in. __________________ *SINISTER* Sexy Sky Onyx 3 Peds LSD Spoiler Splash Guards Sky Mats Tint Short Antenna Console Saddle DC Sports Brace Bar AEM Intake Dual RL Exhaust 1100 10/5/06 Mine 1/26/07

04-16-2007, 09:44 AM	#10 (permalink)
HoldHard Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Motor City 'burbs Posts: 363 My Photos: (0)	I paid about $800 less than the original MSRP quote, the saleswoman quoted the price increase and then the order got "bumped-up". It was built and delivered just before the increase went into effect.... HoldHard __________________ '07 Sky RedLine *"Bear"* as in "Strong as a..." 09/21/06-Deposit 12/22/06-Delivered Polar White, Tan/Black, Spoiler, 6 Disc Monsoon, Chromes, Two Pedal, Fujita CAI and Hardpipes

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04-15-2007, 06:24 PM	#5 (permalink)
lostcause Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 1,228 My Photos: (0)	Yep. Ditto what everyone else says. I ended up paying a premium over msrp because I simply didn't know any better. Most dealers it seems will sell at msrp, but a few unscrupulous ones will charge a premium. After doing some reading, it seems that some of the ones who charge a premium tend to keep one or two in stock and use that to get people to pay over msrp. Basically it's a "you can pay a premium and drive it home today or you can order it at msrp and hope it doesn't take too long" type of thing. Some of them won't even want to order one for you. As high as demand seems to be, it's unlikely you'll get any kind of incentives or special deals. The best you can probably do is msrp.

04-16-2007, 03:16 AM	#6 (permalink)
Eyre Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 20 My Photos: (0)	After reading other posts, I feel lucky. We nabbed the showing room model for MSRP, plus we got $1000 off with a bit of haggling.

04-16-2007, 09:41 AM	#9 (permalink)
xmicro_Redline Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: New York Posts: 4,029 My Photos: (1)	It depends on the area you live in. Around the New York area most are paying premium for the Redlines. I have seen a couple of base models go at MSRP, seems they are in less demand around here at least. I hear a lease you get hosed on because it is the first model year and resale has not really been established yet. Shop with SCC Summit, they are a dealer supporting this forum that had some cars delivered to some satisfied members and they will ship it to a local dealer as a courtesy pick up for a small extra fee, if I am not mistaken. Maybe he will see this post and chime in!

04-16-2007, 11:49 AM	#11 (permalink)
Scottoj Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Frederick, MD Posts: 40 My Photos: (0)	I dont know exactly how much i got off, maybe a few grand??? but i bought the car right off the lot and paid just under 30k out the door. That is for a fully loaded Redline with tax title and tags... you just have to ask

04-16-2007, 12:46 PM	#12 (permalink)
mriley61@earthlink.n Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Englewood, Ohio Posts: 131 My Photos: (0)	I got mine at GM Employee discount by mistake at the dealership. They sent the figures to the bank at the GM employee price instead of the "price protection" price I was standing firm on so it was too late to change it. I was just telling them that I was not going to pay the "jacked up price" since I knew I had price protection. I had so many issues with my dealership that I think they realized I deserved some kind of break. My Redline was just under 30K fully loaded minus spoiler, out the door so I saved about $3,300 bucks . __________________ MySky2XL KJWRH5 Blk/Blk/Red/Blk Redline Auto, 6 Disc Monsoon, Leather, XM, Chrome 18's Dealer Order 1/5/07 3000 2/1/07 3300 2/1/07 3400 2/3/07 4800 2/22/07 6000 3/1/07 Woohoo!!!

04-17-2007, 05:22 AM	#14 (permalink)
JHen66 Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Manhattan Beach, CA Posts: 19 My Photos: (0)	I ALMOST feel bad I got to Saturn and there were 2 Skys on the lot. One was sold and the other wasn't. The sales guy told us there was a waiting list but if we were really interested, he would let us test drive it. We had not done too much research and didn't know if this was a ploy. We test drove it and loved the car, but we wanted to look at a couple of others before we purchased. He told us it would be gone before we got back and we wouldn't be able to get one for months. We took our chances. We came back 2 hrs later. Car was still there. While we were sitting in the showroom filling out the paperwork, someone informed the salesman the car was sold! He came and told us about it but guess what... they had another Sky that had just come off the truck... exact same as the one we were buying. This still sounded like crap to me so we demanded to see the car. Took an 1 1/2 hours for them to show us the car. We had to drive to their storage lot a mile away to see it. It was there and still had the plastic on it! I was happier to get this one since no one else had test drove it or breathed on it or anything! Why do I ALMOST feel bad? Because the salesman had bypassed everyone on the list to sell me 2 different Skys in the same day! I almost feel bad... but I get over it when I see the chrome wheels sparkle, drop the top and turn the key... I feel MUCH better then. By the way, I saw 4 on the lot over the weekend. Saturn of Torrance in Torrance, CA __________________ JHen66 *Little One* Silver Pearl, Chrome Wheels, Black Leather Seats, Black Top, Monsoon Stereo, Cheshire Cat Grin on my Face since Valentine's Day 2007:D Last edited by JHen66 : 04-17-2007 at 05:37 AM.

04-20-2007, 03:18 AM	#18 (permalink)
jarcher First 2000 Sr. Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Smithfield, RI Posts: 470 My Photos: (0)	A dealer in RI charges a premium and has mandantory add-on options. 30 minutes away, a dealer in Raynham charges MSRP. Go figure. __________________ Black Sky Redline Black and red interior 6 Disk Monsoon XM Chrome wheels Deck Lid Spoiler 3,500mi 1 speeding ticket, dismissed!

04-20-2007, 10:05 AM	#19 (permalink)
tjb30i Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Atlanta, GA Posts: 63 My Photos: (0)	I went to 9 dealers in the Atlanta area and all of them play the game where they will offer you the car at MSRP and make it mandatory for you to buy dealer installed options such as Low Jack, Window Etching, Fabric protector etc etc. They range from $400 to $2,000 additional to MSRP. In the end I guess I will go with the $400 guy. I also have GM preferred supplier pricing through our company. Only problem is that this is not mandatory and I could not find a dealer willing to offer that on this car.

04-20-2007, 11:27 AM	#20 (permalink)
MileHiSky Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 250 My Photos: (0)	My husband had been talking about a convertible for 2 years. One Saturday in September we were driving down the road here in Colorado Springs and one came by. I made him do the typical “catch up, slow down, look it all over” things..(which happens to us all the time when we are driving). I said to heck with the chores/errand, we are going to the dealership. You see, he wanted a Solara or a Sebring (gasp). While the sighting of the Sky was hot I took advantage. We went to the north end, where they had 3 base Sky’s on the lot…and were taking Redline orders, we could be #2 on the list…would see one in 6 months - March! We had never heard of such a wait (know better now), and got in the car and went to Motor city. We were both in jeans, sweatshirts, and looked like a frumpy middle aged couple driving up in our 8 yr old Explorer. Motor city has SAAB, Toyota, and Chrysler all on the same street…we went to all… The guy in Motor city would not allow us to touch the car, or test drive the Sky unless we placed a deposit and did a purchase contract FIRST. Unbelievable. He was rude, interrupted me, and only spoke to my husband. I knew all the stats of this car, wanting it all along. My husband told him to answer my question, and things went downhill. Mind you the sales manager was popping in and out, and they really treated us like country bumpkins first time in the city. Drove back to the other/North end of town. Test drive? Sure! We ordered the redline, and placed a deposit. No add on, no dealer prep charge other than $75 (reasonable). Best of all, they took my GM discount. Humored me and my bi-weekly call to check on things. Gave me my order number. Could not say enough about them, they have my business.