If you have been following the Solstice production and delivery over on the solsticeforum.com site you see a disturbing trend. There are more orders and buyers than GM can produced before the end of year. I believe the last number I have seen was there are over 17,000 orders for the Solstice! There are a lot issues surrounding this, slow startup, initial production issues, redo, etc. This should be expected with the launch of a new car. The new Pontiac Solstice is currently the cheapest hand-built car in America! What was not expected was the amount initial interest and buyers willing to order site unseen. This is causing a lot anxiety with all these potential new owners, some are abandoning ship and buying foreign sports cars (very few though). Most are waiting it out, and hoping GM can play catch up with the number of orders before years end.
Now the problem for us potential Saturn Sky owners, with all the production delays and delivery delays being experienced by Pontiac, some potential Solstice buyers are figuring out that their new Solstice just may not arrive before the first Sky cars do. My guess, and it's only a guess, is some of these buyers were going for the Solstice because the Sky was to be built a year later. Well, that year later is over halfway here and these buyers are still without even a factory received order. This may lead to huge initial buyer interest for the Sky, not a bad thing for GM, but could be bad for those of us waiting to get on a dealer waitlist to order the Sky. I strongly recommend if you haven't been put in the top five of a dealership pre-order list to start searching for one to get on. You can buy your Saturn from any dealer in the country, and some will even allow you to take delivery at a dealership near you.
Second problem starting to occur, dealers at Pontiac are now off the hook to sell the Solstice at MSRP, as suggested by GM for the first 1000 cars. I have been reading that some dealerships will be charging from $3,000-$5,000 over sticker on a regular order. The supply and demand problem is the reason for this jump in price, and more and more dealer's see others doing it and getting them sold they will hop on the bandwagon and sell over sticker. Remember, dealerships are not own by GM and they can resell the product at any price they wish. GM is really powerless to stop this, and in some ways makes their product look better when dealer can sell over sticker. GM has already increased the price on a few options on the car, and will probably increase the initial price by the beginning of 2006.
What this means to us. We will be facing a larger influx of Sky buyers than expected. The price GM has originally set for the vehicle may rise do to the demand. And the worse situation, the Saturn philosophy of no haggle selling may get the dreaded "Value Added" cost adjusted to Sky.
Now the problem for us potential Saturn Sky owners, with all the production delays and delivery delays being experienced by Pontiac, some potential Solstice buyers are figuring out that their new Solstice just may not arrive before the first Sky cars do. My guess, and it's only a guess, is some of these buyers were going for the Solstice because the Sky was to be built a year later. Well, that year later is over halfway here and these buyers are still without even a factory received order. This may lead to huge initial buyer interest for the Sky, not a bad thing for GM, but could be bad for those of us waiting to get on a dealer waitlist to order the Sky. I strongly recommend if you haven't been put in the top five of a dealership pre-order list to start searching for one to get on. You can buy your Saturn from any dealer in the country, and some will even allow you to take delivery at a dealership near you.
Second problem starting to occur, dealers at Pontiac are now off the hook to sell the Solstice at MSRP, as suggested by GM for the first 1000 cars. I have been reading that some dealerships will be charging from $3,000-$5,000 over sticker on a regular order. The supply and demand problem is the reason for this jump in price, and more and more dealer's see others doing it and getting them sold they will hop on the bandwagon and sell over sticker. Remember, dealerships are not own by GM and they can resell the product at any price they wish. GM is really powerless to stop this, and in some ways makes their product look better when dealer can sell over sticker. GM has already increased the price on a few options on the car, and will probably increase the initial price by the beginning of 2006.
What this means to us. We will be facing a larger influx of Sky buyers than expected. The price GM has originally set for the vehicle may rise do to the demand. And the worse situation, the Saturn philosophy of no haggle selling may get the dreaded "Value Added" cost adjusted to Sky.
