Coupons, I Hate Coupons

[MUAlum92]

Agreed.

They should be nicer to us.

It's the smaller to midsize stores that run leaner that will survive this storm, not the mega dealer. I don't know how many "profitable" super stores there are out there anymore.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by MUAlum92

Agreed.

They should be nicer to us.

It's the smaller to midsize stores that run leaner that will survive this storm, not the mega dealer. I don't know how many "profitable" super stores there are out there anymore.

Excellent point.

I think most Chrysler Dealers would rather have a small to mid-size store with a rent factor under $20K than a Super Store with a rent factor of $80K+ given the current sales environment.

I'm still in the process of confirming it, but I've heard that the West BC's largest Jeep Dealer just closed down this week. Bigger isn't always better.

[XDCX]

I thought of this thread this morning when I read e-mail on DealerConnect.

I'm thinking that we may as well get used to coupons because I don't think they're going to be going away.

[dafuzz1956]

The problem still exists, that there is two tier pricing, we had a **** mo last mo and the guy 25 miles north had a good mo, so guess who may have a good january and who might not. I do go in with a positive attitude, but come on this is not fair, THANKS CHRYSLER

[crowe]

Now let me get this straight. There’s a rebate for my BC, a bonus rebate, maybe a loyalty rebate or competitive rebate (where are the rules), a credit union rebate, a farm bureau rebate wait that expired 1/2/09, let’s look maybe there’s a rebate for living in the 3rd house on the left is it is brick, but the guy living across the state line 15 miles from here gets different BC rebates, so how many coupons do we have left, maybe he’s got a TDM that hasn’t expired.
There’s an old saying confusion is a license to steal. If we give the wrong rebate, who is out the money? We don’t give a rat’s a..s what he owns, is a member of, or the BC he lives in. We just want to sell as many as possible & get paid. I think if these guys knew what they were doing they would’ve been doing it a long time ago. They know how many units we have; they should know how much incentive is needed. Keep it simple, make a plan and pick a freaking incentive (1)!

[goodone414]

Originally Posted by crowe

Now let me get this straight. There’s a rebate for my BC, a bonus rebate, maybe a loyalty rebate or competitive rebate (where are the rules), a credit union rebate, a farm bureau rebate wait that expired 1/2/09, let’s look maybe there’s a rebate for living in the 3rd house on the left is it is brick, but the guy living across the state line 15 miles from here gets different BC rebates, so how many coupons do we have left, maybe he’s got a TDM that hasn’t expired.
There’s an old saying confusion is a license to steal. If we give the wrong rebate, who is out the money? We don’t give a rat’s a..s what he owns, is a member of, or the BC he lives in. We just want to sell as many as possible & get paid. I think if these guys knew what they were doing they would’ve been doing it a long time ago. They know how many units we have; they should know how much incentive is needed. Keep it simple, make a plan and pick a freaking incentive (1)!

WELCOME to Dealership Forum and AMEN. Absolutely insane to try to keep up with all the incentives. A couple of years ago I remember a conference call where they said they were simplifing the incentive programs. Sure glad they did, I don't think I could understand their idea of complicated

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by crowe

Now let me get this straight. There’s a rebate for my BC, a bonus rebate, maybe a loyalty rebate or competitive rebate (where are the rules), a credit union rebate, a farm bureau rebate wait that expired 1/2/09, let’s look maybe there’s a rebate for living in the 3rd house on the left is it is brick, but the guy living across the state line 15 miles from here gets different BC rebates, so how many coupons do we have left, maybe he’s got a TDM that hasn’t expired.
There’s an old saying confusion is a license to steal. If we give the wrong rebate, who is out the money? We don’t give a rat’s a..s what he owns, is a member of, or the BC he lives in. We just want to sell as many as possible & get paid. I think if these guys knew what they were doing they would’ve been doing it a long time ago. They know how many units we have; they should know how much incentive is needed. Keep it simple, make a plan and pick a freaking incentive (1)!

Wow, excellent first post - Welcome to DealershipForum.com

It's amazing at how confusing Chrysler's incentive are. In fact, that was one of the first reasons I thought that there was a need for a place like DealershipForum.com.

There was a great thread last month on Chrysler's DVD Incentive - I think we concluded that the amount on the Invoice for the DVD may or may not equal the amount you can claim for the incentive. But that amount is always different than the amount you have to show on the buyer's order. It was insane.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by goodone414

WELCOME to Dealership Forum and AMEN. Absolutely insane to try to keep up with all the incentives. A couple of years ago I remember a conference call where they said they were simplifing the incentive programs. Sure glad they did, I don't think I could understand their idea of complicated

I remember attending one of Chrysler's "Grass Roots Meetings" in Los Angeles about four years ago. All of the dealers cheered when one of the executives indicated that Chrysler was going to simplify the incentives and get rid of all the affinity programs.

I don't recall who the executive was - I'm thinking it was either Landry or LaSorda.

[crowe]

Objective programs, usually I love them. I think anyone who doesn’t like objectives tied to money probably shouldn’t be in the car business. But, the objective has to be fair and should not be tied to anything but sales. I agree with objectives we have to stretch to hit. We hit CJD MPA and VPA and KIA BOP, sometimes by the skin of our teeth. We didn’t always agree with the objective & the $s could have been more, but we played. But, don’t pay us to buy cars, pay us to sell them. Don’t choke us in inventory we don’t need while starving us of the inventory we need. Plus, telling us if we don’t buy cars your going broke doesn’t give a lot of confidence either. We’ve always carried more units than we needed, spent more on advertising than we should, paid salesmen extra and won more than we lost. But, the last 4 months, eh. Been selling cars since 73, seen better times and will again, hopefully with CJD. But for the last 3 years our KIA franchise has out sold our CJD 2 & 3 to 1. Why, gas maybe, price point maybe, simpler incentives maybe, consistency in objectives & objective money 2 to 3 times CJD probably got our attention. I hope Chrysler gets straightened out makes it, we can’t get stuck with this CJD inventory for one, plus we need to get new parts instead of the used broken parts they’ve been shipping us lately. By the way, we have always been In It Win.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by crowe

Objective programs, usually I love them. I think anyone who doesn’t like objectives tied to money probably shouldn’t be in the car business. But, the objective has to be fair and should not be tied to anything but sales. I agree with objectives we have to stretch to hit. We hit CJD MPA and VPA and KIA BOP, sometimes by the skin of our teeth. We didn’t always agree with the objective & the $s could have been more, but we played.

I agree with your point entirely.

The issue that I had with VPA was that it established "two-tier" pricing - it's hard to compete with your fellow dealer when he has a lower cost than you do.

The same thing can now be said for the various Coupon Programs. I think many dealers viewed the "In it to win it" program as a lose/lose proposition. It didn't make good business sense to buy more wholesale units, but if you didn't you'd be at a price disadvantage to other dealers in your market.

I do salute Chrysler for putting a lot of incentive dollars out there. Granted that their programs are super confusing, but it's better than not having any programs at all.

[dafuzz1956]

Interesting point about those who did phase 1 & 2, and now that you bring it up those of us that did should be able to beg and recieve more coupons to assist with this extra inventory. I would say that we are 15-20 units heavy vs where we would like to be, (I know that is nothing to you big guys out there but market size is market size).

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by dafuzz1956

Interesting point about those who did phase 1 & 2, and now that you bring it up those of us that did should be able to beg and recieve more coupons to assist with this extra inventory. I would say that we are 15-20 units heavy vs where we would like to be, (I know that is nothing to you big guys out there but market size is market size).

I think there are a number of dealers that are in the exact same situation - they stepped up for extra inventory to participate in the "In it to Win it" program and sales have been softer than forecast.

If there's any good news it's that flooring rates seem to be at an all-time low.

[ssdd]

you need a lawyer to figure out all these friggen programs...

[dafuzz1956]

Originally Posted by XDCX

I think there are a number of dealers that are in the exact same situation - they stepped up for extra inventory to participate in the "In it to Win it" program and sales have been softer than forecast.

If there's any good news it's that flooring rates seem to be at an all-time low.

That could be true for today but what about 6 mos down the road and what happens when they come up with the next force feed of inventory with the reward of more free money. This is really out of hand and Chryberus had better have a crainal extraction from their rectum soon, and bring back a single tier selleing system.

[MUAlum92]

The coupon program got even more unfair in January. Now you can stack up to six of them on certain units. The gulf between what a large dealer can offer vs a small dealer just got wider. It's ridiculously unfair.