GM Canada - Ring In And Win Promotion Returns

[CadillacCTS]

Everyone's a Winner at the GM Ring & Win Event!!

Something magical is happening this holiday season at the GM Ring & Win Event. Customers who push the OnStar button will receive cash awards up to $10,000 off the purchase or lease of their new GM vehicle. In addition, 25 lucky customers from across Canada will win their selected vehicle during this year's big event.

Edited November 16, 2005 by CadillacCTS

[ToniCipriani]

OK, great, just in time. Any details on if I need to take delivery before this year runs out? Apparently my G6 will take 8-12 weeks.

[CARBIZ]

If I could afford the bullet, I'd shoot myself! Ford has also jumped on the bandwagon, giving away a car a day and offering prizes of up to $10,000. Why don't we just do hot dogs and balloons, too? This is just embarassing. Last year, it was a joke. All the usual coupon clippers show up, waste everyone's time to see what they can win, then off they go. The entire OnStar process took too long, and by the end of the promotion, as the wait times got longer, even the OnStar people were rushing the customer through it. Another case of marketing run amok. "Oh," they say," it is our job to get the prospect in and YOUR job to sell the vehicle." Yeah, well it is OUR job to supply the oxygen mask and defibilator when the customer discovers the truth in the inane advertising. (Like the current Cobalt lease of $179 that requires $3,500 due on signing!) After an amaging July and August, I was hoping they would come up with something new and different for the Boxing Month promotions. I guess I was mistaken. How about something we can sink our teeth into, like: Zero financing for 60 months (even 72 like Suzuki has been doing?) Hold the payments for 90 days - a great program at Xmas when people are worried about their bills. But contests and give aways? This isn't the'60s.

[I hope GMRULES again]

The commercials for Ring in and Win are pretty sad too, people pick up the phone and call and Santa answers to tell them if they won anything. :lol: I knew it would be back again this year. Actually when I test drove an Impala last week and the salesman and I talked price he mentioned there might be some promotions coming up that would lower the price and I said so you mean Ring and win is coming back again this year and he said probably. I think everybody has leases advertised for $179 or $199 that require a big down payment so I can't fault GM for that. How about a massive advertising blitz talking about quality, fuel economy backed up by a new 10 year warranty to convince the skeptics??? Edited November 16, 2005 by I hope GMRULES again

[G. David Felt]

<_< And you thought they would not resort to what appeared to work last time? We are in the midst of the reuse everything that appeared to work last year to finish out the year strong. :lol: Originality seams to be lacking across the auto industry. <_< Now I was discussing this with my coworkers here and we all agreed that a 0% for 60 months financing along with a Xmas $500 in options free for customizing the auto would be sweet!!! :P Everyone gets a good deal and the dealership then get the customer to buy from them up to $500 in add on stuff like mud flaps, bug shield, upgrade shifter knob, etc. Great way to sell an auto plus get people to look at the accessories the dealer sell's. This would be better than the current ring and win. IMO :) Plus to all the C&G Folks who administer the site and make this such a great place for us Faithful GM people to bitch and love our favorite General, YOU GUYS ROCK!!! Have a Happy Holiday season! :CG_all: :cheers:

[aurum]

I think car companies are turning into the new record companies. They have to give cars away and work for tips.

[post="44238"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

I hate these deals because I just bought a GM car in Canada, without any special deal or offer, aside from the 'recent graduate' deal. When they come out with crap like this it makes me feel like a sucker.

[CARBIZ]

Don't feel like a sucker. Half the time these deals are just smoke and mirrors. Know this: in the summer there will be deals to clear out the previous year's models and before Christmas there will be deals to get through a slow period of the year. As a general rule, the best time to BUY is June/July (the deals could get better in August, but there won't be a lot left) and the best time to LEASE is December (the residuals drop in January or Feb., so get in before that happens). There, Car Buying 101. Besides, never buy a DVD player, TV or VCR and see it on sale for $50 less a week later? Make your decision when to buy, do it and move on.....

[gmbuoy]

Carbiz, I've read enough of your posts and you don't talk for the majority of anybody in Canada. I get to talk to a lot of salespeople at some very good dealerships and quite frankly selling 0 for 60 is not what they want to be doing. Selling the car on its' merits at a competitive sticker is what they want. FYI read the Star on the weekend those Oxygen masks must need to be in good supply at every other dealershiop in the country as well. We don't get to right the rules but we do have to play by them, you may not like it but it is reality. GM Canada has had a holiday push for over 12 years. You complain about those parts of this program that don't exactly line up with the shortest path between you and your flat. As this is a PUBLIC forum the Next time you post could you think twice about wether you are building up others perception of the Salesperson profession or tearing off another strip ?

[CARBIZ]

There is nothing in my writings that takes away from Salespeople; in fact, I have often relayed the stresses and aggravations that we go through. In this thread which you seem to be so distressed about, I am merely pointing out that advertising is mostly smoke and mirrors. Every year GM, or Ford and Chrysler for that matter, have clearance sales. They can dress it up any way they want, but they are clearance sales nonetheless. Aurum correctly points out that sometimes customers feel like suckers when they buy something and then find it cheaper a week later. The auto business is no different. I am not singling out GM for misleading advertising, but all manufacturers do it. The public hates it, consumer groups hate it and salespeople hate it. When Mr. and Mrs. Smith sit around the breakfast table on a Sunday morning with all the car ads spread out on the table and they see a Cobalt advertised at $179, even if they notice that GM wants $1,700 down and that it is plus freight, how do you break it to them gently that they must come up with $3,500? Of course Kia and Hyundai are worse with their $179 lease payments that are supposedly zero down, but the customer has to give over $2,000. Chrysler does it with their $199 Caravan lease that requires $8,200 up front. They all do it and it sucks. It doesn't make it right to say, "oh, everybody does it." GM needs to aspire to be better than the rest. As to the Ring and Win, if it is so great, why aren't they doing it in the U.S.? Just because dealer principles and managers tell GM to their face that it is a great idea, does that mean that is how they really feel? In GM's struggle to regain consumer confidence and respect, I don't think giving aways and random lotteries are the answer. Toyota does not do it and they are increasing share.

[!!!TED!!!]

Long story short: I rang in and "won" $900 Canadian...after the first vin failed, and the dealer ran around, and got the vin of the silver Vette in the showroom. LOL That plus the "generous"$1000 that Car Heaven would give for the 92 Cutlass puts me at $265/M Lease on a Yellow Cobalt LS. :P I refused, and was "given" a $200 Loyalty Gift Card. LOL I bet if I was serious, I could have kept going and getting "deal" after "deal". Oh man, the things they do to get your business. :lol:

[CARBIZ]

...that was my point earlier. Because the event is tied to a particular VIN #, the dealer has to reverse the VIN when the customer walks out and then the vehicle can't be played for 48 hours. This is an unnecessary paperwork hassle. The business office will bounce it back to the sales manager and he/she will bounce it back to the sales person, who won't bother to reverse it at all. Great when a real customer comes along and the car they choose can't be played at all. So prospects are divided into three categories: 1) real customers who are in the market om which case the unknown amount to be won is merely a bonus; 2) total flakes who have no intention of buying a car but will string the sales staff along (even to the point of test drives and fake negotiating) to see IF they can win the vehicle. 3) honest coupon clippers who only want to run the lottery but at least have the decency not to totally waste the sales staff's time and go directly to the ring in to win. I don't know why GM insists on pitting sales staff against the customer. Due to the nature of the "no purchase necessary" provisions, we are obliged to go through the motions if someone insists, but most sales people can detect BS a mile away and will run if given a chance. Customers think we are a**holes, but any dealer that runs on an "up" system (or even those that don't) creates an environment where the time waster may very well have cost the salesperson money. I am all for nurturing customer relations and I know only too well that a brochure given out to a 15 year old today may result in a car sold 3 years from now, but when flocks of these people come in with the only intent to find out what they can "win" then leave - well, it is the kind of thing that creates resentment and customers being "catapulted" off the lot.

[Guest Josh]

Ahhhh finally a breathe of fresh air from CARBIZ. When a customer comes up to me saying "What do you have to offer me to stick around"....I stand back, excuse myself for a minute and really take into account what they want. To be perfectly honest, you know an honest customer from a kniving customer. His point is very well taken. Very well taken.