Here’s a look at some recent auto loan programs:
Infiniti
Program: Limited Engagement Summer Event, through Aug. 31
Details: Special lease rates and 0% financing on 2009 Infiniti performance luxury vehicles (except the Infiniti G37 Convertible)
Example: A 39-month lease on a 2009 Infiniti EX Journey model with the Around View Monitor (AVM) Package and Bose and Navigation Package is $399 per month.
Extra: Longer-term financing is available to qualified buyers.
• • •
Barksdale Federal Credit Union
Program: Motion Promotion, through Sept. 30
Details: Rates as low as 4.49% for up to 72 months.
Extra: The first payment can be deferred for 90 days, and anyone who gets a loan during the promotional period is entered to win one of three $500 prizes.
I was never a Saturn convert, but the franchise still seems to have value, particularly with a fully developed dealer pool. I don’t think it would be too hard to turn Saturn around, get some of that “Beetlemania” back — in a normal market. We are not, unfortunately, in a normal market, and that means ventures dying on the vine will surely be dead soon enough.
Just to comment on David’s “One Price” point, I recall some years ago that JP Power-types had done research and concluded that consumers’ greatest dislike in the auto-buying process — if not in their retail purchasing experiences overall — was the haggling over price with dealers. Car makers, and the Big 3 in particular, made haggling their No. 1 target for elimination, and in some ways the incentive programs have stifled haggling. Saturn did its part to minimize the culture of haggling among dealers, too.