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GM Dealers Offer
Toyota Test Drives
Date: May 26, 2007
Source:
CheersAndGears.com
Author: Ninety
Eight Regency
Source Link
Original Article:
GM Dealers Offer
Toyota Test Drives
Date: May 25, 2007
Source:
cnnmoney.com
Author: Peter
Valdes
Source Link
GM dealers
offer Toyota test drives
Shoppers will be able to compare the Camry and Accord to the Saturn Aura
and, shortly, to the new Chevrolet Malibu as well.
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com staff writer
POSTED: 3:02 p.m. EDT, May 25, 2007
courtesy of Wikipedia.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If you want to test drive a Toyota Camry or
Honda Accord, starting next month you'll be able to do it at a Saturn
dealership. General Motors is asking Saturn dealers to have one or more
of the competing models in the showroom so customers can look at it, sit
in it and drive it.
Of course, Saturn dealers can't sell you an Accord or Camry. But they
hope that, when you see a Toyota or Honda sedan next to the Saturn Aura,
you'll decide to buy the Aura.
"In that side-by-side comparison, we come out really well," said Mark
LaNeve, head of North American sales and marketing for General Motors.
Later this year, Chevrolet dealers will be doing the same thing as they
introduce customers to the redesigned Chevrolet Malibu, which shares its
engineering platform with the Aura.
In focus group research, GM has shown potential customers new GM models
next to competing vehicles with all brand identifications removed and,
said LaNeve, customers have reacted well to the GM products.
Another advantage for GM dealers in having competing products on site is
that customers may not need to set foot in a competing dealership before
making a purchase decision.
"I think we can stand up to the comparison," said Wade Hoyt, a Toyota
spokesman.
Auto salespeople always research the competition, he said, and prepare
advantageous comparisons to offer customers considering another product.
"They talk down the competition all the time," said Hoyt, "so this is
just taking it one step further"
According to industry newspaper Automotive News, sales for the Saturn
Aura, which was voted Car of the Year by automotive journalists in
January, 2007, have been disappointing for GM. So far this year, about
18,000 Auras have been sold, according to Autodata, a company that
tracks car sales.
Part of the reason GM is willing to take this step, said LaNeve, is
because the company has little to lose. Midsized sedan shoppers often
don't even consider GM products, he said, instead going straight to
Honda and Toyota dealers.
The Toyota Camry and Honda Accord are now the two best-selling cars in
America.
"Over the course of a few years that became the default choice," said
LaNeve.
GM has sold about 48,400 of the current version of the Malibu so far
this year. Meanwhile, Toyota has sold about 145,000 Camrys.
GM wouldn't even consider doing something like this with its SUVs, said
LaNeve. GM currently holds about a 70 percent market share in large
SUVs, so there would be little to gain from bringing Toyota Sequoias
into Chevrolet dealerships to compare to the Tahoe.
