Chevrolet has ratcheted up its incentives strategy to heavily target its Asian rivals. New pricing and incentive analysis from CarsDirect shows the bowtie brand is offering at least $2,500 towards the purchase of almost any 2018 Chevrolet model.
Of course, there are exceptions. To take advantage, current owners will need to provide proof of ownership or their current lease agreement. The brands included are Honda, Isuzu, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Scion, Subaru, Suzuki, Toyota, Daewoo, Hyundai and Kia.
Base models (L trims) are not included in the incentive deal, and if a customer is interested in a 2017 model over a 2018 vehicle, the $2,500 can only be applied to a purchase, not a lease.
At the same time, Chevrolet wants to court European import drivers and even rival U.S. makes. Chevrolet has targeted owners of almost every other mass-market brand, including Pontiac, Hummer, Saab and Saturn owners with a $2,000 incentive towards a 2018 model purchase, and $1,500 incentive towards a 2018 leased vehicle.
Again, those who fancy a 2017 model are only eligible for $2,000 towards a purchase.
Perhaps the most notable deal is for a Chevrolet Sonic. Shoppers can score the sub-compact hatchback or sedan with $5,000 off the $16,000 MSRP. By combining the Asian conquest incentive with a $1,000 rebate and $1,500 down-payment assistance, buyers can score a killer deal. And the Sonic remains a solid vehicle.
Chevrolet is also offering wicked deals on the C7 Corvette. Dealers have hidden “flex cash” at their disposal worth up to $8,000 for 2017 models and $6,000 for 2018 models. Combining the full $8,000 with an advertised incentive of $2,017, buyers can score up to $10,000 off a new 2017 model year Corvette.
Comments
These deals are target specific, which is to swing a non GM customer into a new GM vehicle.
Not like the old days, when everybody got an EZ rebate.
Yet, GM continues to expand it’s margins.
Give all at GM the credit they deserve!
Chevrolet must grow. On monthly average Nissan/Infinity outsells the Bowtie. In coastal areas, NYC is where I live,Chevrolet is only found used in low income and bad credit areas with even Ford having a stronger showing.
Chevy has the product to compete against Toyota and in many cases Honda and Mazda. The challenge is to convince buyers.
I also live in NYC and I completely agree with your statements about the Chevrolet brand. Everything here is 75% Asian and European vehicles. The rest of the 25% that aren’t are the American brands but Chevrolet barely makes the cut here.
Absolutely true about the low income crowd here only being in a old, used Chevrolet.
Chevrolet has some decent product but it will always be a damaged brand until people on the coasts with solid income/good credit want Bowties.
I’m maybe the only person under 40 who likes sedans, Malibu and Cruze are great (then again, my favorite rental was 200), and should be selling. Only silly stigma holds them back.
Ford does okay in Brooklyn. I assume the pseudo Euro design helps.
GMC is The General’s best seller down here, and maybe Buick could become a coastal player?
Incentives need product worthy of switching. I see the Trax and ‘Nox as tempting — but both must be rated as really REALLY good.
when i got out of college and looked for a new car, i bought a 1999 honda accord coupe. 20 years and 200K miles later, i still have it. the interior has held up and looks pretty damn good. i’ve replaced a few things like the starter, radiator, etc … but really nothing major for the first 150K miles.
for me, that experience has earned honda the benefit of the doubt as a brand. i think most consumers buyers(not leasers) want a reliable car that isn’t going to bite them in the ass after the warranty expires.
now i’m older with more money. i don’t necessarily want a japanese vehicle because where i live in los angeles, they are everywhere(especially honda civics). i don’t want german because i don’t lease. korean, forget about it … i might as well buy japanese.
of the american automakers, i’m only interested in gm. ford seems to be playing catch up. chrysler seems to be running the clock out until someone buys them. i can’t wait to see the new mid-engine corvette. if it lives up to expectations and priced right, i’ll take that and a used chevrolet bolt. but no matter what, i’m keeping my old honda.
when i was in high school i got a Pontiac sunfire, Still got it and am still driving it as a cheap gas saver. Its faired better than my brothers corolla. I have a lot of trust in GM cars, of course i wasn’t alive for the Vega fiasco, but i have more trust in GM than in almost any other car company when it comes to reliability. Its only an image that Asians make better cars as everyone i know who owns a Nissan has issues. Toyota hasn’t impressed me either. Its only a myth that Europeans make classier cars, as BMW’s and Audis look the same as they did 10 years ago with little change from 10 years before that. Everyone is playing catch up to American innovation, its just that “their name is mud” and people dont take the time to research or test drive
My last 3 Impala’s have all been very reliable cars with a minimum of issues so I keep buying them and putting 150-200K on each. If you actually believe CR they claim that nothing but Honda’s and Toyota’s can last to 200K. It’s a total scam and lies. If you keep them serviced and taken care of they will take care of you.
Most of the people who have problems with their cars or trucks don’t maintain them or drive them into the ground! Then complain when they have problems!
I saw this lady take the gear shifter from drive to park going say 10 mph. Then have the gall to complain about the transmission not functioning properly and that GM builds crap cars! When she told her friends about the problems she was having with her GM car do you think she informed then that she abused the transmission in a way your not supposed to? No she just says GM cars sucks and for some reason people believe her.
You can duplicate this story over and over!
They need some sizzle with the stakes, a reliable, budget, sporty rwd turbo 4-v8 sedan will really get something going, making a bad fwd clone will not get buyers back.
“They need some sizzle with the stakes, a reliable, budget, sporty rwd turbo 4-v8 sedan will really get something going, ”
Sporty RWD cars with V8’s aren’t for the budget-minded. Where have you been for the last 20 years?
Is that the response in Japan that GM is trying to out-Corolla the Japanese again?. Making a good car is just not enough they have to give a reason why buying a Chevy car is better than the imports, laughter for a inexpensive rwd car but GM kept blowing it with fwd for the past 35 years.
Not saying they should stop making the Malibu but they can do better.
You are in a time warp!
RWD is undesired by the average buyer who knows little about cars, needs a family hauler and wants reliability at a good price point.
Honda and Toyota have become the benchmark because GM produced crap for 30 years The quality is great now but it takes time for word to spread.
Getting Camary drivers into a Malibu is a great first step. Getting Malibu and Cruze the same public respect as Accord and Civic–as is the case with most rankings–is key.
Chevy gaining street cred will take time. Mazda is great yet fails to gain traction proving that consumer loyalty trumps quality.
And you live in the mid-west 80s. Keep telling yourself why rwd is “undesired” while import competition is whipping GM ass with fwd and rwd sporty and practical cars. GM got the quality part down but why should a Camry or Civic owner should switch after 2-300k miles of service?.
Look at the Koreans on how they eating the Japanese lunch on the car part, they understand making a car that doesn’t break isn’t what people JUST want or I’ll put it in a better way Henry Ford knew that Ford couldn’t just live off the Model T legacy so the Ford V8 was put forth. A better example is how Pontiac survived the 50’s after Chevy got it’s V8 and “Bunkie” Knudsen built Pontiac performance around it’s V8 before it got the axe.
GM needs to stop putting out this Tupperware party cars and put a better effort in to the mainstream line-up, not saying GM needs a line-up of cheap V8 cars but get Joe/Jane an affordable family car with some sizzle. IMO why not return the Nova based on the Alpha chassis for buyers or an sporty Cruze coupe/convertible or even an Alpha based Avista sedan/coupe to target Genesis/Infinity buyers?.
“MO why not return the Nova based on the Alpha chassis for buyers or an sporty Cruze coupe/convertible or even an Alpha based Avista sedan/coupe to target Genesis/Infinity buyers?.”
Those cars already exists and it’s called the Camaro and ATS respectively. Duplicating the Camaro and calling it a Nova would be redundant and wasteful, and will do nothing for GM as Nova has less public equity than the Camaro. The Avista was and will remain a concept, and Genesis and Infiniti is not where Buick plays.
Yet GM duplicate trucks/CUV/SUVs without fuss but whoa can’t duplicate any exciting automobiles for the masses, they’ll add a paint job to a boring model and hope for the best.
IMO they can use Alpha for a mainstream sedan without the Cadillac stuff, right now they don’t even offer a fwd car for people to get excited for.
We’re not talking about trucks, and it cannot be steered that way.
“exciting automobiles for the masses”
Because the masses don’t have the means to pay for the engineering costs of exciting automobiles. That’s why Cadillac and the Denail range exist, and I believe that’s why the Camaro is as expensive as it is; it cannot be sustained on low-price high-volume strategies.
I told you that the era of affordable RWD performance sedans is long gone, and today RWD performance matters to even fewer people; certainly not people in the masses.
I’ll put it another way. If you want RWD performance sedans, you’re not part of the masses who want cars as transportation.
If you still want RWD performance sedans, then you need to be of means to have one of which the upper end of the market has several to chose from.
Lastly, if you’re latently thinking that such a affordable RWD sedan will somehow jump start a second generation of muscle cars (like how the 2004 Holden Torrana TT36 concept was though to be the basis of the 2nd gen Pontiac G6), then you’re entertaining a pipe dream that was never going to be profitable.
You still haven’t got the point of getting mainstream buyers into Chevy showrooms, what affordable, exciting fwd GM I can buy this second?……
You keep rattling off how affordable rwd performance is gone and GM have a chance to at least pique peoples interest in a mainstream Chevy car again with Alpha. Not everyone who buys a affordable sedan is a TMZ watching, CR reading, Testosterone offended, cubicle monkey. I’ll give an example, FCA by 22′ will have a midsize/rwd Dodge sedan under Charger/Challenger, that don’t sound like a “Cammy fighter” to me. Get that sizzle to the mainstream GM.
You haven’t got the message either. People of means who want ‘sizzle’ are buying performance models of Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, Audi, and in some respects, Cadillac.
People of means aren’t buying Dodge Chargers/Challengers.
You want people in Chevy showrooms, then get on GM’s case to make a compelling, reliable, fuel-efficient car with 5-star safety ratings and with good residuals.
Now if you, personally, want 400hp+ and a V8 with that above hypothetical Chevy, tack on $20K more to the MSRP.
See how easy you’ve taken yourself out of the mainstream buyers circle?
Wherever you semi-rant about CR and TMZ notwithstanding, the take away message is that it’s more important and profitable to sell high-margin performance cars from prestige branding than it is to sell thousands of low-margin slightly sporty cars that are from Chevrolet or Toyota.
The mainstream simply has desire but doesn’t have the means. The luxury consumer does have the desire, and more importantly, they have the means to obtain it.
The actions of FCA and their proposed products aren’t compelling now, and certainly won’t be in the future. Take a look at the current Charger now and you’ll find that nearly all of them are lowly V6 models that deprecate rapidly. The reason there is so many of the V6 models is that gas is still expensive, and nobody from the mainstream masses spends their weekends at a track.
“case to make a compelling, reliable, fuel-efficient car with 5-star safety ratings and with good residuals.”
That sounds so boring, the same playbook for 30 years and GM still lost it with car buyers to the Asians.
“People of means aren’t buying Dodge Chargers/Challengers”
Yes they are, mostly their top/V8 models. Of course you going to have fleet specials but less then those “5-star” Cruze and Malibus.
“Now if you, personally, want 400hp+ and a V8 with that above hypothetical Chevy, tack on $20K more to the MSRP.” Get off the v8 thing, I was giving an example. A turbo 4 to a turbo 6 like the Kia Stinger fits most people, a top V8 model is always welcomed .
“The actions of FCA and their proposed products aren’t compelling now, and certainly won’t be in the future. ”
That’s arrogant, what affordable GM car can match their performance?.
“That sounds so boring, the same playbook for 30 years and GM still lost it with car buyers to the Asians.”
It only sounds boring to you because you only care about HP/$ and nothing else. The fact is, nobody except the self-styled car enthusiasts thinks this way, and even fewer of them have the means to put that metric to use when buying a car.
But that playbook has worked very well for the Asians. So well in fact, that with their high residuals, it means that the owners are pleased with the market value of their car after 3 years. With that advantage, they have much more leverage to pick from the newest options on the market.
It may still sounds boring to you, but millions and millions of people have bought their Camry’s and Accords on the basis of their projected market value after 3 years, and being easy on gas and having multiple airbags can only sweeten the deal. Good fuel economy and 5-star safety ratings have never gone out of style, whereas a fart in the middle east can cause gas prices to spike upwards and kill any appetite for 400hp sedan muscle cars.
“Yes they are, mostly their top/V8 models.”
Find me a person who has a mid-spec V8 Challenger/Charger who doesn’t own a NASCAR jacket and owns their own home.
“Get off the v8 thing, I was giving an example. A turbo 4 to a turbo 6 like the Kia Stinger fits most people, a top V8 model is always welcomed .”
Still, Dodges and Kia’s are not for meant for people of means. They aren’t compelling if they aren’t seen as exclusive or as a luxury offering, no matter how they are powered. That badge ultimately kills any chance of legitimacy.
“That’s arrogant, what affordable GM car can match their performance?.”
Just like luxury products, car performance is not a value proposition.
This seems kind of like a desperation move to me. If the product is that good then they should sell themselves based on the car itself.
You don’t understand branding. If you have an old brand that people can only think one way about — you need to spend years re-educating. While that’s happening, yes, the product must improve or it won’t work.
GM making (a) great car(s) isn’t quite enough. Buyers need to be CONVINCED they’re buying a great GM vehicle. For that to happen, several things need to take place:
1. GM needs to advertise, advertise, advertise all of its most popular vehicles!
2. Dealers need to be more fair with trade-in values and resale pricing because, after all, who wants to pay hard-earned dollars for a seemingly good vehicle when they know in advance they’ll probably only receive a “pittance” in trade value (as opposed to Honda / Toyota)?
Another reason that the Japanese do so well. The resale value is better (at least in my area) they are able to offer better lease deals. The big three have resale on trucks and that’s about it.
This: At the same time, Chevrolet wants to court European import drivers and even rival U.S. makes. Chevrolet has targeted owners of almost every other mass-market brand, including Pontiac, Hummer, Saab and Saturn owners with a $2,000 incentive towards a 2018 model…
Why are defunct brands being referenced in this article!!??
People can still drive cars made by defunct/discontinued brands.
A defunct brand is no longer a mass market brand or a competitor. Unless the article failed to specifically indicate that Chevrolet is targeting drivers of those defunct brands who may be ready to ditch their old rides and are looking to purchase a new car.
How about we just stop letting Asian car companies sale their cars in the states like they do to the big three in some Asian countries.
There is a cap limit of how many car the big 3 can sale in say Japan but it’s unlimited in the states for Asian car companies!
Problem solved!
This is NOT the first time a large Asian conquest targeted incentive has been offered; they tend to do this offer this once a year and last year it was April 2017…GM is very relaxed in how to even qualify for it…All you need is a legit Asian leasing statement with someone that’s in the same state…The statement is uploaded into a dealerships computer, GM will check to ensure the account actually exists and if the Asian lease statement address and deal address match, you qualify for the incentive…GM does not care if people abuse the system, dishonest dealers will often pressure people to get a lease statement to save them $500 on the deal but will keep the rest for themselves…