A GMC Hummer EV Pickup Edition 1 buyer who was excited to take delivery of their battery-electric pickup was instead left dismayed after the dealership applied a $50,000 markup to the vehicle at the last minute.
The customer, who anonymously relayed his experience to enthusiast blog Jalopnik, was able to secure a reservation for the limited-edition GMC Hummer EV Edition 1 when the automaker first opened reservations for the vehicle in 2020. On March 17th, he was informed by the dealer, Penske Buick GMC in Cerritos, California, that the vehicle he had pre-ordered had arrived at the dealership.
When he got to the dealer, the salesperson greeted his wife and him and offered him the keys to the vehicle to take a test drive. After a short spin in the vehicle, they walked into the salesperson’s office to do the usual financial paperwork. It was at this point he realized the dealership had applied a $50,000 market adjustment to the vehicle, bringing its pre-tax asking price from the manufacturer’s suggested price of $110,295 to $160,295. After taxes and other registration/licensing fees, the transaction would have totalled $177,013.85.
The customer obviously balked at this asking price and ended up walking away from the dealer. He later called GMC to ask if there was any recourse he could take, but he told Jalopnik the automaker was of no real help and only took his name and information to create a case file.
GM has already warned dealers over applying so-called market adjustment fees to in-demand products like the Hummer EV Edition 1. In a letter sent to dealers earlier this year, the automaker said it was aware of some dealerships that have been “demanding money above and beyond the reservation amounts set in GM’s program rules,” and would be “forced to take action if it learns of any unethical sales practices or brokering activities that undermine the integrity,” of its brands. This could include rerouting popular products like the Hummer EV SUV to other dealers or taking “other recourse prescribed by the Dealer Sales and Service Agreement.”
While GM is not a fan of this sales practice, the automaker has no legally-backed way to force a dealer to sell a vehicle for a certain price. We wouldn’t be surprised if the dealer was able to find a customer willing to pay this $50,000 market adjustment fee, either, as a Hummer EV Edition 1 recently sold for nearly $300,000 at auction – making this $177,000 price tag seem like a bargain.
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View Comments
This junk isn’t even worth what they are asking now let alone a 50k mark up.
Where would you price it?
Nowhere near the 112,000 they want for the edition 1. $70-80k maybe. This potential buyer should of joined a forum like the bronco6g guys. Go look what happens when a dealer pulls this stunt on there. Those guys ban together and bombard the dealer and even get mike Levine he’s some big wig at ford involved. Now it hasn’t worked for everyone but it’s worked for a lot. Maybe no hummer forum exists but they should make one then and do the same thing.
a bit expensive I agree, but I think they did the 1st edition with the insane power and fully loaded features as a bit of a shock value and marketing. But now imagine if a couple years from now, they drop a smaller lower powered version for $70k. Then it competes with the Tesla Model Y. Kind of like with the H3 Hummer compared to the H2 Hummer from back in the day.
It is GM's fault for pricing this so low, what were they thinking? Just make it $165K and call it a day. You can see why we don't need any EV rebates from the US Treasury.
You are, of course, basing your "junk" judgment after your tens of thousands of testing miles in several examples, correct?
My neighbor got his about a month ago. Since receiving it I’ve not only rode with him I also drove it over two hours last weekend going to Vegas. It doesn’t have tens of thousands of miles on it yet but would you like me to report back when it reaches that mileage? If not please tell me a mileage you deem fit that allows me to say how I feel and think about it.
What a brainless remark. Really Shawn...
I’ve been inside and driven one have you?
Yes. And driven it. The market dictates the price, and GM is selling every example they've made. So apparently, the price is perfectly fine.
I’ve driven one as well my neighbor owns one. Why are you responding for the person above?
I mean, it's a really cool EV, but I'm just not sure it's $177k worth of really cool.
GM needs to do something to get serious about dealer markups, but I don't know what they even can do. Do the laws permit anything to be done about this?
Pitiful you aren’t trying to hide it now. You continue to use my name instead of just your trump name, you just replied to yourself 3 times in 2 minutes.
Stick with your trump name. I get it you got embarrassed yesterday from being called out now you wanna use my name but sorry nobody is falling for it. You’ve already been caught twice placing the name in the wrong spot.
Today on the Chevy trax article at 2:02pm you wrote what are your thoughts on the future trax replacement. Also today on the watch the 2023 Cadillac lyriq being built at 2:17pm you wrote what are your thoughts on the lyriq’s styling? Only difference you wrote the lyriq response from the trump username. If you wanna impersonate me make sure you don’t make these mistakes next time.
Just don’t make those mistakes next time. The spelling and the way you type gives it away. I get it makes you mad you got called out but you’re super sloppy with the impersonating.
You two. Get a room!
Apparently, it is to someone...
"we fly high, no lie, you notice.... baaaaalllllllliiiiiiinnnnnnnnn"
Seeing stuff like this makes me mad. This is not right, and is doing harm to GM's image.
For example when GM released the new C8 Corvette Stingray, it was supposed to have an MSRP of $60k USD ($70k CAD). Which was the selling point, you could get into a mid engine sports car for a really affordable price. Then these sketchy dealerships mark them up to like $100k. Which COMPLETELY defeats the point of the car, because Corvettes are supposed to be affordable sports cars for the WORKING CLASS. GM is still the best for giving us such a great car for such a low price, but these dealerships should get fined by GM for doing this.
Yes, the dealers did this, because some people have to be The First Kid on the Block to have [insert new thing here]. It was done with the Honda Civics. PT Cruisers were in very high demand and dealers were marking them up so high that Chrysler laid down the law. Some dealers skirted this by selling the cars to their own employees, driving them a few miles, then putting them on the used car lot at crazy prices, but out of reach of Chrysler's demands. (I loved it when within two model years, the cars went from high demand to manager specials.)
The way autos are marketed, these high prices are both legal, and done every day. People can't say "no".
Imagine being the guy who was willing to spend $110k on a GM product, then after waiting months to get his car with all the anticipation and anxiety, goes to the dealership and was told now he has to fork over another $50k. This stupid dealership probably made GM lose a good customer permanently. Customer loyalty is worth way more than the money made on ONE sale. That dealership lost a lifetime worth of sales from a good customer over one greedy sale.
I'm a bit surprised it's one of Penske's stores, their reputation WAS better than that. I more expect that sort of thing out of a dealer network in Portland whose name is the same as a certain gulf near Vietnam.
Sounds like the sort of story a local TV station's Consumer attack dog would pounce on.
That is his best recourse, some of the news hounds love to get involved in cars & this would get their panties all in a bunch!!
Burn the dealer on social media! Name names.
They would not get away with that if it was Ashton and Mila.
GM needs to start selling direct.
Cut out the middle man.
Let the dealers make their profit off service and parts.
The funny thing about this article is not that dealers are marking up prices. It’s the fact that GM posted this article on their website saying they have acknowledged that dealers are just jacking up the prices because they can. They have sent a “LETTER” to all dealers, warning them not to do this or they will take action. So, this dealership went against GM, and then the customer turned to the manufacturer like “what the heck,” and GM “turn a blind eye” and does not help. GM doesn’t care. GM is all bark and no bite. GOD forbid them to put their customers first.
Consumers are flipping them for 300k. Easy way to make 100k.
There are some people with so much money they don't know what to do with it. Sounds kind of sad and boring
What is really sad is that the dealership could care less about the effort and anxiety endured by the person that made the original reservation to just sell it to the idiot that is willing to tremendously overpay what the vehicle is worth. These actions by all dealerships make the reservation systems that both GM and Ford put in place worthless. The dealership did NOTHING beyond any other normal vehicle order to a committed customer to EARN the $50,000 adder. Too many fools in this world think that they are so much better than the rest of us because they can overpay for something that they want more.