While the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq Debut Edition has a rather reasonable manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $59,990, this price is just that: suggested. GM can’t force its dealers to sell its products for a certain price, so it should be no surprise that some of them are trying to charge much more than MSRP for the highly sought-after Lyriq.
One of which is a dealership in Thousand Oaks, California that’s attempting to apply a markup to a customer’s 2023 Cadillac Lyriq Debut Edition. The customer in question, Melanie, managed to successfully place a pre-order for the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq Debut Edition when GM first opened the order books last year. When she inquired about her vehicle online, a sales rep from Silver Star Cadillac informed her they would be applying a $5,000 market adjustment fee to her allocation due to “high demand and limited supply.”
“I was able to independently confirm a preorder for Lyriq and was asked to select a dealership,” Melanie said in a post on Markups.org. “I had inquired online and was told nothing of this mark-up until they received MY allocation. No way, no how! I don’t suffer fools gladly, especially greedy fools!”
While we can understand this customer’s frustration and certainly don’t blame her for walking on the sale, this isn’t such a bad markup compared to others we’ve seen in recent months. For example, a GMC Hummer EV Pickup Edition 1 reservation-holder was slapped with a $50,000 markup when he turned up at Penske Buick GMC in Cerritos, California to pick up his vehicle. Not surprisingly, that customer also walked on the sale, as the transaction price would have totaled a frankly ridiculous $177,013.85 after taxes and other registration/licensing fees.
GM warned dealers in January about applying so-called market adjustment fees to in-demand products like its latest EV offerings. In a letter sent to dealers, 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 future products like the Cadillac Lyriq Luxury AWD to other dealers or taking “other recourse prescribed by the Dealer Sales and Service Agreement.”
The 2023 Cadillac Lyriq Debut Edtion, which sold out in minutes after GM began accepting pre-orders last year, began rolling off the line at GM’s Spring Hill plant in Tennessee in late March, with initial deliveries of this version of the battery-electric luxury crossover set to begin this summer.
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Comments
I thought I read an article that GM was cracking down on the dealerships that are charging markups by not giving them new vehicles? Maybe I was mistaken or maybe it’s just more virtue signaling from GM. Pretending that they give a sh!t.
GM implemented an allocation system (namely on the Corvette, but it applies to all vehicles right now) that punishes dealers who sit on inventory longer by giving them less future allocation. The reasoning was that a vehicle with a price markup will sell slower, and therefore the dealer down the road who didn’t mark up the product and sold it quicker will earn another one faster and gradually outgrow the competition. Unfortunately, it loses its effectiveness when the dealer who sells a product at sticker has no idea if or when he’ll actually earn another one because of production stoppages, so the incentive is lessened.
Even if you can afford it why would I want to buy an electric $70,000. Car that goes 270 miles on a charge. Can’t even drive to Chicago with on a charge. Infrastructure is not in place. Stupid Biden is chocking us with dumb policies.
lol can’t tell if you’re serious. Blaming all life’s problems on your president is hilarious. I suppose the Canadian dealer markups I’m dealing with are his fault too? Please.
Go brandon
If like you see GM eliminate the “allocation” to a dealer for such in demand vehicles. Take a customer order and allocate a vehicle to a customer. Set the base price with the customer and let the dealer select a customer. Then GM provides an amount to the dealer for handling the paperwork and additional product. If a dealer refuses this, they get removed from the list that a customer can choose from.
Find a solution that fits within the franchise agreement and provides reasonable accommodations for all parties.
GM needs to get tough on this. This is damaging their brand. That is not acceptable!
having a luxury product that outstrips supply is bad news?
No.
But trying to nickle and dime your potential client is.
Good squeeze these suckers for every penny.
This will leave a bad experience in the back of people’s minds for GM and more broadly, for EVs. I can see why Tesla nixed the dealership since it’s often predatory, but I don’t think it has to be that way. A good dealership offers a personal touch and human relationship goes far in promoting a positive experience. Maybe a new dealership model would work? Something like a credit union is to banks. A dealership co-op, lol.
How does 10% interest rates sound?
The free money cheap debt economy ends now.
good. let it rip!!! the tide of cheap money is going out and the economy needs a good cleaning. drown the speculators.
Amen. Time for a big beautiful 2009 style recession to put an end to the piggish excess in our society.
It seems to me that GM speaks out both sides of it’s mouth. On one hand, GM ( and other manufacturers) expressed their “concern” and condemnation of dealers taking advantage of the market and charging tens of thousands above sticker, threatening to take actions against dealerships that are “damaging” the brand image
BUT, at the same time, didn’t GM recently state they no longer have incentive to produce ample inventory…acknowledging that tightening supply benefits them through increased demand leading to larger margins
So is GM part of the problem or part of the solution?
GM got quiet as they themselves have recently gotten piggy and have had 3 substantial price increases in HD pickups in less than 100 days plus customers so it also, I saw two Hummer EVs bring 234k each at an auction. I don’t think GM ran those units.
Spoke with the agent last week and tap in an extra $5K for additional mark-up. Asked her about the mark-up, she said that’s the dealers, because of high demand order and shortage of supply(limited production). What’s the incentive of buying electric vehicle, since GM is no longer entitled for any federal tax credit or rebate. Dealers are taking advantage of the situation and GM is not taking this seriously.
I have a deposit down, when it comes time for delivery and/or proper order and I get hit with a markup, I’ll just take my deposit back and walk away. I’ll never understand people wanting something so desperately they’re willing to pay tons more than what it’s worth…
It’s America’s instant gratification syndrome
A true luxury experience by Cadillac.
And they want to rival Rolls Royce and Bentley?
Please……..
Not excusing this behavior, I think it’s bad business, but try buying a Mercedes or Audi right now. Some of their dealers are charging well over sticker, particularly for hot models like the G Wagon, and their fanbase complains less about it unsurprisingly.
Imported luxury cars get a higher markup, yet many fools buy them because they are supposed to be “better” than domestics. I prefer to buy the Cadilllac because it is money that stays in the U.S.
Who cares?! The commercials STRONGLY imply the Lyriq is marketed solely towards women.
It indeed is.
it’s intended to be sold to women and the not so manly woke crowd.
I would rather buy vehicles on line direct from the manufacturers. I trust General Motors.
My recent experience shows that dealers are not to be trusted.
The prices they post on their websites and on cars.com are not the price when you go to the dealership to buy. It is pure bait and switch, I have preordered a Cadillac Lyriq and on the order selected a Cadillac dealer from whom I have previously purchased 3 cars. I used to enthusiastically recommend the dealership to others. Now, I simply do not trust or respect the dealer. I will meet personally with the owner of the dealership and share that with him.
All vehicles manufactures need to reevaluate their franchise contracts. The EV is transforming the entire industry and after 100 years of ICE vehicles, GM and others need to reinvent the sales process. Do you ever hear about market adjustments or even dealer fees for Tesla?
Telsa changes their prices weekly to be in line with supply demand. It is the same thing.
Old businessman’s favorite saying “I’d rather sell one item for a million dollars than a millions items for one dollar”.
I guess I can see the logic in this sort of thinking, not saying I agree with this train of thought because in the long run, you’ll run into another old say “a fool and his money are soon parted”. So GM dealers that play the game of “fair market value” (and yes, many other makes foreign and domestic do this, sheesh) additions slapped onto their “hot selling models” are playing a game that could backfire on them, and sadly GM really hasn’t had the best selling models the last few years to be able to do this while retaining it’s corporate integrity, with just one or two hot models to sell at various GM dealers.
Chevy’s line up of light duty trucks has taken a big hit when Dodge Ram outsold it for second place in truck sales and of course the best selling Ford F Series truck has kicked ass for more years than GM cares to think about, and now throw in the hot selling Ford Bronco, Ford Maverick and Ford Lightening which GM hasn’t got a direct competitor to (yeah I know they promise new stuff, but have not delivered and may not deliver any time soon) and you get the picture why GM should enforce making sure that all GM dealers sell their products for MSRP, /and at least and get them out there so the public can drive them and decide whether they’ve made a good deal on a GM product or not, but I’ll just bet this ain’t happening.
I dunno…can you image if “EVERYTHING” we purchase daily having a “fair market value” on it? I don’t see this way of running a business a “long term goal for success”, but rather a quick way of earning a few extra bucks for certain individuals who have the power to allow this sort of crap to happen and to hell with everyone else “downline” from them.
I suppose it’s “Capitalism” at both it’s worst and it’s best and depending on what side of the end of the business you are on, it can make you richer or….possibly create a disaster should the public turn on your way of thinking and drop you and your “take ’em for all we can” like a bad habit. All it’ll take is one or two dealers with a “fair minded way of doing business” (say, selling products at MSRP) in certain area’s and folks will flock to the businesses that promotes integrity and fairness. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what GM does, but my money is on GM not giving a crap what their dealers do in the long run, and so we’ll be seeing some crazy “fair market value prices” hitting these pages soon….I can hardly wait.
Look what is the big deal here?
Let the dealers soak a few idiots and then when they are stuck with the rest they will sell them like normal with rebates.
The way I see it the customers that over pay only have themselves to blame. GM makes more of these every day and other dealers are not marking them up so order from them.
The way to stop this is for the public to stop over paying.
This new car thing will blow over very soon as it will not be the only new EV on the market and people will have to be drawn in to buy.
It is a big deal because the woman in the article made the pre-order with gm, not the dealership. The expectation was the price was what gm quoted, who the woman was dealing with. gm assigned it to a dealership which did not follow thru with the expected terms, and really isn’t providing any value to the deal. Granted the dealership gets a stain on its reputation by the woman, but gm also gets stained. gm may well have lost a customer for life. If she is 30, that is thousands to tens of thousands of dollars of profit. I had a bad experience with a Mazda dealer in my 20’s. Guess what, never owned a mazda and never will. Wan’t mazda’ s fault, but the stain carried over. It is easy to piss someone off, it is much harder to make a loyal customer.
Yes, that is exactly the point. GM spends millions building their brand, but then lets their dealers damage it.
This woman has chosen to be a GM customer, not a customer of the dealer.
A reputation takes a long time to build, but can be ruined quickly.
If Legacy Auto doesn’t rid themselves of Dealerships they will die a very slow death in the Future.
No chance in Hell all these young kids that are used to doing every single thing online will be willing to deal with these Facilities. It took me 5 Minutes to order my car from my iPhone and I will never go back to a Dealership experience again.
There is a Chevrolet dealer in Seattle who a couple of days ago had $9,0000 mark-ups each on a couple of Camaro SS cars.
I just want to be clear. GM 100% will not do anything whatsoever. If you don’t believe me just ask them. They will tell you …dealerships are independent …yada yada yada. They simply do not believe it matters to them right now.
$5K from the dealer is a ripoff and most people don’t have that much in their savings account. According to the story, the amount is not bad compared to other markups but it is an expensive amount of money added onto a vehicle in regards you can afford to purchase or not.
Added dealer markup (ADM) on in-demand cars is nothing new. I pre-ordered a Lyriq AWD, and the dealer I specified informed me that there will be a $5,000 ADM. My deposit is fully refundable, so I expressed my dismay but proceeded with the order anyway. I called all the other nearby dealerships, and their ADM ranged from $5,000 to $10,000. Delivery won’t take place until early 2023, and I’ll look at market conditions at that time. Meanwhile, I have two used cars I plan to sell; their values are around 40% higher than under “normal” market conditions, more than enough to offset the ADM on the new vehicle.
As with the CT6, the dealers and GM are working with a “halo” car. GM is responsible for making sure this car “works” and the dealers are responsible for making sure that the entire “experience” is positive. They are competing for their lives over the next 10 years. Here is some advice for those of you who are running into the “scalpers” and scum who are trying to extort large sums over MSRP..
Write to Mary Barra and Fedex it to her attention. I had the identical problem when the CT6 came out and I wanted to “be the first on the block” to have one and the nearest dealer wanted $7500 over MSRP. I wrote to her, explained the situation and she (or her assistant.. but it was under her name) had a regional manager contact me immediately and I was given one for the Cadillac “Executive” pricing, which was almost $9,000 under MSRP. I also got the first one in my area!!
Was it through the same dealer that wanted to charge over sticker or did they move it to a different store?
I called Cadillac concierge and here what they said:
Customer may move their pre-order to another dealership or cancel for a full refund at any time for any reason.
Please don’t cancel your order or walkway from it, call other dealers tell them that you would like to move the order to them if they don’t mark up the price, anyway its extra money for them.
Some of you may know me from my posts on Chevrolet articles. Both our GM stores (Genesis Chevrolet and Genesis Cadillac) do not charge over sticker for any ordered vehicle (including C8’s and Lyriqs) and will honor employee and supplier pricing on applicable vehicles. We’re located in metro Detroit, but can ship anywhere in the country. Anyone who has questions or would like to order/pre-order a Lyriq or transfer an order to us can find us by our zip from Cadillac.com’s order system: 48080, or can send me an email: coleg(at)genesischevy.com
I’d walk if I’m up charged for my Lyriq pre-order. I can head to Tesla with no shrill dealership BS. This is one reason I was actually excited about EV entering the market by not being manipulated by untrustworthy dealers. Yuck. This will harm the brand.
Agreed, but Tesla raises their prices every few weeks, your price isn’t locked in when you put an order in either.
i received confirmation on a pre-order Cadillac Lyriq. i was contacted by the dealership and i was told there is a $5k market adjustment on top of the price and also a delivery fee. disappointed that looking forward to getting a Cadillac Ev and now everything is extra and oh by the way not all the features are set up yet and will be released later.
i received confirmation on a pre-order Cadillac Lyriq. i was contacted by the dealership and i was told there is a $5k market adjustment on top of the price and also a delivery fee. disappointed that looking forward to getting a Cadillac Ev and now everything is extra and oh by the way not all the features are set up yet and will be released later.
Where are you located approximately? We have a Cadillac store in metro Detroit. Like our Chevrolet store, we don’t charge over sticker and don’t have a delivery fee. You can easily transfer your reservation to us by contacting Cadillac, we will handle the rest. Shoot me an email if you want my assistance: coleg(at)genesischevy.com.