Today Buick ended all future PGA Tour sponsorships, which date back as far as the 1951 Buick Open.
This comes after Buick ended its sponsorship of Tiger Woods last year, where they pulled out a year early of a nine year contract.
The GM unit stated they would no longer be title sponsors of the Buick Open and Buick Invitational. The Buick Open, ironically was won by Tiger Woods just two days ago.
GM exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 10.
Bucking the downward trend, and proving cash for clunkers is working, Ford Motor Company posted a 2.4% sales gain over the same period last year.
Sales were heavily led by their smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles, including the Focus that was up 44%, Fusion 66% and the Ranger pick-up at 65%.
Cash for Clunkers had initially had 1 billion to use for the program but after exploding success, the money was almost tapped after just 4 short days. The house is currently voting over the injection of another 2 billion today.
Chrysler Group LLC posted a -9.4% loss that was attributed to not doing any fleet sales and running out of cars to sell because their plants have been closed during the whole Fiat transaction.
So far Subaru posted the biggest gain at 34.2% while others were less fortunate. Maserati -49.5%, Daimler AG -24.2%, GM -19.4%, Honda -17.3% and Mazda -15.1%.
Chrysler dealers report that over the past week they attracted more potential buyers than they had seen in two years. Chrysler took the already attractive Cash for Clunkers Gov’t rebate program and sweetened it by offering to match the $3500 – $4500 themselves. Some deals equal over $10,000.00 in ultimate savings when other incentives are involved on top.
Chrysler Group LLC reported that 70% of showroom traffic was generated specifically because of the CFC program in an e-mail released earlier this week.
Many auto analysts are eager to see the July 2009 sales numbers for Chrysler and GM, as it was July 2008 when they both ended the option to lease their vehicles due to the credit crunch. This month will be the first fair YTD comparison yet with some significant gains possible due directly to the Cash for Clunkers program.
Since the credit freeze last year and GM’s abrupt end to leasing of their vehicles, GM just announced that they will once again begin leasing, starting with luxury cars first in as early as one week. Luxury brands across the board rely heavily on leasing to keep sales from becoming stagnant due to higher actual costs if you were to purchase the vehicle out right.
GM’s Bob Lutz told the Wall Street Journal that they would be using their GMAC lending arm to handle the finances and that they are unsure how long it will be until leasing is once again an option on all models
“The luxury end of the market is very heavy on leasing and as credit frees up, it would be very logical to get back into the portion of the market that we currently don’t compete in, which is the lease market” Lutz told Automotive News.
Some folks apparently think anything that may not be so great on gas is a “clunker” and only worth $3500-$4500. Watch the video, as a late model Jeep Cherokee puts up a fight while the dealer performs the mandatory “engine blow up” procedure that every CFC vehicle must be put through.
