End of employee prices spurs car dealers, buyers

By Anne-Margaret Sobota

Beacon Journal business writer


Many area car dealerships were expecting a flurry of weekend sales as employee-price incentives on General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler vehicles neared the end.

A handful of dealerships saw their salesmen scrambling Sunday to keep up with customers browsing their showrooms and lots for the deals, which end today. Activity varied depending on the location and size of the dealership.

The employee-pricing incentives allow customers to purchase vehicles for the same discounted price employees of the automakers pay.

Several dealerships normally closed Sunday opened to accommodate customers still contemplating whether to take advantage of the deal.

``We're open for the convenience of the last-minute shoppers,' said Kevin Haasz, general manager of Ron Thomas Chrysler Jeep in Cuyahoga Falls. ``We've had a great month. Our business has about doubled.'

Although the lot wasn't teeming with buyers, the dealer made at least one sale by opening Sunday.

Chris and Bev Hawley of Cuyahoga Falls were ready to buy after a month of trying to find time on the weekends to car shop. Now all they had to do was decide between Chris' vehicle of choice, a Jeep Liberty, and Bev's preference, a Chrysler Town & Country minivan.

By 1 p.m. Sunday, more than a dozen families were perusing the sales lot or negotiating deals inside Fred Martin Chevrolet on East Market Street in Akron.

The loudspeaker frequently crackled to life, alerting salesmen to incoming customers.

Salesman Sam Alay said there were four customers on the lot at 10 a.m. when he arrived, although the dealership doesn't open until 11 a.m. Sundays.

Co-worker Roger Webb said Saturday business was higher than Sunday.

``As the sale is slowing down, we are getting a lot more people in,' Webb said.

Fred Martin Chevrolet had twice as many shoppers this Sunday as it normally would, new-car manager John Alder said. Customers could save anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 by taking advantage of what he called the best deal in car sales history.

The deals were made even sweeter by rebates, price matching and additional coupons offered at various dealerships.

Serpentini Chevrolet in Tallmadge didn't see as many last-minute shoppers, though.

Sales manager Justin Noll said many customers realized there would be less to choose from by waiting.

Like most others, Serpentini has seen a significant rise in car sales in the last two months, he said. Now car manufacturers and dealerships must figure out how to keep that sales momentum going.

The employee-pricing offer was initiated by GM on June 1 and originally was to end July 5.

GM extended the promotion after seeing a tremendous rise in new-car sales. The company sold 558,092 new cars and trucks in June -- up 41 percent from June 2004 sales.

DaimlerChrysler and Ford announced similar plans July 6 in response to GM's success.

Ganley Ford in Barberton appeared very busy as potential buyers filled nearly every desk and table inside the dealership.

Salesman Tim Smith Jr. said the dealership is usually busy on Sundays because of its location and large inventory, but there was a large surge in last-minute incentive shoppers over the weekend.

Smith sold three cars Saturday and estimated the sales team's weekend total would be between 30 and 40 vehicles.

"We've been too busy to talk to our own families the past few weeks,' he joked.


-Matt-