What If Incentives Were Replaced with Rebates in Order to Get People to Purchase at MSRP?

Kinja'd!!! "Wobbles the Mind" (wobblesthemind)
05/02/2017 at 11:00 • Filed to: Questions

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Let us pretend that the auto industry and dealer network decided to end haggling and incentives so that everyone pays the same amount for a new car across the entire country. To facilitate this change over automakers collectively release a rebate equal to 15% of MSRP on all new vehicle purchases.

This means purchasing a vehicle with an MSRP of $23,000 brings back a fat check for $3,450. A vehicle with an MSRP around $67,000 would yield you $10,050 back. The catch is that you don’t get that rebate until the 18th month of ownership.

What would happen? Who gets to take the most advantage of this and who gets hurt the most? How would automakers respond when it came to base pricing and the costs of trims and additional options? These are questions!

But the biggest one I want to ask is, “Would you buy anything new due to this rebate and what would you buy?”


DISCUSSION (6)


Kinja'd!!! awmaster10 > Wobbles the Mind
05/02/2017 at 11:25

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The catch is manufacturers would increase MSRP by 15%...


Kinja'd!!! RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Wobbles the Mind
05/02/2017 at 11:47

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Outside the main idea of a term ownership incentive (which isn’t necessarily stupid), demand for specific cars, cost of living of employees, cost of transport, and a thousand other little things dictate against a country-wide invariant price. It’s a bad idea. If the automaker had to make one work, the average price would go *up*. 


Kinja'd!!! Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Wobbles the Mind
05/02/2017 at 11:48

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But you’d pay taxes on the price you paid and your rebate would be less by the amount of sales tax.


Kinja'd!!! Chariotoflove > Wobbles the Mind
05/02/2017 at 11:56

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No. I don’t want riders attached to my purchase that way. I don’t think manufacturers would want this either because it increases the initial price a buyer has to pay, and people would balk at that. Most people think short term, not 18 months down the road. That’s a big reason why credit card debt exists, for example.


Kinja'd!!! Future next gen S2000 owner > Wobbles the Mind
05/02/2017 at 12:23

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No. I want my cash now. I’m not interested in a temporary loan. Plus loan amounts would be higher, e.g. monthly payments would be higher. People won’t be having any of that.


Kinja'd!!! nermal > Wobbles the Mind
05/02/2017 at 17:54

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The biggest problem with no-haggle pricing is that there is a large portion of the buying public that haggling works on. Your $23k car sounds like a good deal. However, the same exact car, priced at $26k, but sold for $23k, sounds like a much better deal. This is due to perception and psychology and stuff.