GM Giving Dealers Incentives To Sell Off Saturns and Pontiacs

DETROIT — General Motors has offered dealerships $7,000 in incentives for every new Saturn or Pontiac they get off their lots by January 4. The move is intended to give GM a good December sales report and speed the wind-down of the two brands, and it should give consumers some good deals. The Wall Street Journal reported on the move, calling it "equivalent to a year-end fire sale," on Tuesday.

General Motors reportedly wrote dealers on December 23, telling them they can get $7,000 for each Saturn or Pontiac they move to their rental and service fleets by January 4. This gets them off the GM unsold-inventory books, and once the vehicles enter the fleets, they can be resold more cheaply than if they were officially "new." The vehicles are considered "used" because they have been purchased by the dealership. The Journal estimates consumers could get up to 46 percent off sticker prices through the tactic, assuming dealers pass along the entire incentive amount. The paper's example was the Pontiac G3, which lists for $15,000 and would sell for about $8,000 with the $7,000 incentive knocked off the sticker price. The deal can't be combined with other consumer incentives, the Journal reported.

GM dealers listed 14,500 unsold new Pontiac and Saturn models as of December 1. Edmunds.com has estimated about 4,200 of them would have remained unsold by month's end prior to the incentive program's announcement.

Inside Line says: A deal that should make the "orphan" cars a bit more attractive to the buying public. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent