GM Card Earnings Topped Off to $3,000

[jake75]

In today's mail - I have about $1,900 in GM Card Earnings. From 1-6-09 to 2-2-09 GM will top that off to $3,000 IF I buy certain GM vehicles - The 2009 Pontiac Vibe is on that list. I wonder if they would have topped that off to $3,000 if I had only a $500 earnings balance. There is a current $500 rebate.The Pontiac site says there is a current $1,000 extra rebate for GM Owners on a Vibe.If I finance with my Credit Union I can get the "supplier" price whatever that is. (Flyer says 4-5%) Anybody here know what the supplier price would be?Dealer has what I would want - 1.8L AC AT PPkg MSRP 19,480.So we are looking at at least a $500 discount and $4,500 in rebates.I have a $250 gift card good on purchase of any vehicle from my dealer.Looks like net about $14,000 + $1,500 tax a dlr doc fees.

[northvibe]

wow that would be worth considering if you could get all those discounts and were thinking of a new car

[808 Vibes]

Wow...that's great! You put us to shame. We only had $220 in earnings LOL.

[michaelgt]

Quote, originally posted by jake75 »...Dealer has what I would want - 1.8L AC AT PPkg MSRP 19,480.So we are looking at at least a $500 discount and $4,500 in rebates.I have a $250 gift card good on purchase of any vehicle from my dealer.Looks like net about $14,000 + $1,500 tax a dlr doc fees.The GM supplier price would be 18,646.

[jimincalif]

Quote, originally posted by jake75 » I wonder if they would have topped that off to $3,000 if I had only a $500 earnings balance. No, they wouldn't. Last year I got topped off to $3,000 when I had about $1500 in earnings (which lead the the purchase of Vibe #2). This year I just got a top off to $2000, and I currently have about $850 in earnings.I don't need another car at this point so I'll pass and let the earnings build, and hopefully they will still be around and offer the top-off in future years.

[jake75]

At the risk of appearing greedy, or ungrateful, or both - I note that the base price of a Vibe 1.8L has increased from 15,310 at intro to the present 16,100 - that is +$790. The destination charge is up $50 from $585 to $635.Just like Kroger's - Mark it up so you can mark it down?

[c1cummin]

I'm looking at same deal as O.P. Had $2100 topped-off to $3000 so may be looking to make an offer on this car. Is the supplier price the same as the employee price? ...and did the supplier price just jump up at the beginning of this promotion? In other words, there is probably an extra $800 to negotiate given that GM just marked up the price??

[c1cummin]

Does anyone know what the highest top-off price is? I wonder if this is negotiable with gm card?

[jake75]

Quote, originally posted by c1cummin »I'm looking at same deal as O.P. Had $2100 topped-off to $3000 so may be looking to make an offer on this car. Is the supplier price the same as the employee price? ...and did the supplier price just jump up at the beginning of this promotion? In other words, there is probably an extra $800 to negotiate given that GM just marked up the price??I don't think there is another $800 to negotiate with due to the price increase. The dealer invoice is 94.5% of that extra $790; 100% of the $50 increase in destination.Supplier price is higher than employee price and I am sure it has not been tampered with due to any promotion. Considering the things that KBB and Edmunds don't include in their invoice price, such as the regional/local advertising fee, the customer contact fee, and the gasoline fee, I calculate the supplier price to be no more than $50 over invoice. The supplier price is part of the Credit Union tie in deal - I don't know if GM makes some of that up to the dealer or not. If not. all that is in it for the dealer is the 3% holdback - about $550 on a msrp $19,480.I am actually starting to feel sorry for the dealers - guess I am getting soft in my old age.

[jake75]

Bought 2009 Vibe today, 1-10-09, see "Just bought 2009 Vibe - my best deal ever" for details. The hoped for deal described above had me thinking - then it got $2,000 better.

[file014]

I used my GM card to buy an 09 vibe on friday. I hadnt used it since I got my 05 cavalier in (for $4000 plus tax). Mine was at about $2200 and they topped it to $3000. I quit using it a year ago because I knew if I went over $3000 they'd never let me use all of it on one car (caddy maybe). Wife has over $4000 on her GM card, and she can only get $1000 off. They never let us use her whole earnings. Thank goodness she has some points expiring soon, that will drop her back to about $1500 and maybe they will top to $3000 sometime soon. Shoot I'd probably go get another vibe. I wish toyota built a bigger car for GM, better yet a van or highlander type.

[jake75]

The "Original" GM Card had a max accrual of $500 a year, $3,500 max, and I think points earned over 7 years ago went away. They tried to get me to switch to the newer version but I never bit on that deal. At one time you could not use the points on Saturn - I think that has changed. My lifetime total redemptions are now just over $8,000.

[file014]

Nice. Mine is $6005 and Ive only bought 2 cars. I guess we got our bailout money back You got yours a lot cheaper than mine, due to your huge dealer discount. Mine was an "older" 09 that had the old MSRP of $18640 instead of $19480 for the same options. Sweet cars nonetheless.

[Eloi]

The GM card program looks to be much better in the US than in Canada. I bought my 2009 Vibe in April 2008, had over $2900 "earnings" on my GM card but for the Vibe, I wasn't able to use more than $1000 (that was supposed to be $1500, but was dropped to $1000 on certain models, including the Vibe). Now, I'm using my Visa GM card less and less...

[file014]

Its not this good all the time. We typically have $1000 redemtion allowance too, however they will occasionally bribe you with $3000 in earnings. My card was upped in 11/04, 2/08, and 1/09.

[jake75]

Quote, originally posted by file014 »Nice. Mine is $6005 and Ive only bought 2 cars. I guess we got our bailout money back You got yours a lot cheaper than mine, due to your huge dealer discount. Mine was an "older" 09 that had the old MSRP of $18640 instead of $19480 for the same options. Sweet cars nonetheless.Of academic interest - I looked up some "history" on Vibe MSRP price with a/c, at, ppkg and dest. charge.2003 - 18,3652004 - 18,9102005 - early 19,2652005 - late - 19,3902006 - 18,715 (price drop)2007 - early 18,9952007 - late 19,0452008 - 19,095 (the short year)2009 - early 18,640*2009 - late - 19.480**2009 added as standard 3 safety features that cost $1,765 on the 2008[6 airbags, antilock brakes, and stabiltrak]I may not have the exact numbers when it came to intra year price changes. Those were just sticker prices I observed in those years. What the reason was for the relatively large $840 increase in the 2009 price from start of the year to now is a puzzle. However the bottom line is that the price of a similarly equipped (taking into account all the safety features less the value of the omissions such as the roof rack, fog lights, fold flat seat) 2009 is less than the 2003. While the invoice was 93,5% of base in 2003, whereas it is now 94.5% of base, and that is sort of a hidden price increase of about $175 as it does not show up in MSRP, the 2009 is still lower than a comparable 2003.

[file014]

Mine had the early 2009 sticker price, plus $35 smoker package. So I figured I was saving $840 just by buying a little older stock vibe. Mine is a 9/08 build date, which was only 4 mos old when I bought it. Even the tires are 8/08 or 9/08. I dont think invoice went up $840 though.

[jake75]

Quote, originally posted by file014 »Mine had the early 2009 sticker price, plus $35 smoker package. So I figured I was saving $840 just by buying a little older stock vibe. Mine is a 9/08 build date, which was only 4 mos old when I bought it. Even the tires are 8/08 or 9/08. I dont think invoice went up $840 though.The invoice went up $796.55 according to my research.Base - old $15,310 Inv 14,467.95Base - new $16,100 Inv 15,214.50Destination - old MSRP $585 Inv $585Destination -new MSRP $635 Inv $635

[2002sportside]

Quote, originally posted by jake75 »I wonder if they would have topped that off to $3,000 if I had only a $500 earnings balance. I only have about $1100 in earnings, and my "top off" was $2000...

[file014]

get your earnings up to about 2200 and stop using the card and wait for the topoff to 3000...seemed to work for me. not only do they top off, they let you use the whole amount. now Im starting from scratch ($0 earnings) again. its gonna take a couple years to charge 40-50k. my limit is too low on that card to use it for all my monthly bills too.

[file014]

get your earnings up to about 2200 and stop using the card and wait...seemed to work for me. now Im starting from scratch again. its gonna take a couple years to charge 40-50k. my limit is too low on that card to use it for all my monthly bills too.

[jake75]

Mine got topped off to $3,000 with only about $1,800 in earnings credit (grew to $1,900 by the time I used it so that last $100 was wasted). That $1,800 was accumulated over the last 6 years. I was paying my annual home-car-umbrella insurance, my Medicare Supp Insurance etc. using it. I have another card that pays 5% cash on grocery store, drugstores and gasoline stations that I use for all those categories. Put about $6,000 on that card in 2008. 5% cash beats 5% credit on a GM car but with the top off's the return on GM Card use has really been about 8%. Still, I'll take 5% in the hand vs. 8% in the GM bush. The new Schwab Visa rebates 2% cash on everything - got to weigh that deal.