Can you provide the bulletin or a link to it? I’d be curious to see it. I just conferred with the management staff at my dealership and it breaks down like this.
Most A-Plan deals are -$200 Gross front-end profit (before the kick back from the manufacturer)
That $3,000 Loaner Incentive that’s available only through A-Plan comes from the manufacturer, not the dealership. So the dealership will still get that 2% kick back from Volvo when the car gets RDR’d in the system.
In fact, when a dealership has a vehicle marked as a downed-Demo, it gets marked that way in their database too. So when I start writing up an A-Plan deal on a vehicle marked as a downed-demo the A-Plan algorithm will always factor in that $3,000. A-Plan pricing is supposed to be firm and non-negotiable to keep everyone happy. When a dealership alters pricing on an A-Plan deal, that’s when we lose that 2% kickback from the from manufacturer. However, there are loopholes to that. I can change the sale price of the car or the discounts/incentives, but I can give you more for your trade if we’re still a bit away from an ideal number for a Client.
No, I cannot and will not. But you can just take my word for it. I actually had to “educate” my local GM after learning about it on LH, when he said he would do a-plan on his demo. He looked it up and learned something new.
Of course it does. And $3,000 has only been available on S90/V90/V90CC, others have $750 or zero, unless it changed. So, the only new cars that would make sense on a-plan would be S90/V90/V90CC unless you can get 11%+ off without a-plan. All others are better off without a-plan altoghether.
Even if that’s the case on a demo, only a sucker will buy a demo/loaner on a-plan’s “invoice” price, even with 3k a-plan cash, when they can be had at 15-16% off without a-plan.
Very low mileage demo may make sense, with 3k cash, though.
So you have a source for valuable information, but only you can disseminate that information as you see fit without providing a concrete source for your intel? That doesn’t seem intuitive.
I replied to this thread to help offer some perspective, not argue with anyone. I’m just offering my insight as a Consultant who structures A-Plan deals frequently. Are loaners great cars for everyone? Absolutely not. But if you plan on keeping the car forever, like most Volvo owners do, then 6,000 miles on a car is negligible. Especially if you get an great price on the car, like A-Plan clients do. That’s all.
Great, so please don’t say a-plan works with loaners. No dealer in their mind will do it, unless someone walks in and takes a loaner at invoice and extra $750 off on A-plan deal. Then the dealer will may just accept losing their comission and $750 to move it and still come ahead on 6 months old loaner.
Also - no one here questions the value of loaners. Just spend a little time reading about all great loaner deals here.
And, in general, a-plan now is pretty much worthless after Volvo stopped dealers from selling below invoice.
Stephen, I’m sure you mean well, but your incorrect about A-Plan applying to demos/loaners- it does not. If your dealership is selling demos/loaners and adding the A-Plan incentive, I’m sure they’ll get a lot of takers here if you want the business. But your store will get charged back for the incentive and the commission. Maybe the good out of this will be your management realizing that they’re passing through incentives they will lose later on and revise their pricing. Here’s the relevant part of the bulletin. Look at eligibilty:
@KD6-3.7, is it possible these programs are regional? I can’t understand any other way why you and @ursus and now an apparent 3rd dealer are “butting heads” all the time on their programs. You’re on the west coast and the bear is in DMV.
I and 3.7 agree on this, in this case. So, it is not regional. Moreover, I know that is the case in NE and Mid-Atlantic. We also know how salespeople who do A-plan “all the time” may not know all the details (see above about the GM who had no idea)
A-plan can not be applied to loaner vehicles. And if you’re getting A-Plan pricing, at most dealerships, you just lost your ability to negotiate, so while the A-Plan pricing sounds like a good deal, on some vehicles, it’s not worth sh*t. For example, XC60, XC90 and V60 and S60 is $750. XC40 doesn’t qualify last I checked. V90 and S90 are $3k.
I think the fine print on the A plan website says it isn’t applicable to loaners (this was months back when I was looking around that site, dont really have the desire to sort through it now).
I asked for a pricing breakdown from a dealer for A-Plan on a specific car, but they didn’t include what’s on the A-Plan website listed as “Volvo Allowance & Purchase Bonus”… is this just a purchase bonus (vs lease)?
It’s listed in bold on the website as:
Retired Service Loaners/Courtesy Vehicles are not eligible for the A-Plan Elite bonus.
Retailer Demonstrators are not eligible for the A-Plan Elite bonus.
I’m interested in leasing a new S60, but I don’t work at an employer that participates in the A-Plan, and I’m not a previous Volvo owner, so I don’t get any loyalty incentives. There are currently no lease incentives on Volvo’s site beyond a low monthly payment for a base model with a high DAS amount. I’ve spoken to a few dealers and they’re only offering 4-5% off MSRP.
Is my best option to wait each month to see if Volvo begins offering a good dealer incentive, or am I going to just need to negotiate a lower selling price?
You check Volvo incentives by building your car and then going to Payment Estimator from the Summary page. You can negotiate 9% off while a-plan only gives you 6%. Search the forum.
