Bargain Hunting on General Motors and Chrysler Lots

Because of the Chrysler and General Motors bankruptcies, people looking for car bargains might find a few treasures. But they have to be prepared to act quickly and forgo considerations like resale value and vehicle reliability, and also ignore the uncertainties around warranty repairs and the availability of spare parts.

Feeling lucky?

A good place to start might be a Pontiac dealer, where two diamonds can be found on the lots: the G8 sedan and the Vibe hatchback. Both are new or newly redesigned this year and favorably reviewed by editors here. The Vibe is the twin of the Toyota Matrix — they’re made at the same American plant — and has a stellar reliability record.

Our editors have also favorably reviewed the Dodge Charger sedan, Challenger sports coupe and Journey S.U.V. Also praised, in particular, was the new Dodge Ram pickup, which has shown much higher initial quality than Chrysler vehicles traditionally have. But deals on that model may prove hard to find, even among the hundreds of desperate dealers that Chrysler is terminating.

Other choices worth considering are Saturns: the Aura sedan, a former North American Car of the Year winner, and the Outlook and Vue S.U.V.’s.

That no-haggle pricing policy, the rock upon which Saturn was founded? You should now haggle as if it’s a flea market.

Consumer Reports recommends a number of 2009 vehicles from Ford, like the Focus, Edge and Fusion, which the magazine said could be had for 15 to 25 percent below sticker. Ford, of course, needs to remain competitive while its rivals have “Going out of business” sales.

Consumer Reports is no great fan of G.M. vehicles, in general, but it singles out Chryslers for particular scorn. “Currently, we don’t recommend any Chrysler, Dodge, or Jeep vehicles,” the magazine’s Web site cautions. “Over all, Chrysler has the lowest average test score, based on the vehicles we’ve tested, of any automaker. And all three of its brands are ranked near the bottom of our predicted-reliability rankings.”

G.M., meanwhile, had announced plans to cut off more than 1,100 dealers, but was giving them until later in 2010 to clear their inventories. Still, if discounts can be found, here are a few G.M. vehicles worth considering, says Consumer Reports: Chevrolet Malibu and Traverse, GMC Acadia and Cadillac CTS. “These now rank among the best in our test rankings,” the magazine notes.

In our research, one rather surprising fact emerged: G.M. still has a significant number of unsold 2008 models. Again, if depreciation and resale value are not a consideration, discounts on slow-moving models like the Cadillac Escalade and Hummer H2 and H3 could be sizable — and tempting.

How much can you expect to save off the sticker price? Offers come and go, but G.M. has been offering finance rates at 3.9 to 6.9 percent (or less), in addition to as much as $5,000 cash (for Hummer models). Online pricing services like those found at Edmunds and Consumer Reports can help peg values and make suggestions about what to expect for average transaction prices for certain models.

The federal government has promised that the bankrupt automakers will continue to honor their warranties. But how this will actually play remains a question. For instance, if the maker of a certain replacement part goes out of business — and the economics of the auto supplier industry are also bleak — who guarantees the availability of that part?

Caveat emptor, indeed. via