Employee pricing has come to Canada in the wake of its enormous success withconsumers in the U.S.,but it's the Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler that's making the offer here,not the company that started it all.
General Motors created the idea of offering employeepricing on virtually all its models at the start of June, and the simplicity ofthe notion struck a chord with the Yanks, resulting in a sales jump of almost50 percent over the same month in 2004.
When GM decided to renew the deal for July, Forddecided it had no choice but to create its own program and that was followedquickly by the Chrysler Group. But the German-owned firm was the first one toextend the offer to Canada,launching Employee Pricing Plus on its 2005 model year cars (2006 models areexcluded), and that discount will not stop dealer discounts of $5,500 on mostmodels.
The ChryslerGroup is the first manufacturer in Canada to bring employee pricing tomarket, bragged Mike Accavitti, the firm's vice-president of marketing. "Oursales are up through the first half of the year," he said, "and weaim to keep that momentum going with more new product launches and bestin-class offers."
Most everything the company now sells will be coveredby this plan, except the Dodge Sprinter and the Chrysler 300C SRT8, and ofcourse the 2006 model year cars. That means the discounts only work on thecurrent versions of the Chrysler PT Cruiser and Dodge Ram pickups, not theimproved ones going on sale this fall, and the brand new Jeep Commander.
But the employee discount will apply to such modelsas the Chrysler 300 sedan, the Dodge Caravan minivan, and the Dodge Dakotamid-size pickup.
More details on Chrysler's Employee Pricing Plusprogram will be spelled out in a national advertising campaign that begins thisweek.
It's still possible that Ford and GM will makesimilar moves in Canada.GM of Canada president Michael Grimaldi said in a mid-June interview that hehas been considering the employee pricing promotion since Detroit launched it. But the Oshawa firm has been running a promotion withdiscounted gasoline in conjunction with Petro-Canada that has proved to beextremely popular with consumers, as big sales increases in June showed.
photo:DaimlerChrysler
General Motors created the idea of offering employeepricing on virtually all its models at the start of June, and the simplicity ofthe notion struck a chord with the Yanks, resulting in a sales jump of almost50 percent over the same month in 2004.
When GM decided to renew the deal for July, Forddecided it had no choice but to create its own program and that was followedquickly by the Chrysler Group. But the German-owned firm was the first one toextend the offer to Canada,launching Employee Pricing Plus on its 2005 model year cars (2006 models areexcluded), and that discount will not stop dealer discounts of $5,500 on mostmodels.
The ChryslerGroup is the first manufacturer in Canada to bring employee pricing tomarket, bragged Mike Accavitti, the firm's vice-president of marketing. "Oursales are up through the first half of the year," he said, "and weaim to keep that momentum going with more new product launches and bestin-class offers."
Most everything the company now sells will be coveredby this plan, except the Dodge Sprinter and the Chrysler 300C SRT8, and ofcourse the 2006 model year cars. That means the discounts only work on thecurrent versions of the Chrysler PT Cruiser and Dodge Ram pickups, not theimproved ones going on sale this fall, and the brand new Jeep Commander.
But the employee discount will apply to such modelsas the Chrysler 300 sedan, the Dodge Caravan minivan, and the Dodge Dakotamid-size pickup.
More details on Chrysler's Employee Pricing Plusprogram will be spelled out in a national advertising campaign that begins thisweek.
It's still possible that Ford and GM will makesimilar moves in Canada.GM of Canada president Michael Grimaldi said in a mid-June interview that hehas been considering the employee pricing promotion since Detroit launched it. But the Oshawa firm has been running a promotion withdiscounted gasoline in conjunction with Petro-Canada that has proved to beextremely popular with consumers, as big sales increases in June showed.
photo:DaimlerChrysler