If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may have seen my good friend Charles Mills in our product review videos. Charles and I met about six years ago, when we both worked for Apple in Fort Worth. I was a Business Manager, managing a team that specialized in business sales and Charles was a Creative, teaching classes in Apple software, including (and specializing in video editing/production). He has helped me by shooting and editing video reviewss of the Cadillac ELR, BMW i3 and EGO Power+ lawn equipment. In fact, after the BMW i3 review, Charles’ girlfriend Kelly bought an i3!
Charles also writes, shoots, directs and edits videos for weddings and for competitions. I have had roles in a couple of his non-EV productions, including Silver Lake (which won 3rd place in a 24 hour video race in Dallas). I played one of the Hammersmith brothers, a pair of film noir private investigators, trying to find out who (or what) has been killing people around Silver Lake. Charles is a huge fan of horror movies and many of his productions would fit that description.
Charles had a BMW 328i and had been wanting a plug-in vehicle for a while. He and I have opposite views on styling. Almost any EV he likes (Leaf, i3, i-MiEV, etc), I think is ugly. Conversely, almost any EV I like (Cadillac ELR), he dislikes. He had also been entertaining less expensive gas-powered cars like the Honda Fit (see what I mean about his styling tastes?).
I convinced the Inventory Manager to add three of our dealerships’ Volts to a VIN-specific incentive of $2,000 list. I called Charles, who was getting very interested in the Fit, and told him of the deal I could do on these three 2015 Volts. He came out and ended up leasing a fully-loaded black Volt.
Other Charles news: His girlfriend Kelly is now his fiancee! He proposed to her, while on vacation in Paris. Charles and Kelly will wed next month, on Friday the 13th of November. Did I mention he likes horror movies?
Now they’ll be a two plug-in family!
“VIN-specific incentive of $2,000 list.”
What does that mean? $2000 off the list price?
Each month, General Motors changes the incentives, or discounts, available to various groups (i.e. credit union members, veterans, teachers, General Motors Suppliers, “conquests:” people who own a non-General Motors vehicle or “loyalty:” people who own a General Motors vehicle or a specific model).
Currently, there is a $2,500 incentive/discount for all current Volt owners, there’s $1,000 available to anyone, and the $2,000 incentive I mentioned, is available only on specific General Motors VINs. Each dealership is given a limited number of these $2,000 incentives. The Inventory Manager of each dealership will select vehicles, from their inventory, to apply this incentive. Those vehicles have an additional discount that the car right next to them will not have, even if they are identically configured.