Posted on: Thursday, December 25, 2003
It's tough trying to hide it under the tree, but many are getting an SUV
By John Porretto
Associated Press
DETROIT — They're impossible to slide down the chimney and pretty hard to cover with wrapping paper, but many Americans still found a way this holiday season to surprise loved ones with a very big gift — a new car.
Automakers and retailers hoping to cash in on a year-end sales flurry pushed the idea in seasonal advertisements. And many people took them up on their offers. U.S. sales of new cars and trucks in December are expected to be near the highest level of any month this year, aided by the improving economy and consumer incentives.
But there's more to giving a luxury sedan or sporty pickup than just handing over $20,000, $40,000, even $60,000 to a dealer — how do you keep it a secret? Do husbands really dazzle their wives by using the key to a new car as the nose for a front-yard snowman, as we've seen in TV ads?
"It's tricky, that's for sure," said Alan Helfman, longtime manager at River Oaks Chrysler Jeep in Houston, one of the nation's largest Chrysler dealers. "You can't hide them in the closet."
Bud Gallagher of Parkland, Fla., who bought his wife, Joanne, a Lexus GX 470 for Christmas, considered hanging the key around the neck of another holiday gift — a new puppy — and then surprising her with the new SUV in the driveway.
The only hitch: The pooch was too small.
So Gallagher planned to keep the vehicle at his daughter's nearby house on Christmas Eve and have her drive it over Christmas morning, where Joanne would find it in the driveway complete with a big red bow on top — not unlike a scene depicted in one of the automaker's TV ads.
The Lexus replaces a 1996 Chrysler Town & Country minivan.
"She has no idea this is coming," said Gallagher, who owns a business that makes marine antennas and other equipment. "She thinks she's getting a new blouse, maybe some slippers, but not this."
Gallagher bought the GX 470 at JM Lexus in Margate, Fla. General sales manager Randy Knapton said the South Florida business usually sells 500 to 600 vehicles a month. In December, the numbers rise.
Most wonderful time of year
Last December, JM sold 814 vehicles, including 23 delivered on Christmas Eve alone, Knapton said. This month the business expected to top 1,000 sales, including about the same number of cars and SUVs driven away on Christmas Eve.
Customers have different ways of hiding their big gifts. Some, like Gallagher, pick up the vehicles themselves and hide them with a neighbor or family member. Others arrange for a salesman to take part in the surprise and deliver it to the home on Christmas Eve.
Some who buy vehicles weeks ahead of time keep them stashed at the dealership.
"Like every retail business this time of year, the people on the selling side are working extra long hours and canceling their weekends," Knapton said. "But this is when the car business is fun. You've got the new models that came out in October and November, and Lexus makes its big pitch, plus we get a lot of snowbirds down here this time of year. It all seems to come together."
Art Spinella of CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore., said moms and dads at times buy new vehicles during the holidays as family gifts, and parents might splurge on a new car or truck for a graduating son or daughter.
Spinella estimated that vehicles as gifts make up slightly less than 2 percent of total sales in December — higher than most other months.
"During the course of the year, about 1.25 percent of all sales fall into that category," he said. "There are very specific times when it happens. You can identify Christmas, graduation and normally the fall when kids are going back to school."
Valet service
Even some dealers and their employees can't avoid the enticing offers at this time of year and the chance to be Santa's No. 1 elf.
Kevin Lamphier, a service consultant at River Oaks in Houston, planned to stun his wife, Katrina, with a new Chrysler Pacifica on Christmas Eve. He said he'd wrap the key and a Pacifica brochure in a small box and pop it on her soon after he got word via cellular telephone that a salesman reached his house with the vehicle.
"I did the same thing eight years ago," Lamphier said. "Here we go again."
Helfman couldn't pass up nearly $4,800 in customer and dealer rebates on a new Jeep Grand Cherokee for his 15-year-old son Blake. One night during Hanukkah, Helfman planned to bring the family to dinner at a restaurant with valet parking. When the Helfmans prepared to leave, guess whose new vehicle the valet attendant was going to drive up in?
"Oh man, he's gonna freak," Helfman said. "It's just better to use some kind of gimmick."
