ALG: Resale Impact of Ignition-Switch Recall Minimal
The recent saga surrounding the ignition switch-related recall at General Motors has caused trouble for the automaker, consumers and dealers, but it probably won’t have any meaningful impact on the resale values on the millions of units involved.
That’s according to ALG, which shared a summary Tuesday morning of some GM resale analysis from its latest Industry Report that weighs the potential fallout from the ignition switch action.
And there doesn’t appear to be much resale damage on the horizon.
Since the February announcement of the recall — which includes the Chevrolet Cobalt, Pontiac G5, Saturn Ion and others — ALG indicated that the Cobalt, for instance, has only seen its transaction price decline $300 against the segment average, an amount the firm called “negligible.”
“Similar to Toyota’s widespread ‘unintended acceleration’ recall from 2009, GM has seen short-term impacts to its resale values,” said Eric Lyman, ALG vice president of editorial. “It’s unlikely there will be any long-term effects, however, and ALG has no reason to forecast lower values than previously projected.
“In fact, the data ALG has recorded since 1964 has proven that few ripples in the market have substantial long-term sales implications,” he continued. “We expect GM’s values to mimic what happened to Ford and Toyota after their mass recalls, with the affected vehicles hurting little more than GM’s reputation for several years.”
ALG then shared bit about the fallout from large recalls at Ford and Toyota. The Blue Oval dealt with troubles from the Explorer’s 2000 and 2001 Firestone Tire recall, which had a widespread result at the automaker: the entire lineup of Ford Trucks would then see their used-market values trail the industry through the middle part of that decade (in terms of ALG’s Brand Pricing Score).
Meanwhile, at Toyota, it has seen an 8-percent decline in its above-average resale value in the last five years, said ALG.
Here’s the kicker though. It wasn’t just the recalls that caused slower resale prices. ALG explained that “a more in-depth look at industry trends, including those of close competitors, indicates that larger shifts were in progress that may simply have been magnified by these events.”
At GM, specifically, the firm said it hasn’t found any resale “slumps” beyond the recalled units.
Granted, there have been additional recall actions taken since ALG went to press with the Industry Report, including a 2.7 million-unit action last week that ALG mentions in Tuesday's analysis. But the company said in that analysis it “has not issued any further adjustments to resale values. ALG will continue to monitor the situation and consider adjustments if market conditions change."
Additional GM recalls have surfaced since Tuesday's report was distributed to the media, including the 2.42 million units impacted in an announcement from GM on Tuesday. ALG said more time is needed to monitor the resale impact of that situation.