Employee Discount
I can't imagine how incredulous I'd be if I worked for one of the US auto manufacturers right now. I mean, with these "employee discounts for everyone" deals I keep seeing on the ads, I hope they all got five grand in cash as a replacement perk...
But really, the most insulting manufacturer has to be GMC. They have this ad that features a bunch of employees saying things like "I designed the best truck..." or "I innovate" or some such lofty claim of being a pioneering engineer.
Only problem is, if you take a close look at the captions, none of those people are engineers! Not a single one. They're all marketing and advertising or whatever. If I were a GMC engineer, I'd be pretty pissed off now. I mean, these schmucks are taking your credit!
And really, the bottom line here I think is that when it comes down to it, these discounts just aren't that impressive. Something like you get a $35,000 SUV for $28,000. Sure, a 20% discount... but I'd like to think that with any decent amount of planning around the model year, good negotiation skills, and a little luck, you could get something pretty close to that without this discount. Now if they gave discounts like the software industry gives, that SUV would be $3,500. Hah.
I'm glad I don't work for an auto manufacturer, that's all I can say.