Auto Show Starts Thursday, Feb 5th

The 2009 Portland Auto Show countdown has begun--it opens to the public on Thursday, February 5th. Tickets are on sale here.

Braley & Graham is gearing up for the big event. Our sales staff and managers will be at the show. We'll be posting our thoughts and some pictures in the coming days. And we may have a promotional announcement next week; we'll let you know as soon as the details become available.

We encourage you to respond to the blog by leaving a comment. We want to hear your thoughts from the show--what do you like? Don't like?

Enjoy the show.

College Student Discount on '08/'09 vehicles

Today Braley & Graham kicked off a new discount program for college students. It's a great program that helps college students and recent grads looking to make a new vehicle purchase. Not too many students are aware of this. This particular program comes with predetermined pricing, so you’ll know your price before you enter the showroom. The prices are the same as GM supplier pricing.

Any students currently enrolled in a 2 or 4-year degree program are eligible (but not graduate students or students in certificate programs). The fine print and details are here: www.gmcollegediscount.com.

Safety First

With your car or truck, safety comes first. The US Department of Transportation's Safer Car website has a great resources about vehicle safety.

For example, you can look up the 5-star crash test and rollover ratings for any vehicle on the market. To plug just one of our vehicles, the Buick Enclave received the highest ratings in its class (SUV/crossover); our full line of GMC vehicles perform very highly as well in terms of safety.

Also, I just signed up to receive email notifications from the DOT for any recall notices related to either tires on our cars or any parts on our vehicles. It's a great site for consumers, so check it out!

Auto Show Highlight: 2010 Buick Lacrosse

Even in a relatively down year, the Detroit Auto show is generating some excitement. We are looking forward to checking out the redesigned 2010 Buick Lacrosse at the Portland show in a couple weeks.

Auto Blog also had some kind words and with their initial look at the 2010 Lacrosse. Terry Olsen, the general manager, indicated that Braley and Graham will be delivering the first of these vehicles to customers in July 2009 2010. Contact Terry or Andy Schuhmann directly for more info.

GM's CEO on Today show with Matt Lauer

NBC's Today show focused on General Motors today, as the Detroit Auto Show approaches this weekend. We're experimenting with some new features on the blog, and have included an interview with GM CEO Rick Wagnor and Matt Lauer at the GM Tech Center.

Check out the interview:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

And take a look at what's new at the GM tech center. Check it out:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

2009 Acadia crossover review by Car & Driver

This month's Car & Driver magazine takes a look at the 2009 Acadia, GMC's crossover vehicle and one of our best selling models.

Their verdict:

"The Acadia is good at what it does, offering plenty of room even for large families. It provides a strong alternative for moms and dads or other people haulers who are too cool to be seen in a minivan, although we still maintain that minivans offer better packaging as long as ground clearance isn’t on your list of must-haves. Standard and optional features meet or beat those offered on other vehicles in the segment. The Acadia has the strongest looks and one of the more attractive interiors among the Lambda siblings."

Check out the full review at caranddriver.com .

Welcome to the Braley & Graham Auto Blog

With the New Year, we've decided to try something new at Braley & Graham.  As the internet becomes a more central part of our business, we've decided to keep a blog as a way to connect to our customers.  The blog allows us to tell you about the new and exciting things occuring at the dealership.  Of course, in this tough economy much of the auto industry news like including December sales numbers have been less than positive.  But our business remains strong and we're in a good position to weather the storm.  

Today, General Motors issued an encouraging statement indicating that they have made great progress in restructuring their business.  They said it has enough government loans to cover its worst-case forecast for U.S. auto sales and won’t need more if the economy holds up (link to Bloomberg News story).  

Going forward, our blog will feature updates about new models headed towards the showroom floor, service tips from our service manager, occasional deals, and local Portland auto industry news.  We will post frequently during the upcoming Portland Auto Show (Feb. 5-8) and share our thoughts and the latest news from our business partners.  Our blog is equipped with an RSS feed, so sign up and find out when each of our new posts comes out.  

Welcome to the blog.