GM's 60-day guarantee seems to be working

Posted by: David Welch on October 14, 2009

General Motors encountered plenty of skepticism when the company launched a 60-day buy back guarantee on its new cars in September. Some critics said it wouldn’t get many shoppers to dealerships. One dealer told me that the program would only entice joy riders who want to take a Corvette for a month and bring it back, free of charge.

But so far, the program appears to be working. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told reporters today that consideration is up 15%. That means that 15% more people are giving its cars a look. Edmunds.com, which tracks web traffic and vehicle consideration, confirmed Lutz’s figure saying it comes form the website’s own research.

And the joy riders? Lutz said that of the 150,000 vehicles sold at retail during the program, only a few hundred even opted to take the 60-day guarantee. And of those buyers, only one returned his car. It was a Corvette. But Lutz said the buyer decided he didn’t want the bother of a manual transmission. So he returned his ‘Vette for one with an automatic.

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://blogs.businessweek.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/