Follow us on TwitterGM 60 Day Guarantee – One Car Returned?
Coinciding with the new “May the Best Car Win” tagline (and recently, the CTS-V Challenge) the GM “60 Money Back Guarantee” was launched. Many speculated the program could be quite risky if many took it up. That has been far from the case though.
Proof of the program’s success is in the statistics. Only 100 customers have opted to participate in the program, and out of those 100, only 1 has returned a vehicle – that vehicle being a Corvette. Yes, you heard that right. Someone not liking a Corvette?
Well, it turns out the Corvette’s buyer opted for a manual-transmission and decided 30 days later to return it for an automatic one. Not even a real return! When purchasing a new GM vehicle, you’re allowed to pick between participating in the program or getting a $500 rebate. Customers are overwhelmingly opting for the $500 rebate.
Meanwhile though, regardless of participation in the program, consideration for GM’s products is up and transaction prices have increased dramatically. J.D. Power data says that the average purchase price of a GM vehicle has jumped to $35,069 – up $8,000 from September of last year.
That is a huge increase, and far outpaces the industry average of $30,327, a figure that is up by $3,613. Like the program or not, the buzz around it and customer awareness of it is helping GM significantly.
Tony! Congrats on 500 posts here! That’s incredible, man. Wow.
I think the $500 rebate is something of a bribe intended to keep people from participating. It’s easy for GM to proudly state that “Only ONE person returned a car, and it was only a manual transmission Corvette because they wanted an automatic!” But when you mention that there was a choice to be made between participating in the program or taking a $500 rebate, that completely takes the wind out of the sails.
I mean, c’mon. “We’re so sure you’re gonna love this car, we’re gonna let you keep it for 60 days and, if you don’t like it, you can bring it back no charge. By the way, we’ll give you $500 if you waive your right to bring it back.”
How might things have changed had they offered the rebate AND the return program to everyone? This was not about proving they have the best cars. It was about giving the impression that they have somehow improved.
The FTC just announced new rules that require compensated bloggers to be transparent about when they’ve been compensated for their work. If GM gave you, personally, a new Corvette free of charge, and then you were to write a post talking about how GM is back in the game, all their troubles are over, and the Corvette is truly the greatest sports car in the world today, that could get you in a lot of trouble.
And yet, here is GM, telling the world that you can bring a GM product back if you aren’t happy with it and that ONLY ONE PERSON actually did, to get a different version of the exact same car, but they’re conveniently leaving out the bit that they effectively bribed the majority of their customers to not participate. That’s BS.