GM Assurance Plan Covering Equity, 9 Months of Payments

Earlier this morning Ford announced its new assurance program covering up to 12 months of payments if a new-car buyer loses his source of income. Minutes ago, GM announced a similar plan. It covers up to nine months of payments of $500 a month, and it will cover any negative equity in your vehicle if you trade it in on a new GM. The program starts Wednesday and runs through April 30.

What does that last part mean? As far as we can decipher from GM’s brief press release, if you buy a new GM car today and after 24 months of ownership you trade it in for a new GM car, GM will pay the difference if you owe more than the car is worth. There is no mention of a cap on this amount, and we will update this post as soon as we learn of one.

This equity protection requires any owner to have paid off half of the term no matter the length. So if you have a six-year deal you must pay through 36 months before trading the new car in to qualify.

GM is launching a website for the program at gmconfidence.com, but the site is not yet live.

Comments

The sentence, “Desperate to sell cars.” Comes to mind with all these assurance programs.

Well, you'd think GM would be absolutely desperate by now, But no. I e-mailed a local GM dealership for an o-t-d quote on a Vibe and I get no quote, just the usual "come in and meet with us" crap.

I plan to pay cash.

GM's dealerships are its own worse enemy. The local Honda sent me a figure on a CR-V right away.

Wollo,
Honda does not allow any configurations whatsoever so it is easy to quote prices. A Vibe is configurable and the dealer would need to know exactly what you wanted in order to quote it (unless of course you had asked for a quote on a specific car in inventory).

H,
That is the most redicoulous defense I've ever heard. In my experience GM dealers are the absolute worst to deal with, Honda among the best. Regardless of whether a manufacturer has one or a zillion options there is no excuse to not provide a quote whether it's over the phone, by email, or by fax.

Generalizing dealerships based on Manufacturer is the "most ridiculous" thing ever. IT DEPENDS ON WHO YOU TALK TO! As in the INDIVIDUAL SALES PERSON!
Sales people switch between dealerships pretty dag-on often, so that guy you talked to at the GM dealership who pissed you off could be the same guy you run into at the next Honda dealership you go into.
I've worked at both Honda and GM dealerships and know that you're just as likely to run into a "Jerk" or the "Nicest guy I've ever dealt with" at either one.

Mr H,

You're absolutely right. I found the exact spec I wanted (2009 Base AWD with PCM). There were 32 such builds at dealers within 50 miles (15 in the color I wanted.)

With the rebate, an intersting quote would be in the region of $19700.

As of 5 mins ago, the initial dealership was still e-mailing me with "come in and talk" requests. So out of curiosity I e-mailed a second randomly-selected GM dealership with the largest inventory.

Want to guess what they sent me? Yup - an invitation to come in and talk.

You know, this car is not top of my list. I do watersports and all I want a small SUV, crossover or hatchback with factory roof bars/rails that is not too high off the ground. (Lifting a 12' sailboard on top of a tall vehicle in a stiff breeze can be a hairy oepration.) I was trying to "buy American" to support my fellow workers - including the guy selling the car.

This is a big problem for GM, they have pretty good product, but their dealerships are still stuck in the mode of trying to sell extended warranties and underbody sealant to internet-savvy customers

Well, the decent rebate expired today in favor of the "customer protection plan" so I guess GM is out of the running.

Charlie - I suppose the GM salesperson should also 'beam' himself over to your garage to figure your trade-in value too, eh?