In the latest effort to jump-start slowing car sales, General Motors said on Monday that it plans to let shoppers take cars and trucks home overnight, the Los Angeles Times reported. The programme will give licensed adults the keys to a Cadillac Escalade, a Hummer sport utility vehicle or most of GM’s other brands and let drivers tool around for up to 100 miles, the paper added.
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“We want people who don’t consider buying a General Motors car to get in the car and experience the quality,” going beyond the traditional drive around the block that dealers have long offered, GM spokeswoman Marcia McGee told the LA Times. “For people who don’t consider GM cars, the incentives aren’t going to do it.”
The newspaper said the overnight test-drive programme would run from April 15 to July 22 at participating dealers among GM’s 7,400 US and the company plans to pitch the offer with a national advertising campaign.
The LA Times said that the brands available would be Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Saab and Saturn but the Chevrolet Corvette and the new Chevrolet SSR pickup and Cadillac XLR convertible would be excluded — because “they’re in such short supply,” according to GM spokeswoman McGee.
The LA Times said teenagers could forget about driving free, $US50,000 Escalade SUVs to high school proms this spring. To qualify for the GM promotion, a licensed driver must be 21, have proof of insurance and leave his or her vehicle at the dealership, the paper added, noting that GM would provide insurance for the test car, however.
If potential buyers don’t have cars of their own, it will be up to the dealer to decide how to make test-drive arrangements, the Los Angeles Times said.
“A lot of this is going to be left up to the individual dealer,” including what to do if someone puts more than 100 miles during the overnighter, McGee told the paper.
The LA Times said Chrysler, Ford and Honda all said on Monday that they have no plans to match GM’s overnight test-drive promotion.
