General Motors to Offer 100% Money-Back Guarantee

Why is it that I expect that this announcement will mean that buyers will avoid GM dealers this weekend. At least, if buyers have heard of this program, they would be foolish to buy before Monday.

The new program will be called "May the Best Car Win." GM hopes that those still leery of General Motors, despite it exiting bankruptcy protection earlier this year, will come back to the automaker with this new program.

Besides the 60-day money back guarantee, GM will try to compare its current brands directly against foreign competitors. The focus will be on quality (ahem), performance, fuel economy (ahem) and design.

Those ahems are areas that GM will be hard-pressed to match competitors in. Perhaps more in MPG than in quality, as GM has markedly improved its quality. Problematically, however, public opinion is that GM vehicles are unreliable. That may have changed, but opinion has not.

GM said it plans to continue its campaign through 2010. Will this give GM a chance? Sixty days, while it may seem generous, is hardly enough time to really shake out the "bugs" in a vehicle.

I have to admit, however, that some I have spoken to found issues with GM vehicles quite quickly in the past. An example: a relative who found a major auto leak in a GM vehicle in less than a week.