Buy a Car with a Return Policy?

When was the last time you purchased a vehicle and the dealer or automaker offered a 60-day return policy? The answer is probably never. Saturn, a division of the old GM, offers a 30-day exchange policy on its new vehicles, while CarMax, a big box national used car chain, offers a 7-day exchange policy on its used vehicles.

However, up until now, there has never been an automaker to our knowledge, which has offered a 60-day return policy. Buying a car is just like going to Walmart now. If you buy the product and don't like it, you can return it with no questions asked.

Starting on Monday, September 14, 2009, GM will kick-off this ingenious marketing campaign, which is scheduled to run until November. In an effort to put customers first, the new GM has out best Hyundai, which has been notorious for coming up with out of the box marketing strategies during this economic recession. The old GM will never have tried such a risky move.

GM's program will only only cover its four key brands: Caddy, Chevy, Buick and GMC. Customers will be allowed to return their cars after a month or before racking up 4,000 miles. While some critics see this program as a big risk, others believe its bound to increase floor traffic and new-vehicle sales, which the automaker desperately needs. Last month GM new-vehicle sales were off approximately 20 percent, while its cross-town competitor - Ford- was up. For GM's sake, let's hope very few cars end up back on the lots again. We guess when you're confident in your products, you can risk running such promotions.