GM expands rebate offers

The incentive program, called Loyalty First, is designed to shore up the No. 1 automaker's sagging market share with rebates worth $500 or $1,000. The offers already are going out to original owners of GM vehicles from the 1986 to 1998 model years.

Valid until June 30, the rebate certificates can be used by the original buyer, a spouse or children living in the same household. The rebates also can be used to lease a vehicle but don't include Saturn models and aren't being offered to Saturn owners.

The automaker sold about 60 million cars, minivans, sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks in the United States from 1986 to 1998. How many of those vehicles remain with their original owners isn't clear, the Detroit Free Press said in a report yesterday.

GM hasn't estimated the cost of the Loyalty First program, but it will fall within the automaker's marketing budget, spokesperson Donna Fontana said.

Loyalty First rebates can be used in conjunction with existing rebates that already average $1,600 per GM vehicle, according to industry analyst David Healy of Burnham Securities in New York.

"I guess GM was more appalled than we thought by the 28.6-percent market share," Healy said Tuesday.

GM had 35 percent of the domestic new-vehicle market in 1990. But its market share has fallen every year since then, bottoming out at 28.6 percent in January and February before a new round of rebates and low-interest loans on its small cars raised GM's market share to 32.2 percent for March.

"Owner loyalty programs do work if you want to move vehicles," said auto analyst Jim Hall of the research firm AutoPacific in Southfield.

Mark Montante, general manager of Bill Rowan Oldsmobile Cadillac in Southgate, agreed with Hall - and praised the new program.

"They want to get their market share up," he said. "I think they are moving in the right direction."

Montante cited the example of a $37,000 Oldsmobile Aurora - which could be had for as little as $25,000 by using the Loyalty First rebate, a discount already in place, the maximum discount on the General Motors credit card and a $5,500 discount available to GM employees.

04-16-98