GM offers discounts through July 31
Automaker extends employee pricing
NEW YORK — General Motors Corp. said Friday it is extending its employee discount program to a wider group of non-employees in an effort to boost sales in a weak automotive sales environment.
GM will allow employees to offer the discount to any one person through next Thursday. Employee discounts are normally limited to employees and their immediate family.
Mark LaNeve, GM’s vice president of North American sales, informed workers of the new program Thursday evening after the decision to extend the discounts was made earlier in the day.
“During this challenging period for people across the country, there’s no better time than to talk up our great products and give someone you know an additional incentive to buy GM,” LaNeve wrote in the e-mail.
The discounts, which vary depending on the vehicle, will be available through July on as many as 108,000 cars and trucks, one for each active U. S. employee, spokeswoman Susan Garontakos said.
GM is trying to hold the line on incentives so it can increase profit from each vehicle sold while generating more demand in what may be the weakest U. S. auto market since 1993. Employee discounts at the Detroitbased automaker vary by vehicle, and bring the price closer to the invoice value.
“It’s a tough time for the industry,” Garontakos said. “With the price of food, housing and gasoline going up, this just gives people a bit of a break.”
GM boosted average incentive spending on each U. S. vehicle in June to $3,454, a 4.4 percent gain from May, according to Edmunds.com. That compares with a 1.4 percent increase in the industrywide average to $2,356.
GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC have offered employee pricing for all buyers in the past to pump up sales. When the offers ended, sales declined.
The employee-pricing offer “will push buyers thinking about purchasing” into doing so, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner told reporters at the opening of a new research center in Pontiac, Mich.
Like most of the other major automakers, GM has seen its sales tumble this year as a result of soaring gas A 20 percent decline in GM’s second-quarter sales in North America dragged down the global total by 5 percent. GM fell further behind Toyota Motor Corp. for the annual worldwide sales lead, a crown the U. S. automaker has worn for 77 years.
prices and a weak overall economy. “It’s important to keep merchandising . . . keep consumers thinking about buying a car,” Wagoner said Friday.
GM’s U. S. sales dropped 18 percent in June from a year earlier but were better than many analysts expected, largely as a result of a month-ending three-day sale.
