DETROIT — It was an audacious move for General Motors to offer a 60-day money-back guarantee on its products. But it seems to have worked. GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said Wednesday that only one person has actually returned a vehicle out of 150,000 sold since the program started on September 14. Now Lutz, emboldened by that win, is challenging anyone to try their sedan against the Cadillac CTS-V on a track.
If you read the fine print, there have only been about 100 buyers who opted to take the money-back guarantee offer in the first place. Everyone else selected a $500 cash incentive if they waived the guarantee. But still, Lutz said, there has been only one "substantiated return" of a vehicle.
That return, he said, was a Chevrolet Corvette, and the buyer decided he didn't like the manual transmission. When he brought the car back, he left with the same model, only with an automatic.
The money-back guarantee is slated to be on offer through November.
Meanwhile, Lutz has issued a corollary challenge, inviting skeptics — including journalists and the general public — to "run what ya brung" against Lutz in the Cadillac CTS-V at the Monticello Motor Club in Monticello, New York, on October 29 at 10 a.m. Challengers will be allowed five laps to post their best lap time in a production sedan of their choice versus the Cadillac. Applications must be completed online by midnight EDT on Friday.
Inside Line says: Hubris, but hubris that Lutz seems confident can be backed up. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
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greenpony says:
05:42 PM, 10/15/2009
Someone on another blog stated that, since the program requires you to wait at least 30 days before returning your car, and the program started only on 9/14, the earliest anyone could possibly return a car was 10/14. That makes Lutz's announcement misleading.