GM Woos Fearful Toyota Owners With New Round of Incentives

DETROIT — General Motors launched a new round of incentives on Wednesday designed to bring fearful Toyota owners "back to the GM family." The incentives are a direct response to Toyota's announcement on Tuesday that it is suspending sales and halting production of eight models due to problems with faulty gas pedals that could stick and cause unintended acceleration.

In a phone conversation late Wednesday with Inside Line, GM spokesman Tom Henderson said all the details of the program — such as whether to include the Chevrolet Corvette in the incentives — were still being worked out. But the program starts now and offers zero-percent financing for 60 months on most Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC models. Cash buyers get $1,000 toward a down payment and lease customers can get a waiver of three payments up to $1,000, Henderson said. To qualify for the incentives, customers must show proof that they own or lease a Toyota.

The program runs until the end of February.

Henderson said the new program is in response to "feedback from our dealers.... We're just reacting to what consumers are telling our dealers," he said. "(The program) is aimed at bringing people back to the GM family."

The campaign is directed at owners of 2.3 million Toyota vehicles that are subject to a recall because accelerator pedals may stick.

Sources say that in the next 24 hours, Toyota is expected to announce significant incentives on the remaining vehicles it has available to sell, including some models on the recall list that don't have the "bad" parts due to production location. Those incentives are expected to be combination of cash rebates and low-interest financing.

In the meantime, the National Automobile Dealers Association said late Wednesday that it is "working with Toyota to identify a plan to help get dealers through this."

"In the meantime, we are encouraging Toyota dealers to check to see if their business interruption insurance might help them weather this crisis," the NADA said in a statement.

Inside Line says: GM aggressively pursues disgruntled Toyota customers. It won't be a surprise to see other automakers jump on this bandwagon. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent