gm & free cars

[mwalls54]

I seen where gm is giving away 1000 cars. what the deal with this???

[SSminneapolis]

i saw that commercial...looks like all you have to do is go into you dealer, test drive a vehicle and push the onstar button....then wammo....you are the owner of a few car...

 

not a bad deal...good idea...i think that they did it a few years ago as well...

[vdrumright]

It's a promotion to get people to the dealerships. I read about it in the paper Sunday.

 

You have to go to a dealership and they have a car on the showroom that has onstar. You push teh onstar button and give the person so information and they tell you if you won. You don't even have to take a test drive.

 

A guy here in Michigan won one today. It was on the news.

 

Here is the details:

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - News) said it will give away 1,000 cars and trucks over the next two months as part of its "Hot Button" sales promotion, a $50 million marketing program that GM bills as the largest in automotive history.

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Beginning on Monday, GM will give away 1,000 cars and trucks to 1,000 U.S. consumers. It is the latest marketing program the automaker has launched to boost sales and get more consumers to reconsider GM cars and trucks.

 

To win one of 54 different GM vehicles, consumers must visit one of 7,000 GM dealerships before Feb. 29, sit in a designated car or truck and push the OnStar "Hot Button."

 

An OnStar operator from one of four dispatch centers set up around the United States for the contest will immediately tell consumers if they are a winner of a GM vehicle, which includes cars or trucks from the Chevrolet, Hummer, Saab, Cadillac, Pontiac, Buick, Saturn and GMC brands.

 

"The idea really is to try to get people into the showroom, in an innovative way, at a time of the year which is otherwise pretty slow," GM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner told reporters at the Detroit auto show.

 

The $50 million promotion, which includes about $25 million in vehicle prizes, is intended to help boost consumer visits to dealerships by 30 percent to 40 percent in January and February, which is traditionally a slow period for the industry, said Steve Hill, director of GM retail planning and the GM brand.

 

GM hopes the program will boost sales above the slow start to the year in 2003, Wagoner said. GM expects 5.5 million U.S. consumers will push the "Hot Button," making the chances of winning about one in 5,500, Hill said.

 

In addition to offering high cash incentives and interest-free loans, GM has rolled out over the past year marketing programs aimed at getting consumers to take a second look at its cars and trucks.

 

GM has extended until mid-March its 24-hour test drive program, which allows consumers to take home a GM vehicle overnight.

 

Hill said the "Hot Button" program, developed by marketing communications company McCann Worldgroup, will help bring new buyers to GM and expose them to its new vehicles and technology, including the OnStar safety and security communications system.

 

About 40 percent of U.S. buyers do not consider buying GM vehicles, GM officials said in May last year, when the automaker launched its "Road to Redemption" ads, which acknowledged GM's past quality problems while asserting that its new vehicles deserve a closer look.

 

GM is expected to report on Monday that its U.S. market share dropped last year after two successive years of market share gains.

[FwyFlyr]

Same old story.....get buyers in the showroom. BTW watch the incentives go away for a while if it brings the sales #'s up.

[impalarasser]

cant waite to get my oil changed tomarrow. ill be cruzing the showroom.