60-Day Satisfaction Guarantee From GM

Here’s an interesting development from General Motors, they’ve decided to offer a “60-Day Satisfaction Guarantee” on new cars purchased. It’s more than a warranty, and the full details have not been released by The General yet, but it’s an interesting idea. Will other car manufacturers follow GM’s lead on this, or will it be seen as a sign of desperation to win over car buyers?

GM is calling it the ‘May the Best Car Win’ marketing effort, and they’re hoping it will show the car company’s confidence in the quality and durability of its cars and trucks. Head Automoblog guy Chris noticed an interesting wrinkle right off the bat. He noticed that the guarantee is for “between 31-60 days” and not “within 60 days,” and speculated that provision is there to give buyer’s remorse some time to wear off.

That could very easily be, and also why someone hasn’t done something like this before. You could see waves of returns due to bad press for example, causing huge losses only to have the negative press turn out to be erroneous or some such.

Anyway, GM says that “The guarantee allows customers to return their vehicle to their dealer between 31 and 60 days of purchase and receive a refund of the purchase price for the vehicle.” Strange gap aside, that is a pretty unprecedented offer from a car manufacturer.


The Cadillac SRX and CTS Wagon, the Buick LaCrosse, the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain, for instance, are all outstanding new products. This new marketing effort should help us communicate these facts to consumers,” according to the GM vice chairman, Marketing and Communications.

Lutz also went on to say that “We will stand behind them both in the short-term and over the long haul.”

The current list of details goes something like this:

It applies to 2009 and 2010 Model Year Chevys, Buicks, GMCs and Cadillacs (except medium duty trucks), and is limited to one per household. There’s that “between 31 and 60 days” thing, and the car has to have less than 4,000 miles. you have to take delivery by November 30 of this year and the Satisfaction Guarantee covers the vehicle purchase price and sales tax, but not other add-ons like accessories, negative equity on a trade-in or other fees. And leased vehicles are not included.