GM Moves to 0% Financing

There’s a war going on in the US auto industry. All producers want to profit from Toyota’s downfall, while the Japanese car manufacturer struggles to keep its sales up.  After Toyota announced that it will offer a 0 percent/60-month financing program, GM adopted the same strategy.

Susan Docherty, GM vice president for U.S. marketing, said the company was not chasing Toyota. “That was our plan prior to hearing about what Toyota was going to do. We locked this in about a week ago,” she said on GM's monthly sales call with reporters and analysts today.

After its bankruptcy, GM is still struggling to get its sales up. February was a good month for the American car manufacturer, as its four brands were up 7 percent for the month, driven by strong consumer demand for GM’s crossovers. Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac dealers in the U.S. reported sales of 138,849 units, up 32 percent as compared to February 2009.

“Obviously, with our hot launch products, we don't need to put 0 percent financing for 60 months on that,” she said. “That 0-for-60 will be primarily on products like our pickups. “That's completely in line with what our marketing strategy is. We're going headstrong into truck month for both Chevrolet and GMC, which is a traditional play that we have normally done during March.”

GM’s financing plan includes 0 percent/60-month financing on most of its 2010 models and a 0 percent/72-month financing for remaining 2009 model inventory. That offer covers about 97% of GM’s 2009 models.