Yesterday, the crack marketing team at General Motors announced a new $1,000 incentive program for Toyota owners who are concerned about their vehicles. According to a GM spokesperson they “decided to make this offer after receiving many emails and calls from our dealers, who have been approached by Toyota customers asking for help. We want to be able to provide peace of mind to customers and all of our vehicles are safe.”
While the concept of GM "helping" consumers is dubious, GM's decision to target Toyota in the midst of their crisis is packed with risks:
1. GM looks like the proverbial "ambulance chaser," trying to profit from Toyota's safety problem. If you're a fan of GM already, this might not bother you. But for all of those people who were on the fence about the company, this move isn't helping GM's image.
2. What will GM dealers do with Toyota trade-ins? GM dealers can't sell used Toyotas until Toyota has a fix. So, what GM dealership is going to want to trade for a used Toyota right now? Dealers need to sell used cars in 60 days or less in order to make money...but a used Toyota could sit for a month waiting for a repair.
3. GM dealers are going to low-ball Toyota owners because they can't sell Toyota trades right away. This of course is going to irritate a bunch of Toyota owners. While some of them will blame Toyota, some of them might blame the dealership that told them.
4. This undermines GM's "May the best car win" campaign. If GM is so confident that they have the best vehicles, why are they offering $1,000 to switch? A person who isn't firmly a GM customer might see this as an obvious contradiction.
See the rest of the article for 3 more reasons that GM's Toyota recall incentive program is a mistake.
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