All good things must come to end. For General Motors Corp., includes its employee discount incentive, which ends Sept. 30.
“It was a successful program for us,” GM spokeswoman Deborah Silverman said. “What we’ve learned is that our customers really appreciate the simplicity of the offer. The program helped us sell down our 2005 inventory and helped us transition to our 2006 models.”
The automaker became the first company to extend employee pricing to consumers in June, focusing on 2005 models as a way to clear out its inventory. The company has added select 2006 models, Chevrolet and GMC full-size trucks and SUVs, to the plan.
Competitors Ford and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group have extended their employee-pricing plan to Oct. 3 on 2005 models.
“Sales have been up across the board,” Ford spokesman Jim Cain said. “We wanted to finish the job.”
The incentive helped boost GM’s best U.S. sales month in June in 19 years. The automaker sold 558,092 cars and trucks that month— 41% increase over the prior year. In July, GM dealers sold 530,027 new vehicles, a 20% climb above July 2004. For August, GM reported sales of 355,180, a 16% decline from August 2004.
GM officials attribute the decline to a pared down inventory of vehicles leftover in August— result of two previous strong months of the employee discount program, Silverman said. At the end of August, GM had about 760,000 units— lowest inventory in the company’s history. In August 2004, had about 1.1 million units left in its inventory, she said.
Overall, GM’s three-month employee incentive program garnered a 16% increase in car and truck sales for the company, Silverman said.
“It’s been a very successful program for us,” she said.
In July, Ford sold 366,548 vehicles, a new monthly sales record with 29% over the same period last year. In August, the company sold 288,249 vehicles, a 6% increase from August 2004.
Going forward, GM, Ford and Chrysler haven’t said if their respective companies plan to offer a similar promotion next year.
“We’re taking what we’ve learned from the promotion and will apply it to our marketing strategy as we move forward,” Silverman said.
Network
