Starting September 14, General Motors is offering a 60-day satisfaction guarantee on any new 2009 or 2010 Chevy, Buick, GMC or Cadillac purchased between now and November 30th. The president of GM in a TV commercial says, “and if you’re not 100% happy, return it, we’ll take it back.”
You must keep the car for at least 30 days, and then you have another 30 days to return it. Don’t expect to get 100% of your money back, but pretty close.
*MOUSE PRINT: Among the many requirements are these:
- Buyback Price means the actual price you paid to the Participating Dealer for the Eligible Vehicle itself (after any rebates, discounts, employee discounts, or supplier discounts) plus applicable sales taxes you actually paid.
- The Buyback Price does not include the costs of any taxes (other than sales taxes), licensing, titling or registration fees, insurance, dealer installed accessories, aftermarket products or add-on equipment (other than factory options ordered with the vehicle), dealer fees of any kind, ancillary products including without limitation extended warranties or service contracts, finance charges, any negative equity (the amount by which a loan on a trade-in vehicle exceeds the dealer’s purchase price for the trade-in) or any other expenses incurred by the Buyer in relation to taking delivery of the Eligible Vehicle.
- Your Eligible Vehicle’s odometer must not have more than 4,000 miles since the Delivery Date.
- Your Eligible Vehicle must have been registered and insured in the Buyer’s name since the Delivery Date.
- Your Eligible Vehicle must have no more than $200 of damage as determined by GM or GM’s agent. Such damage may include, without limitation, internal or external scratches, scrapes, dents, odors, rips, burns, etc.
- Your vehicle must NOT be registered to a business, corporation, partnership, utility, federal, state or local government, rental car company or any other organization;
- You cannot return an Eligible Vehicle and repurchase a vehicle you traded-in when you purchased the Eligible Vehicle;
- You cannot trade in an Eligible Vehicle and then repurchase it later.
- You cannot sue GM over this program — arbitration only.
All in all, GM’s offer is advertised in a straightforward manner, and the “details” are consistent with the promises made and are not unreasonable (but for getting zero back on dealer-added options, accessories, and extended warranties).
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See post below for update on the T-Mobile fee for paper bills.
All those requirements sound fair, but I find the one disallowing legal action just silly.
Any statement disallowing legal action is useless. You can always sue!
I agree. The restrictions sound reasonable to me.
Actually binding arbitration is legal. When both sides agree to binding arbitration, the judgement of the arbitrator is both legal and final. When signing for the 60-day satisfaction guarantee, you are, in effect, agreeing to binding arbitration which prevents you from suing.
@ Michael: The fact that arbitration is legal does not make it right, or the arbitration fair.
@jasper: I agree with you. I didn’t say that the arbritration was right nor that is was fair, just that it was legal. I found out the hard way. Unfortunately the contracts are written more to protect the lender than the buyer, and in such a way that is almost impossible for the layperson to understand.
i KNEW there would be tons of mouse print involved. i think the rules are there to protect GM though, more than they are to give people trouble. the bottom line is, i would not expect a refund at all without some loss because these companies have million dollar lawyers versus YOU the common everyday man/woman.
@ Michael: The fact that arbitration is legal does not make it right, or the arbitration fair.
The GM 60-day Guarantee is a total scam! We are trying to return a Malibu and have been told that we are not eligible for the return due to a scraped wheel, estimated by GM’s inspector to be over $200 damage. How many people who drive a car for 30 days are not going to get a parking lot ding, scrape a high curb, or get dinged from kicked-up gravel? Practically any ding is going to be estimated over $200 damage!! GM is banking on this. Why do think that the car must be kept for 30 days? No wonder such a small percentage of cars have been returned. According to the contract, GM is the one who decides if the car is eligible for return. Don’t fall for this deal! Buy a Honda!
SCAM!!! I have a better truth about the 60 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. We bought a Malibu from a GM dealer. We met all requirements of the 60 guarantee and chose to return the car. The dealer told us that we signed a waiver to the 60 day guarantee in lieu of a 500 dollar rebate. My wife and I sat and read every paper we signed when we purchased the car and none said anything about waiving the 60 day program. We asked the dealer for a copy of the page we signed and two days later my wife had to stop by the dealership to finally obtain a copy. What they gave her were two separate papers one with the 60 day policy and two boxes at the bottom to choose from. One box was accepting the policy and the other waiving it in lieu of 500 dollars. Guess which box was X’ed. The waiver. On a second page they had spelled my wifes name incorrectly and her signature was in a totatly different felt tipped pen than the X’ed box was in. So pretty much what is going on is the dealer goes back after the sale and fills this paperwork out and collects the 500 dollars. We had no such rebate in our bill of sale for the vehicle. GM said they cannot help us because they have paperwork(the dealer forged) that says we waived the guarantee at the time we purchased the car.
Hi == I’m a reporter looking for folks who have had trouble returning cars to GM. Becki and Jim, can you contact me at scarty-at-usatoday.com ? Replace the -at- with @.
We purchased a Malibu and really dont like the car but we gave a down payment of $10,000 Does any body know if we will lose this by trying to return the car.Im trying to get all my info together before I go In there