General Motors Corp plans to briefly offer zero-percent financing on most of its 2006 models and financing as low as 2.9 percent on its 2007 GMT-900 sport utility vehicles, a GM dealer said on Friday.
The dealer, who declined to be named, said the automaker will offer the zero-percent financing, available on loans of up to six years, June 27 to July 5. The offer will exclude hot-selling vehicles such as the Pontiac Solstice and the Chevrolet Corvette, the dealer said.
GM declined to comment on the matter. DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler unit on Thursday said it was considering offering deeply discounted employee-level pricing on its 2006 vehicles this summer. "This whole Chrysler thing has thrown a wrench into GM's strategy, especially as Ford is expected to match Chrysler's employee discount program," the GM dealer said.
GM, which lost $10.6 billion in 2005 and is in the middle of a sweeping turnaround effort, has said it plans to focus on a clearer pricing strategy that relies on lower sticker prices and avoids the big incentive programs that bolstered sales last year. GM led an industrywide incentive program last summer, offering all US consumers the same deep discounts available to the automaker's employees.