This is more of an emotional thing where people that might have been afraid to buy a vehicle will now feel secure and maybe buy that Hyundai they looked at previously.

As for the DUI thing and physical impairment. People choose to drive when they’re drunk/high. No one forces them to do that. People don’t typically choose to have strokes or other life altering medical events. I think Hyundai probably has a clause about how a DUI charge doesn’t qualify for a vehicle return. Hyundai isn’t stupid. That’s GM’s job.

Loss of driver’s license due to physical impairment may mean stroke, or other condition that precludes you from operating a motor vehicle, but I’m pretty sure you could argue that a DUI also would qualify.

Losing a driver’s license (state revoked), due to physical impairment (hey, you were impaired at the time!), return car with no penalties!

You make an important point, one that GM Marketing needs to learn. GM and Hyundai had (have?) the same perception problem: customers don’t trust their products.

Hyundai saw the perception gap as their problem to solve. They acknowledged and took ownership of the problem, made better cars and offered a solid warranty program (not just length, but honour) to back it up. No bluster, just “we make good stuff, and we’ll stand behind that stuff”

GM always saw the perception problem as something the customer and/or the media were responsible for. Their response was to make excuses or harp on about the unfairness of it all. The result was that GM came off sounding hollow, petulant and whiny—even to consumers—while Hyundai is held in generally good regard.

Compare this to GM’s “Surprised” ad campaign. Hyundai gets its customers, GM spites them.

How does Mark La Neve still have a job? After watching Hyundai and Kia—the Moe and Larry of the automotive world—pull themselves up to the level where customers see them as on-par or better than the domestics, has he finally figured out what he needs to do. If Kia—Kia!—can be salvaged, what the hell is preventing GM from fixing Buick or Chevy?

I called last week as I was interested in a 2009 Hyundai Tuscon 4WD. They offered me $6500 for my GT, $3K off incentives (including loyal customer discount), 3.9% financing, and free oil changes to 50K miles. I could get a loaded 2009 Tuscon for about $16K, why would I go anywhere else? Hyundai has my business and has been slowly and quietly gaining ground in the automotive industry.

Compared to the subsidized fuel for your guzzler deal that Chrysler had earlier this year it should attract a slightly better class of customers.

Twenty-plus years later, Hyundai is now regarded as one of the most reliable carmakers and with campaigns like this one, they keep winning more and more customers over. No matter what you think of the buy-back campaign, you have to admire the hard work they have done to make better cars, increase their brand’s value and win more customers the good old fashioned way-They Earned It.

If the Big-3 automakers had worked as hard as Hyundai has over the last 20+ years, they would most likely be a lot better off and wouldn’t be sitting up on Capitol Hill begging for dollars from Uncle Sugar.

Waaaay back in the day before I could even drive, American Motors (which was a scrappy competitor and underdog) brought out the Buyer Protection Plan.

The deal was that virtually everyone knew that the new car warrantees weren’t worth the paper they were written, and that most car dealers were total scumbags and would not honor them anyway. AMC needed an edge, so VASTLY simplified their warrantee; put it in their ads; touted it; and said that in “most” AMC dealers, you’d get a free loaner car if you car was in for awhile (yes, this was totally new back then).

Kudos to Hyundai. (Now I’m 99.9% sure we’re going for a Hyundai in May when our current Sonata lease runs out, instead of 99%).

If you live in rust country check the rear quarters around the wheels on late model Sonatas.
Without extensive bodywork these things will be gone in 10 years.

With money tight, folks are going to keep thier
vehicles longer.Watch attitudes change when the repair bills start coming in.

Honda and Toyota parts are expensive but thier car and trucks are well built and designed.Repairs can be costly but a 6 year old Honda is worth repairing.The same cannot be said for an older high mileage Korean car.

Oh I know I’m gonn’a get beat up for that statement.Just do a little survey when your on the roads.In my area of the world there is all kinds of older domestics still running and looking
not bad.In fairness I’m seeing some good looking older Hondas and Toyotas.Not too many Nissans but the Hyundais and the Kias they can outrust a Mercedes.Ask an honest mechanic how he feels about
Korean cars.A nightmare to repair and super expensive parts.All cars are great when new and shiny.But the worlds changing,folks that allways drove late models,are going to find themseves in
6 to 10 year old vehicles.Then we will see who really builds the best cars.

Anyway the response from my comment should be interesting

That said, don’t underestimate the power of peace of mind to jittery consumers. Two of my female friends purchased Hyundai products just for the warranty. They so despised being ripped of by repair shops…now the dealer does it by pushing wear items and too frequent maintenance service “paks”…

Fine by me. My family benefits and my taxes are not taken from me involuntarily and given to Hyundai. What’s not to like? I only have to pay Hyundai once.

Oddly enough, the big 2.5 should offer the same assurance, but in the opposite sense:

If we (GM, Chryco, Ford) should go out of business within the next year, we’ll either buy your car back for the market price or offer you a 3rd party warranty good at any remaining dealers or 3rd party repair facility…

Smart marketing people find a way to package their pitch in the way most persuasive to customers. This sounds like a pretty use of marketing/incentive money by Hyundai. It speaks to the concerns of potential customers and stands out from the zero percent financing crowd, yet will cost Hyundai very little in real terms. The one year limitation, however, really reduces the attractiveness of the proposition. Hyundai should keep the program going throughout the term of the loan and simply reduce the dollar value of the benefit in years 2 and later.

“there is a good reason why the Asians are in good shape while GM and Chrysler are barely still in business.”

The Asian automakers are “in good shape” only in comparison to Detroit. The Asian companies are all bleeding pretty hard as well, but they started with a healthier circulatory system.