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GM offers lease incentive
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May 31, 2001: 4:14 p.m. ET
With sales slow, lease customers offered early exit to buy or lease new vehicles
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - With sales of new vehicles still lagging from year-ago levels, General Motors is offering its existing lease customers an incentive program to turn their vehicles in early and buy or lease new ones now.
The world's largest automaker is offering customers whose leases come due between September 2001 and March 2002 the chance to trade in the vehicle at no penalty if they buy or lease a new GM vehicle by July 15. The offer begins Friday.
The program does not include Saturns, Saabs or Hummers.
Sales reports for May from major automakers are due Friday, and are expected to show vehicles sold at an annual pace of 13.1 million in the month, down from a 13.4 million rate in April.
During the first four months of the year, GM's U.S. sales fell 9 percent to 1.5 million vehicles, while its U.S. market share slipped to 28.1 percent from 28.8 percent in the year-ago period. The April sales drop was even steeper, a 16 percent decline from a year earlier to 356,747 vehicles, while its share of the overall U.S. market fell to 26.4 percent from 28.2 percent in April 2000. Shares of GM (GM: up $0.75 to $57.65, Research, Estimates) were up slightly in late afternoon trading Thursday.
The new incentive program is designed not only to boost GM new vehicle sales but also to help improve the value of the leased vehicles taken back because they will be newer and have lower mileage than if kept to the end of the lease.
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GM has not yet announced any other new incentives to take effect June 1, although spokeswoman Gwen Knapp said an announcement on new incentives is likely next week. 
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