GM Touts Progress, Serves Up Details on Latest Refunds

Just a few weeks into her job as the head of sales at GM, Susan Docherty believes the automaker is building momentum. Wednesday morning, Docherty updated reporters on what the company is seeing for October sales.

From her perspective, there is encouraging news for GM:

• GM expects October to be the first month of positive year over year sales in 21 months.
• GM expects to gain market share for a third straight month
• GM expects its market share for October to come in at 20-21%

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While those are encouraging, GM still has some issues to work through.

The company is still heavy on '09 models and has been forced to raise incentives to clear out that inventory.

On average, GM is offering between $3,900 and $4,000 per vehicle.

Docherty says she wants GM to be competitive when it comes to inventories but not be an industry leader.

That's the goal of every sales chief at every automaker. We'll see if GM can keep incentives in check. Historically, it has not done a good job keeping its incentives in check.

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Meanwhile, 449 customers have signed up for the company's "money back" offer:

• 4 customers have had their money returned
• 49 are in the process of returning their vehicles
• 396 have signed up for the program. That means these people are eligible to bring their car or truck back after 60 days if they are not pleased

Overall, Docherty says fewer than 1% of the vehicles GM has sold since making the money-back offer have been part of the program. Proof, in her opinion, that the money back offer has been a success at raising awareness and has not turned into an ugly, costly incentive program.

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