Employee discount

When the land was flowing with milk and honey, GM didn't get medieval on folks who took just a little more than their fair share. Now that GM's diet has been pared back to a few nuts and the occasional berry... well, every nut counts. So when The General performed a random audit and found that employees had allegedly been sharing their employee discounts with ineligible buyers, instead of a big "whatever," GM initiated lawsuits.

Based on the known records, GM is trying to recoup $450,000 plus court costs and attorney's fees from at least nine court cases. In addition to offering the discounts to those who shouldn't have had access to them, GM said the the employees were using the discounts "for their own financial gain."

It is no secret that the automotive industry is hurting for sales to close out 2008. Over the past few months incentives have been thrown out left and right to draw in more buyers. The deals have not done enough to bring folks into the showroom, though. With all the media talk of bleeding Detroit, consumers know that the domestic manufacturers have been holding out on their best offers. Perhaps the memory of 2005's employee pricing incentives has kept many waiting on the fence. With 2009 models heading to dealerships as we speak, General Motors is hoping to end the stalemate. It will be testing the waters of employee pricing yet again beginning Wednesday, August 20th and running through September 2nd.

Faced with miserable sales and a brutal economy, General Motors has reverted back to employee pricing for non-GM employees and family members. You may remember the last employee pricing campaign in 2005 that led to record summer sales followed by a miserable fall due to the fact that everybody looking to buy a vehicle pulled their purchase decision forward. This time around, only customers that get a unique PIN from an employee will receive the special pricing, and every GM employee gets one PIN to give away. That translates to roughly 108,000 vehicles that are eligible for special pricing, and only active employees are eligible to participate.