GM Offering Discounts to Online Vehicle Shoppers

In a bid to boost flagging sales and raise its appeal to younger, Internet-savvy shoppers, General Motors Corp. has launched a campaign offering discounts of as much as $750 per vehicle to buyers who use the company’s Web sites.

The “Ticket to Ride” campaign’s discounts are in addition to existing incentives, GM said.

The auto maker wouldn’t reveal the cost of the campaign, which started Friday and will run through at least July 15. The effort includes newspaper and television ads to try to get people to go to its promotional Web site (https://www.gmtickettoride.com) and to the GMBuyPower.com vehicle-buying site.

The announcement came a day after GM, the world’s largest auto maker, announced a 5.9% decline in year-over-year sales last month as nearly every other manufacturer posted sales gains.

GM and other auto makers compete with online services such as CarsDirect.com and Autobytel.com Inc. in selling vehicles on the Internet.

Direct online sales of new vehicles in the U.S. will rise from about 17,000 last year to more than 1.3 million in 2004, according to a recent Jupiter Communications Inc. report.

“We want to get as close to these Web users as we can and to understand them,” GM spokeswoman Gwen Knapp said.

The company also believes that the heavy Internet users the campaign is targeting tend to be younger consumers who in recent years have not considered GM vehicles when shopping.

“We want to get GM back onto their consideration lists,” said Donn Walker, a GM spokesman in Thousand Oaks.

The campaign intends to use the Web sites to get people to the auto maker’s dealers.

Half of shoppers who own personal computers use the Internet to shop for a vehicle, though 72% of the online shoppers prefer to buy through a dealer, according to research by GM and the University of Michigan.

The campaign includes the auto maker’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and GMC brands.

The discount certificates offered in the promotion are mainly for mid-size cars and sport-utility vehicles. For example, “Ticket to Ride” offers a $500 discount for the Chevrolet Blazer SUV, raising total incentives for the vehicle to $2,500.

The promotional Web site will also offer test-drive certificates that when validated by a dealer can be used to get $50 gift certificates for online purchases, and sweepstakes for prizes including 2000 Summer Olympics tickets and a round of golf with Tiger Woods.

GM shares fell $1.19 to close at $68.63 on the New York Stock Exchange.