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GM's Incentive Program Moves Saturns and Pontiacs

An aggressive General Motors' discounting program that allows dealers to sell remaining 2009 Saturn and Pontiac vehicles as used cars at whatever price they want has been a big hit, Greg Gardner reports. Pontiac dealers had only 8,500 vehicles in its U.S. inventory as of Nov. 30, while Saturn dealers had 5,700, according to GM.

"I'm down to about 15 cars, and it could be even less," one Michigan dealer tells Gardner -- and all of those are Pontiac G6s. Models covered under the new program include the Pontiac G3, G5, G6, G8, Solstice and Torrent, and Saturn Sky, Aura, Astra and Outlook.

General Motors is paying dealers $7,000 for remaining Saturn and Pontiac models in what amounts to a sweetened incentive. Publicity about the program yesterday seems to be stimulating sales even more -- but not necessarily at a profit. "The goal is to get those units out of inventory so we can move on," says one large GM dealer with two Pontiac showrooms. "With sadness, we're taking the Pontiac name off our license plate frames."

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