• BusinessWeek, Thursday, September 7, 2006 12:15 PM

General Motors, in a bold effort to reverse a downward trend in both mind share and market share, announced that it will expand its powertrain warranty on all 2007 vehicles to a fully transferable five years or 100,000 miles. GM sales and marketing chief Mark LaNeve says the longer warranty is meant to play a role in enlightening customers about GM's quality ratings and close the perception gap between the automaker's image and how good the vehicles are. Although GM's brands still lag behind Toyota and Honda in the J.D. Powers Vehicle Dependability Study, the gap is less than it used to be. Some consumers interpret a longer warranty as a sign that the company's products are poor and have to be protected longer. Ads created by Deutsch/LA will try to hit notes of confidence in GM products rather than focusing on protection. In the lead TV spot, GM cars in traffic tie-ups in Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco (markets where GM brands do poorly) levitate out of the traffic to the song "Get What You Need" from the rock group Jet. A viral aspect of the campaign includes films on YouTube.com that show GM vehicles in flight with a linked Web site to a fictional expert who says GM has gotten cars to fly.

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