GM WILL VOID WARRANTIES FOR HIGH DEMAND VEHICLES IF FLIPPED WITHIN THE FIRST YEAR

Last week, General Motors took a step to address the reselling of the C8 Corvette Z06 by offering a $5,000 reward in credits to anyone who keeps the car for an entire year. We didn’t think that would be very effective in deterring sellers, but now a letter sent to dealerships may play a significant part in the fight against flippers. According to a recent dealer notice, The General seeks to accomplish this by restricting the transferability of warranties within the first 12 months of ownership and barring the seller from placing reservations on specific high-demand models in the future.

Corvette Z06, Cadillac Escalade-V, Hummer EV All Affected

A letter obtained by Corvette Blogger shows that GM North America president Steve Carlisle mentions that the new policy applies to all the new C8 Corvette Z06 as well as both body style variations of the Hummer EV and the recently-debuted Cadillac Escalade-V. It’s good to see that GM is cracking down on the combination of dealer markups and resellers to save the customer experience and GM brand integrity. Furthermore, Carlisle mentioned that “these changes will not impact product recalls in any way.” Another representative from General Motors added that the company hopes that this will prioritize ownership of these vehicles to loyal customers and brand enthusiasts, as opposed to people that wish to turn a significant profit.

With this new step and the rewards program for the Z06, GM has taken one of the most aggressive steps to curtail the flipping of low-volume, high-demand cars. In addition, it shows that the company has a clear focus on combating the secondary market for the first year of some of the most exciting vehicles for sale today.

This action could theoretically mark the beginning of bringing things back to normalcy, causing dealer markups to come down and restore what was once an exciting experience, the ordering process for these kinds of cars.