GM, Chrysler Expand Partnerships With Credit Unions

GM, Chrysler Expand Partnerships With Credit Unions

By Michelle Krebs January 9, 2009

By Dale Buss

Encouraged by their initial exposure to an uncommonly creditworthy bunch of customers, General Motors and Chrysler have expanded regional test programs of discounts for credit union members into nationwide campaigns.

Both of the troubled automakers have announced their participation in a program they're calling Invest in America, encompassing nearly 8,000 credit unions nationwide who have nearly 90 million members.

"Credit continues to be our biggest issue," Chrysler Vice Chairman Jim Press said earlier this week. So Chrysler launched an expanded effort after seeing the results of a pilot initiative in December that brought "a significant sales lift in the participating states," said Steven Landry, Chrysler executive vice president of North American sales.

Mark LaNeve, GM vice president of North America sales, service and marketing, said that his company also had "very positive responses from our dealers" to its own pilot in four states.

GM's version of Invest in America, running through March, offers GM-supplier-price discounts on most of its vehicles to credit-union members, in addition to any general incentives. Chrysler's Credit Union Member Cash discounts are $500 or $1,000 on nearly all its vehicles, in addition to most existing incentives.

America's member-owned credit unions have escaped the global credit crisis largely because of their conservative approach to lending. They also tend to offer significantly lower loan rates than banks. But credit-union members can use the GM and Chrysler discounts with any financing source.

The Michigan Credit Union League led the way to these programs by putting together the pilots last fall.

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.