General Motors extend employee benefit program

American auto giant and the world’s largest maker of automobiles General Motors has announced plans to extend their Employee Discount Program to September 30. in addition, the company has also added 2006 models to its offer of employee discounts for all customers. This goes on to show how much General Motors is liking the concept of high sales though with lower profit margins. The discount already applies on most 2005 models and now some of the large 2006 sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks will be added to the offer for the first time.

The promotion was to originally end on September 6 and would now last till the end of the month of September. The company’s not selling its cars at their full prices since quite sometime now and this has led to its U.S. auto operations with $3 billion in first-half losses. Market analysts believe adding the latest series of vehicles to this range of discounts is a bad decision for finances.

The discounts were originally unveiled in June in response to market share losses to Asian rivals such as Toyota and Honda. It was also aimed at clearing out the stocks of vehicles in their showrooms to make room for the new year models and versions in the market. The promotion brought increased sales to the company for the month of June and July. Results of August would be out in a couple of days.

They were followed by fellow American auto companies like Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler unit who also announced similar discount programs for their customers.