Hyundai - Lose your job, return the car within a year and walk away
Pretty innovative way to try to get people to buy a car
A decade ago Hyundai pioneered America's Best Warranty™. Now we're providing another kind of confidence. Finance or lease any new Hyundai, and if in the next year you lose your income*, we'll let you return it. That's the Hyundai Assurance.
Starting today you can feel good about buying a car, despite these current times. If you find that you cannot make your payment because of a covered life changing event, we'll allow you to return your vehicle and walk away from your loan obligation - and in most cases we will cover most, if not all of the difference.
There are of course restrictions, and the policy includes things besides just losing your job, but it's a pretty bold move to get people in to buy or lease.
Pretty innovative way to try to get people to buy a car
A decade ago Hyundai pioneered America's Best Warranty™. Now we're providing another kind of confidence. Finance or lease any new Hyundai, and if in the next year you lose your income*, we'll let you return it. That's the Hyundai Assurance.
Starting today you can feel good about buying a car, despite these current times. If you find that you cannot make your payment because of a covered life changing event, we'll allow you to return your vehicle and walk away from your loan obligation - and in most cases we will cover most, if not all of the difference.
There are of course restrictions, and the policy includes things besides just losing your job, but it's a pretty bold move to get people in to buy or lease.
I caught the tail end of this ad today...this is really a great way to appeal to their demographic...a big to whoever came up with it...the reality is, most people won't return their cars, b/c they need transportation.
They farm it out to the walkaway company which I guess has been offering this to dealers and banks
Kudos to Hyundai for listening to some of their focus group participants and devising a product enhancement that assuages some of the reasons they expressed to the question:
"We're a strong company offering an industry leading warranty on a quality product at an affordable price. Why aren't you buying/leasing?"
I think it's a smart ad; it will certainly get people's attention. It probably has some strings attached, but the ad certainly makes a point that Hyundai cares about you.
It's actually a brilliant cost-saving structure on Hyundai's part. Hyundai keeps whatever cash flow they've obtained from the original sale, and in turn they don't have to worry about repossessing vehicles since they've farmed it out to another company. Plus, if people can turn in their cars without fear of losing points on their credit score, they are more likely to return a car that hasn't been trashed. This may potentially mean a glut of used cars, but at least they'd be in far better condition than having "Joe the Tow Truck Driver" repossess a destroyed vehicle in the middle of the night.
Additionally, Hyundai cars are pretty good. I wouldn't have a FORD unless they pay me to drive it, and pay me back the money I paid for the brand new FORD I bought that got sick soon after and is now an invalid.
One of the conditions is the max negative equity they will cover is $7,500. I'm not familiar enough with car values to know if that's an issue or not in the first year. But it's still $7,500 you would have to worry about.
They are being quite crafty in their wording, saying something like "with no negative impact to your credit report"
I really think this will be a huge thing for them if the other companies don't jump on board.
I personally know one person who just last week was saying they were holding back on purchasing a new car because they are cutting back at his work, after 27 years there he may be losing his severance (27 weeks) and that would be the first step to laying people off, so any major purchases are on hold. For people like him, I really believe this can take a lot of that burden off should he decide to purchase. Given the choice of two cars, one that has this deal and one that doesn't, if the cars are equal it's a no brainer.
to whoever came up with it...the reality is, most people won't return their cars, b/c they need transportation.
