Chevy Hopes To Gain Customer Trust With 'Love It Or Return It' Deal

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- In an effort to rev up car sales, Chevrolet is bringing back a guarantee that allows you to bring back your car for a refund.

It's called the Love It or Return It Guarantee, and it just rolled out in Minnesota.

At Village Chevrolet in Wayzata, workers started putting on the advertising tags in the car windows Tuesday.

The deal works like this: Buy a Chevrolet, and you will have 60 days to return it. The vehicle must have less than 4,000 miles on it and it can't be damaged. The guarantee is good on 2012 and 2103 models.

Regis Buckley, Chevrolet's zone manager, said customers want the company to back up claims about its products.

"Let's face it. We're all looking for ways to appeal to our customers and our guests," he said. "And what we find is: As opposed to the claims we have the best products in the world, it really means more to those customers, to our guests, when they see us backing it up."

Dr. Lorman Lundsten, who teaches promotions and marketing at University of St. Thomas, thinks that once someone drives the car, they'll likely keep it.

"The Chevy deal, I think, is a good gamble for them," he said. "It's big enough to be noticeable. It gets your attention and…leaves you in a very likely position that you're going to buy the car."

When you get down to it, he said, it's about selling cars.

"They came out of the bankruptcy experience slightly worse off than they used to be, and this is a way for them to regain some momentum to lead the pack," Lundsten said.

He believes the promotion could backfire if too many people return their cars, but he thinks that isn't a big enough gamble for Chevrolet.

Chevrolet believes that the plan lets its customers buy with confidence, putting them in the driver's seat when it comes to buying a new set of wheels.

The guarantee runs through Labor Day.