The General Motors Red-Tag Sale

With all the deals General Motors is trying to make to rid itself of its inventory of Pontiacs and Saturns, you get the sense there’s a barker sitting atop the GM headquarters with a megaphone yelling “get your brand-new, unloved cars right now—everything must go!”

GM doesn’t want to be reminded of how dreadful a year 2009 was and how it had to shed four of its auto lines as a way to get out of bankruptcy. So, for the two lines with the biggest mass-appeal audience, Saturn and Pontiac, it’s trying a two-pronged approach to ensure none of the vehicles linger long into 2010.

The automaker had previously announced that it would give consumers a $6,500 break or free financing for as long as 72 months if they bought a Saturn or a Pontiac. Now, GM is offering dealers $7,000 for each of the cars they buy for service or car-rental fleets. If a dealer attempts to turn around and resell the car to consumers, they must classify the car as used.

Bloomberg quotes an analyst praising GM for the move. “When GM killed Oldsmobile, it took three years; this is basically killing brands on steroids,” Rebecca Lindland, an analyst at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, told Bloomberg.

Dealers have until Monday to take advantage of the deal. Buyers, if they keep an eye out for used-in-name-only Saturns and Pontiacs, might have a bit longer to snag the last cars of their kind.