General Motors is marketing its new 60-day money-back guarantee program heavily, but an unadvertised wrinkle in the fine print may show that consumers aren't interested.

Automotive News reports, "The offer gives consumers $500 cash if they elect not to participate in the trial period."  So far, dealers say, most consumers are taking the rebate offer - indicating they'd rather have the cash than the right to return the car within 60 days.  Tom Durant, who operates six GM dealerships in Texas and Florida, told AN that most of his customers have taken the $500 instead.  "If they like the car, if they test-drive the car, most of the people would rather have a car to keep," he said.  They are apparently not interested in the return program.

Motor Trend adds, "This makes us wonder whether this bold ad campaign's true purpose, if successful, is more long-term in nature. Consider people planning on buying a vehicle in four to six months: if those people see the TV ads and newspaper classifieds highlighting the ‘May the best car win' tag line, it just might alter their attitude toward GM."

In the end, if the program helps lift the public image of GM vehicles for the cost of a smile $500 incentive, it may be pure marketing genius.  Dealers think so.  Ohio dealer Bill DeLord tells Automotive News "It's very encouraging that we are aggressively going after the competition with a program like this. I don't know that we're going to talk too much about the $500 option. We're going to focus more on the perception that our product is great."

If you're in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year's best cars as well as this month's best car deals.