Hurricane Harvey may go down as the most-expensive natural disaster in the United States’ history, but that means individuals, companies and other groups are doing as much as possible to ease the burden on those affected.
General Motors isn’t sitting back and announced a number of initiatives and steps it has taken to help not just its customers, but everyone affected by the natural disaster.
In the immediate future, GM has waived all charges for vehicles equipped with OnStar to gain access to emergency services, guidance and 4G LTE Wi-Fi. One million vehicles in the Texas and Louisiana area will be eligible for the temporarily-free services. Additionally, GM Financial has begun assisting its customers with payment arrangements and is waiving any applicable fees. Customers may also be eligible for a 90-day payment deferment as well.
Hurricane Harvey is estimated to send 500,000 vehicles to the scrap yard, and in order to put those affected behind the wheel again, GM will offer $1,000 towards the purchase of any new Chevrolet, Buick, GMC or Cadillac. The rebate will be good through October 2, 2017, and can be applied in addition to any other incentives.
On the recovery front, GM has donated $1 million to the American Red Cross to support disaster relief efforts across the areas of Texas and Louisiana. GM’s personal employees have raised another $50,000 in four days. The automaker is also beginning to move used vehicle inventory to local Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac dealerships to provide rental cars and courtesy transportation for hurricane victims. For those in need of vehicle repairs, GM has expedited the shipment of service parts, including electronic components, engines, transmissions and batteries to the region.
Local employees are giving their all as well. GM workers at the Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas, assembly plants are filling three semi trucks full of personal care items, bottled water and non-perishable food.
Comments
Great job, GM! While this is certainly great PR, it will also go a long way in helping the people affected by the flooding.
Instead of incentives to buy a new vehicle, Gm should offer a discount for servicing those qualifying vehicles that suffer less water damage. Most damages will be wet interiors and trunks, which can be cleaned in a few days.
How about not instead of but in addition to.
That’s great.
But the Oct 2 deadline on $1000-off seems a little tight, given all TX has to deal with. Maybe through November?
Seems reasonable – people need more time to put their lives back together, I suspect.
More like until the end of this year.
I agree it should be at least until the end of the year.
Nice effort GM! Nice effort GM employees!
I’d like to see that $1000 purchase extended to those heroes who focused on the rescue effort to save lives.
Stay Strong Texas!
My husband and I lost a lot during this Harvey , but we we’re trying not to dwell on anything. We have a 2015 sierra Texas Edition my husband repairs ac units for a living . No electricity will put you out of commission . We we’re told that we had a couple months to catch up on our payments and get things back on track. That was finally happening until yesterday . I was in the truck with it running waiting on my husband to get out of radio shack when I hear a loud noise and feel the truck being tossed around. When I looked I see a big guy doing something behind the truck and he had ran his truck into ours from The back! I was scared because I know that they are stealing truck and cars all over but especially in Houston. So I grabbed the handle to get out band the truck jerked backward causing me to be flung down to the pavement. I got myself up quickly and saw it was a wrecker driver! By this time my husband was out of the store in the truck I see he puts the truck in drive unaware that the wrecker was already hooked and locked on he. Tried to drive away from him but couldn’t and the driver stated that it was up for repo from gm. My adrenaline was so hi yesterday I didn’t really feel like I was hurt, but I have injured my right shoulder, elbow, wrist , hip and ankle. Wrecker drivers should have to announce themselves and allow all passengers to exit the car before they are hooked up to it and if they can’t do. That they need to wait. It was really wrong what happened to us we we’re stuck in another town with out a ride home . All of my husbands work tools are in the truck, how are we supposed to fix any of this if your not even going to. Keep. Your word to. Us? We have a letter from Gm stating that we have until. Next month before our truck would come up For repo can anyone tell me what we can do if anything? We would be really just like to have our truck back. Thanks Crystal
This makes me so proud to drive GM ! Fantastic initiative.