In a program that started September 14, 2009, General Motors offered a 60-day buy-back guarantee on its cars. If you bought a GM product, you could return it between 31 and 60 days after the purchase date and get your money back, plus the taxes and fees. If you took any other rebate program you could not get the buy-back.

How did not work? According to an AP story, only 400 people bought cars eleigible for the deal. All the other sales involved rebates that invalidated the buy-back offer. Of the 400, so far 15 cars have been returned.

Is this a win or a fail? It seems like very few took the deal. That’s either bad news that program did not work after all the advertising, or good news that it drove people to the dealers but they bought cars on other offers, like the rebates. The good news might be that so few cars were turned in after the sale.

A report from a company called CNW Research concluded that the buy-back offer, “spiked interest in the company’s products far beyond any previous recent effort.”