GM exec said to regret employee discount
Report: LaNeve says automaker will instead focus on promoting quality of cars.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - General Motors' wildly popular employee discount program was a regrettable mistake and will not be offered again, the company's top sales and marketing executive said in an interview published Thursday.

"Hindsight being 20/20, I probably wouldn't have done it," Mark LaNeve, vice president for GM's North American marketing, told the Wall Street Journal's online edition.

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Ahead of next week's Detroit auto show, LaNeve told the Journal that GM plans on doing a better job of promoting the quality of its products, while still pursuing an "aggressive" tact on lowering prices.

The discount promotion, which prompted record sales for GM during its June-September run, was soon mimicked by rivals Ford (up $0.34 to $8.35, Research) and DaimlerChrysler AG (up $0.04 to $53.55, Research) as they rolled out their own programs in July.

Sales at GM (Research) plunged 26 percent in October after the discount program ended, according to the paper.

"In some ways we are turning back the clock," LaNeve was quoted as saying. "The Japanese made their mark by making good products at a lower price. So to some extent, we are going to underprice them."

GM, which is facing speculation it may file for bankruptcy and an eroding share of the auto market, is set to launch 19 products this year, according to the Journal, which will include a mix of full-size and smaller SUVs as well as pickup trucks.

GM officials have repeatedly denied that the troubled automaker will file for bankruptcy.

GM stock, the worst performer in the Dow industrials last year, rose about 3 percent Thursday in late afternoon New York Stock Exchange trading.

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