The Cadillac division of General Motors Corp. has left Invest in America, the auto discount program run by the Michigan Credit Union League now in its second year.
The league said the automaker unit chose to quit June 30 for reasons relating to a new brand strategy which apparently shuns the discount label.
Since 2008, the Michigan group joined by CUNA has promoted the national program with GM, Chrysler and a group of eclectic partners as a means of demonstrating the value of CU membership through various product price reductions.
Despite the exit of Cadillac, the league told participating CUs last week the GM move "is not an action that singles out Invest in America" since Cadillac was also cutting ties to other affinity groups which were not identified.
"More importantly, General Motors is very supportive of Invest in America with remaining brands, Chevrolet and Buick and GMC is fully committed to maintain credit union member discounts," according to a league statement.
Invest in America said it would be updating its LoveMyCreditUnion.org website to reflect Cadillac's departure from the program.?The marketing materials developed by Invest in America do not include any specific Cadillac reference, the group said, adding, "We ask that you remove Cadillac from any marketing materials that your credit union may have developed."
The Invest program comprises 2,500 CU participants across the U.S. providing financing discounts on 290,000 vehicles. Since starting with GM and Chrysler, Invest has also branched out on the discounts with other vendor partners, including Shop America, Allied Van Lines, FTD Florists, and Sprint among others.
