Car Makers Getting With the ‘Program’ : Marketing: Consumers are finding good deals on nearly new autos that were originally sold for such special purposes as rental or driver education.

Car buyers are kicking a lot of nearly new tires these days.

A growing number of consumers are finding good deals on vehicles known in the industry as “program cars,” or cars sold by auto makers for special purposes such as for rental fleets or driver education programs.

These kinds of cars are frequently less than a year old and have fewer than 15,000 miles on them--and they can be had for thousands of dollars less than a new car. In a recession, these kinds of cars can be very popular indeed.

For instance, at the 1-2-3 Ford Used Car lot in Albuquerque, N.M., a ’91 Ford Thunderbird with 9,800 miles and a special option package goes for $13,651. No bickering, no rebates.

A comparable new ’91 model would be $17,225.

“I’m happy to say that I don’t have a problem with anything,” assistant manager Chuck Miller said.

His dealership, which opened April 21, is one of five that Ford Motor Co. is using in a marketing experiment for program cars. More recently, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Corp. have begun tests in southern Florida on new ways to sell program cars.

Ray Green, owner of the Green Holding Co. group of dealerships in Illinois, said he likes the idea of new-car dealers selling program cars, but not through separate dealerships.

“I’m totally against that,” Green said. “It creates more points of sales, which, in essence, is more dealers.”

Some see the new marketing schemes as necessary, reasoning that, in part, auto makers have been turning out lots of cars for fleets, most of which go to rental-car companies.

Here’s how program-car selling has changed:

A rental-car company, owned wholly or partly by an auto maker, sells its aging cars to auction houses or to its own used-car dealerships. Auction houses would sell them to whoever would buy them for resale in traditional used-car lots.

As the recession deepened over the past several months, manufacturers were pumping more cars into the rental fleets, resulting in a more rapid replacement rate--sometimes in as little as three months’ time. The market then became flooded with nearly new cars, which was affecting new-car sales.

That development angered many dealers, and they let manufacturers know. At first, the Big Three began promising that they would buy back all vehicles sold to fleets, then have closed auctions only for dealers of that particular make.

Now the Big Three are looking into more formal ways to sell the cars.

“We are basically a full-service dealership for used cars,” Miller said. “No one has ever done this before on a used car.”

The manufacturer-backed dealerships, then, are a new twist. They can often offer the cars with extras that can’t be had at the corner used-car lot.

A program car, can, for instance, be sold with an option to return the car for credit toward a new-car purchase, with a bumper-to-bumper warranty, and be accompanied by full vehicle and maintenance records.

“The integrity of this is unimpeachable,” Miller said. “There is nothing hidden whatsoever.”

Green, a past president of the National Automobile Dealers Assn., said that although he sees no need for stores such as Miller’s, program car sales are here to stay. But, he added, they are not going to be as attractive to consumers in the future.

“More people, when they become aware of a bargain, buy the bargain,” he said. “So what happens?

“They go up in price, and people will begin buying new cars again.”