Answer to Complaints

After a two-day conference with his Dealer Council, General Motors' President Harlow H. Curtice made an announcement calculated to set all 18,500 G.M. dealers cheering. Effective March 1, said Curtice, the company will put into effect some sweeping concessions in dealers' contracts.

The biggest concession is in the way G.M. will handle future franchise cancellations. The company is replacing the Dealer Relations Board, composed of top G.M. executives, which was set up in 1938. In its place will sit "an impartial umpire," probably designated by the corporation and the Dealer Council, to hear any dealer whose contract has been cancelled by a G.M. division. The company is also revising its standards for dealer sales performance, will give more weight to special problems in each dealer's territory. Beyond that, G.M. will increase the price discount given dealers on leftover stocks of cars after the annual model changeover, pay more for local dealer advertising, and boost from 30 to 90 days the time limit on returning unwanted new parts to the factory.

Finally, as a frosting on the cake, Curtice announced the first large-scale group life insurance program for U.S. auto dealers. The program, to be financed jointly by the company and G.M. dealers, will call for a $1 billion fund, provide up to $100,000 in low-cost life insurance (without a physical examination) for any G.M. dealer under the age of 65.

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