The program is not as broad as GM’s 2005 summer blowout of “Employee Discount for Everyone,” but it is an effort to boost sales, talk up GM products and clear out inventory, a company spokesman said.

An employee discount offers a substantial savings. For example, a Buick Lucerne with a sticker price of $34,200 would carry an employee price of $29,758.03 after cash incentives, said GM spokesman Pete Ternes.

In a memo to employees Friday, July 25, GM’s sales chief Mark LaNeve urged employees to offer a friend or neighbor the discount.

“Starting today and through July 31, all active GM employees in the U.S. have the opportunity to provide one employee discount to anyone you know who is considering the purchase of a new vehicle,” LaNeve wrote in the e-mail.

“During this challenging period for people across the country, there’s no better time than (now) to talk up our great products and give someone you know an additional incentive to buy GM.”

Typically the employee discount is good only for an employee’s immediate family, Ternes said.

“This extends it to anyone else for one time,” he said. “It’s to get employees to go into the market to talk up the cars and trucks.”

Employees register for their discount on www.gmfamilyfirst.com. They print a certificate for their friend to give to a dealer for the discount.

Ternes added, “It also helps work down inventories as we get ready for the new model year.”

Filed by Jamie LaReau of Automotive News, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.