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BUSINESS

50% Less Likely to Buy GM Because of Bailout

Federal bailout funding may have prevented General Motors from going through a normal bankruptcy process, but it has come at a significant price in terms of reputation and potential buyers.

 Fifty percent (50%) of American adults are less likely to buy a GM car because of the bailout. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds just four percent (4%) are more likely to buy from the company that critics refer to as Government Motors. Forty-two percent (42%) say the bailout has had no impact on their buying plans one way or the other.  (To see survey question wording, click here). 

The flip side of the data is that 51% are more likely to buy from Ford simply because it did not accept bailout funding. Twelve percent (12%) are less likely to buy from Ford, and 34% say the bailout has had no impact.

Twenty-five percent (25%) of adults say they or someone in their family avoided buying a GM car because of the bailout. Again, Ford is on the other side of a great divide. Nineteen percent (19%) say they or someone in their family bought a car from Ford because it did not take bailout money.

The bad news for GM is that these findings have changed little from a year ago, so negative perceptions of the bailout linger despite the repayment of a substantial portion of the money.

(Want a free daily e-mail update ? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter  or Facebook.

The national survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on September 25-26, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted byPulse Opinion Research, LLC . See methodology.

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