In January, Hyundai addressed consumer uncertainly by providing job loss insurance with every sale. Lose your job? Then return the car, and they’ll make up the difference between the trade-in value and what you owe, up to $7,500.

But only if you lost your job within a year of purchase.

Later they enhanced the plan. Lose your job, and they’ll make up to three payments while you look for another one. Don’t find a job? Then return the car.

This plan was given credit for a slight gain in Hyundai sales.

GM and Ford, desperately in need of sales, figured they’d better offer similar plans, since nothing else seems to be working. How do the GM and Ford plans compare?

First off, with neither of the new plans can you return the car if you lose your job. Instead, they’ll make more payments while you look for a new one. GM will make nine payments of up to $500 each. Ford will make 12 of up to $700 each. GM will do this if you lose your job within TWO years of buying the car, double the length of Hyundai’s plan. That’s good. Ford doesn’t say, so probably just within a year of purchase.

GM adds a second benefit: if the car is “upside down” when traded, they’ll make up the difference. Well, most of it. This is something like Hyundai’s original plan to cover negative equity, but with a number of important differences. First, you don’t have to lose your job. That’s good. Second, you have to have made at least half of the payments. Not so good. Your odds of being “upside down” are much lower in the second half of a loan. Third, you must trade the car in on another GM vehicle. Fourth, when assessing how much you’re upside down, they use “NADA clean retail.” And no dealer is going to offer anywhere near NADA clean retail on a trade unless you’re paying (at least) MSRP on the new car.

So, while GM’s value protection sounds good at first glance, it will be of limited value to anyone. Instead, it’s a way for GM to advertise something that seems valuable, at very little cost to them.

There’s room for a lot more value in all of these plans, so perhaps we’ll see better ones on coming months.