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In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press this weekend, new General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson agreed that the company “needs to be reinvented and badly needs change,” but insisted that GM will recover. “You don’t change perception in, in massive amounts overnight; you change it every day, every single consumer. We sell cars one at a time,” he told host David Gregory.

GM’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing Mark LaNeve outlined the details of the company’s plan to change public perception in an interview with Car and Driver magazine.

LaNeve says that GM’s market research shows that consumers have four concerns that need to be addressed before they will consider a new car: the solidity of the car’s warranty, its safety, the buyer’s own ability to make new car payments, and worries that new cars lose their value quickly. GM is confident that its 5-year/100,000 mile warranties reassure consumers, and thinks its OnStar system gives it a safety advantage over competitors.

The automaker’s new Total Confidence program, LaNeve says, is designed to address the last two concerns. The program will make payments on a buyer’s behalf for nine months if the buyer should lose their job. “Nine months, all our studies show, is plenty of time to find a new job and resume making the payments,” LaNeve tells C&D. To reassure buyers worried about new cars quickly losing their value, he says, the program includes an equity protection clause. Under the Total Confidence program, buyers can trade in their new car on another GM vehicle, and GM will cover the difference between what a buyer owes on a vehicle and what it is worth, up to $5,000.

“If gas goes up to 5 bucks a gallon and the value of an SUV would drop, we protect it up to $5,000,” LaNeve says. The company believes this policy would protect “99 percent of customers” from equity problems.

The program is set to expire on April 30, but LaNeve tells Car and Driver “We will extend it if it’s as successful as we think it’s going to be.”

The Total Confidence program, Henderson told Meet the Press, should allow consumers to “can judge whether or not to buy a GM car or truck solely on its merits, and we’re going to make sure we’re there for you.”

In fact, Henderson said he would discourage President Obama from appealing to Americans to buy American-made cars on patriotic grounds. “I think the consumer should buy exactly what kind of car they think meets their needs and that excites them. And as I look at it, it’s our job to make sure we provide that, not necessarily have it mandated or otherwise encouraged. I think we have fantastic cars and trucks. We’re going to win in the marketplace and not necessarily because–just because we’re a U.S. company,” he said.

If you’re in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year’s best cars as well as this month’s best car deals.