In a sign that automakers are extremely desperate to move units any way they can, Hyundai is trying to sway recession-wary consumers to buy cars with the option of returning them if they lose their jobs and subsequently can’t keep up with the payments.

It’s necessary outside-the-box thinking, in response to circumstance:

Hyundai is offering the program because its own market research showed car shoppers weren’t attracted by rebates and other more normal incentives, said Joel Ewanick, Hyundai America’s vice president for marketing. People are simply too worried about making payments no matter how good the deal is, he said.

Shows how deep the uncertainty is in this economy, with big-ticket purchases like cars getting hit. Unless your heap is just falling apart, it makes no sense to take out one of the multi-year auto loans that had gotten to be so typical. Assuming all the carmakers are facing this resistance — and they surely are — I’m thinking we’re about to see a huge collapse in the new-car market.

The big joke: I doubt Hyundai would even want to reacquire the incomeless-defaulted vehicles. It’s not like they’ll be able to turn them around to another buyer, and storing them would just add to their costs.