US car dealer uses AK-47 promotion to boost sales

US vehicle sales have plummeted in the recession, so Max Muller of Max Motors near Kansas City is offering a gift certificate for a Kalashnikov AK-47 worth £320 ($450) with every vehicle purchase to boost sales.

Muller only sells American vehicles, giving credibility to his business slogan: 'God, Guns, Guts, and American Pick-Up Trucks'.

He said that he has had a great response thanks to the drug problem in the area. "It's extremely successful. There is a lot of worry about crime, we have a methamphetamine problem around here and people just want to protect themselves. And what could be better than supporting American products in these troubled times?"

The guns are American–made by IO Inc in North Carolina, although they were first developed in the Soviet Union. The AK-47 was used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, and became a symbol of resistance to America.

This is not the first time that Muller has given away free weapons. Last year he gave away a free handgun with the purchase of any vehicle, and claimed that he sold around 35 extra cars during the promotion than he normally would have.

He told CNN: "We're just trying to generate some traffic, generate some interest and enthusiasm and it seems to work real well. We're not just going to give people an AK-47 gun. Felons buy cars, too.

"What we are going to do is we're going to give them a voucher where they can go to their local gun dealer or we have local gun dealers we would strongly recommend where they can go buy a gun and go through the proper background checks so the guns end up in the right hands."

It is thought that this is the first time that the AK-47 has been used as an incentive to buy vehicles.