NEW YORK – Hyundai Motor Co. said Wednesday it will guarantee the trade-in price of new cars sold in the U.S. starting May 1.

Analysts said it’s the first time an auto company has made such a guarantee. While the program probably won’t cost Hyundai much, it will likely increase the number of return customers to the brand, since buyers can only apply the trade-in value to a new Hyundai.

The company will guarantee the value of a car that’s traded in after two, three or four years.

The offer is the most recent in a series of innovative marketing programs from the automaker, which surprised the industry in 1999 with a 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty.

The company recently ended a program that promised to buy back buyers’ cars if they lost their jobs.

Around 45 percent of Hyundai customers now buy a new Hyundai, putting it fourth in the U.S. industry behind General Motors Co., Ford and Toyota Motor Corp.