GM Tops March Incentives

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Edmunds [via Earth Times] has released its monthly “True Cost of Incentives” list, and GM tops the list, followed closely by Chrysler and Ford. Good thing Sergio Marchionne narrowly avoided “getting pulled into an incentive war.” That Chrysler’s sales couldn’t beat last March’s numbers even with these incentives tells you everything you need to know about the state of play in Auburn Hills. Oh, and how is GM’s incentive “leadership” supposed to jive with marketing boss Susan Docherty’s insistence [via t he WSJ [sub]] that GM is reigning in its incentives? Who knows. Meanwhile, Ford’s impressive 2010 numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt in light of the Blue Oval’s continuing dependence on spiffs and fleet sales (speaking of which, fleet numbers are up 64 percent at GM, and Ford had a 30 percent-ish fleet mix in March[ via FT]). In fact, Toyota’s much-vaunted move towards incentives seems to not only have helped its sales, it may have also scared Detroit back into some nasty old habits.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Joe_thousandaire Joe_thousandaire on Apr 02, 2010

    "and how is GM’s incentive “leadership” supposed to jive with marketing boss Susan Docherty’s insistence [via the WSJ [sub]] that GM is reigning in its incentives?" Well according to the data here GM has reduced incentives $1200 or about 1/4 from record highs a year ago. So I would say it jives moderately. If they can repeat that pace in another 12 months, that would leave them well below the (current) industry average.

  • Z72_Silvy Z72_Silvy on Apr 02, 2010

    Notice Ford's incentives not much better than GM's. And, since Ford (still) has to follow GM, and GM has less debt than Ford, GM is playing hardball with Ford by forcing Ford to incentivize more than they want. In essence the heavy GM incentives are killing Ford. An excellent strategy by GM.

  • Gmbuoy Gmbuoy on Apr 02, 2010

    Using this Edmonds chart to infer anything intelligent about incentive activity is like trying to use the Average Temperature of the month to infer what the weather was like. The metric ain't carrying enough information. 1) Relative segment participation. More is spent on Full Size Crew Cabs than on Sub compact cars. That alone drives GM and Ford's number up and Toyota's down. 2) Amount of margin in each vehicle at the factory and and the Dealer Level, More Mark-up to Mark Down drives the difference, if the Toyota has 8% margin and the Cobalt has 10% that drives incentive behavior. I suspect edmonds sells the detailed data and these "news" releases are the trolling.

  • CatFan78 CatFan78 on Apr 02, 2010

    All the Toyota haters must be having trouble dealing with the facts. Even after all the media SUA hype, Toyota OUTSELLS GM and Ford in consumer sales. GM and Ford sold 40K of their March vehicles to Fleet. And Toyota still is spending LESS than the other auto makers in terms of incentives. Consumers by far like Toyota, regardless of the media SUA hype.

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