Despite offering the highest incentives of any major U.S. automaker in November, Ford’s incentives failed to lead to higher sales. Now Ford is adding another $1,000 in year-end bonus cash on 12 more models, including the Mustang coupe and Explorer SUV. The automaker is now offering the bonus cash on 19 Ford and Mercury models, which can be used on top of existing rebates or interest-rate deals.

Ford spent $4,231 on average to sell its cars and trucks in November — up 50 percent from last year — sales were down 10.6 percent. The Chrysler Group averaged $3,735 in incentives, with GM at $3,011. An bigger issue for Ford, is its 93-day supply of unsold vehicles, compared to 90 days at GM and 76 days at the Chrysler Group.

Ford’s problems are most pronounced in the profitable truck segment. Despite increasing incentive spending 51 percent in November, demand for Ford trucks was of 51 percent from November 2005. In comparision GM spent 13 percent less in incentives on trucks, but sales were up 16 percent, largely driven by the automaker’s new GMT900 trucks. The slumping truck segment has affected most automakers, with Toyota spending 25 percent more on truck incentives in November but 17 percent less on cars, and Chrysler spending 8 percent more on trucks and 24 percent less on cars.

## Source: The Detroit News ##

Posted in: Ford, Mercury, News, Financial, Incentives, Car Buying
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