3 dangle deals to fight sagging vehicle sales
Chrysler LLC this week extended its $2.99 gas guarantee on most of its 2008 lineup through the end of July and added $1,000 rebates on four SUVs — Chrysler Aspen, Dodge Durango, Jeep Grand Cherokee and Jeep Commander.
Ford Motor Co. is extending its employee pricing on F-series pickup trucks until July 7.
And General Motors Corp. will continue its zero percent financing for 72-month offers through the holiday weekend. The GM incentive, introduced at the end of June, is credited with staving off an even deeper decline in June sales for the Detroit automaker and the industry as whole. GM's sales were down 18.2 percent in June. Industry-wide sales slid 18.3 percent. "Incentives will continue on an upward trend compared to the last couple years," said Bob Schnorbus, chief economist for J.D. Power & Associates. Car companies, he added, "must do everything they can to stimulate sales, and it won't be an easy sell because consumers' ability to buy has really been hammered."
Rebates, financing deals and special offers such as Chrysler's gas guarantee — which locks in gas prices at $2.99 a gallon for three years — will pull some buyers off the fence, Schnorbus said. But it will be tempered, some analysts said, and not likely to reach the record high levels of a few years ago, because there are fewer new vehicle buyers in the floundering economy, which also challenges automakers. The best deals will come on slow-selling SUVs and pickup trucks. Rebates on cars, especially hot-selling compact and hybrid models, are expected to remain small, which has helped curtail overall incentive spending. Last month, carmakers spent an average of $2,812 per vehicle on incentives — a 4.4 percent hike from a year ago, said Autodata Corp. Manufacturers spent big on trucks, up 14.8 percent from a year ago, and cut spending on cars, down 2.1 percent. Detroit News