Complain about a product or service

Ford Joins Summer Incentives Battle

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

June 1, 2006

• Hispanic-Americans Pay More For Used Car Loans • GM Offers Employee Prices to Spur Slow Sales • U.S. Consumers Favor Japanese and German Automakers • Automakers Report Huge Drop in Sales • GM Cuts Prices for February • Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM • New GM Sale May Challenge Bargain Hunters • GM Hangs on as World's No. 1 Automaker • Saturn Outlook Gets High Marks from Consumer Reports • Summer Car Sales Start to Sizzle • Consumer Reports Lists Best New Car Deals • Chrysler Dumps Remaining 2006 Inventory on Used Car Market --- • More about Auto Sales ...

First General Motors offered a year's supply of $1.98 gasoline in Florida and California to buyers of selected GM cars and trucks, now Ford is promising to buy you $1,000 of gasoline if you drive off one of its products.

Ford is also promising zero-percent financing for some customers.

Both sales promotions show just how concerned U.S. automakers are about consumer worry over rising gasoline prices.

At the core of the incentive war are the large sport utility vehicles and trucks that are the most profitable models offered by both companies and, in most cases, the most gasoline-thirsty vehicles.

But Ford will also expand the offer of zero-percent financing to almost all of its vehicles and give buyers the $1,000 toward gasoline purchases either as a debit card to buy gasoline or a $1,000 price discount.

This is the most aggressive Ford sales incentive program of the year and Ford marketing came up with a catchy "Drive on Us" slogan for the promotion which begins this week and runs through July.

"I said Ford was going to be the first to blink when it comes to incentives this summer and it looks like that was the case," said Jesse Toprak, an analyst with Edmunds.com.

Ford lacks the new vehicles in its line-up to compete against GM's revamped line of full-size SUVs known as the GMT-900 series and as a result may dig deeper into incentives as the summer selling season moves along.

Ford sales fell almost 4 percent in the first four months of 2006 from a year earlier.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Back to the top |