SANTA MONICA, Calif. -

Though August incentives were down from July levels, allowances sit far above rates seen last year.

But industry analysts assure dealers that incentive spending levels pose no threat to the business yet.

Kelley Blue Book analysts reported high incentives are not causing damage to used values back in mid-August.

And after reporting a 9.3-percent year-over-year incentive spike for last month, TrueCar  analysts echoed those sentiments, saying these high levels are “healthy” and not cause for worry.

“While it has become fashionable to criticize incentive spending levels, the reality is the ratio of incentive spending to transaction price this summer is consistent with the healthy industry levels we’ve seen since 2011,” said John Krafcik, president of TrueCar. “GM is the poster child here, with their industry-leading average transaction price increase of 12.9 percent (year-over-year) comfortably outpacing a modest incentive increase of 3.5 percent.”

And in early August, even after July’s incentive spike, AutoTrader.com senior analyst Michelle Krebs said she’s not worried about the level of incentive spending because “automakers are applying incentives very strategically;” something that didn’t happen in pre-recession times when automakers were aggressive with incentives simply to keep pushing sales along.

This past month, TrueCar estimated that the average incentive for light vehicles was $2,772, up $236 from August 2013 and down $57 (2 percent) from July.

Cars.com reported similar predictions Tuesday, pinpointing average incentive rates for August at $2,704.

TrueCar also reported average transaction prices (ATP) to be elevated last month from 2013 levels, coming in at $31,610, up $751 from August 2013 and down $125 from July.

Making a connection between ATP and incentive rates, TrueCar estimated the ratio of incentive to average transaction price for light vehicles was 8.8 percent in August 2014, up 6.7 percent from August 2013 and down 1.6 percent from July 2014.

According to TrueCar data, Ford pushed down on its incentives the post in August, with rates dropping 11.3 percent from July.

Next up was Volkswagen with a 1.6-percent drop.

Though none of the automakers increased incentives significantly last month, Toyota was the most active, pushing rates up by 1 percent.