TrueCar: Domestics Slice Incentives, but See Sales Gains

While most of the time, automakers pile on incentives to get a lift in new-vehicle sales, it appears the reverse scenario has occurred this year, according to TrueCar.com.

Domestic brands, whose incentives have declined, have been the ones to see significant increases in sales. Meanwhile, some of the leading Japanese brands’ sales have largely been static, even though their incentives have climbed.

Take Buick, for instance: Its average incentive spending through the first nine months of the year was down 14 percent from the same period of 2009.

However, it has shown the largest year-to-date sales increase (57.5 percent).

Likewise, Cadillac trimmed incentive spending by 13.8 percent while its sales through September were up 43.8 percent.

Conversely, Honda’s average incentive spending from January through September is 36.4 percent higher on a year-over-year basis, but its sales are up just 1.1 percent.

The Toyota brand had been averaging 30.7 percent more for incentive spending while realizing just a 1.4-percent sales hike.

“It’s as if the world has turned upside down,” stated Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends and insight at TrueCar.com.

“The comparisons to last year favor the domestics due to the Cash for Clunkers program and the success it brought the Asian brands but the numbers also illustrate how far the domestic automakers have recovered,” he added.

TrueCar.com provided a chart of the 18 brands examined, which among other items, included the following data: