$6,000 Cash Rebates From GM

[jeffrey]

General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. launched new U.S. sales incentives Friday as both automakers struggle with falling market share and high inventories of unsold vehicles.

GM, the world's largest automaker, said it would offer cash rebates of up to $6,000 on most of its 2004 sport utility vehicles and up to $2,500 on many of its 2005 pickups. Ford raised cash rebates on some of its 2005 model-year vehicles by between $500 and $1,000 for a total of up to $2,000, but the new incentives are only scheduled to run through Monday.

Automakers typically boost incentives in early autumn to clear out older models, but one dealer said the GM incentives were particularly high...

Analysts expect both GM and Ford to post lackluster sales for September later Friday. Both of the U.S. automakers offered interest-free loans for terms of up to six years on most of their vehicles during the last week of September. The incentives helped boost September sales after a slow start to the month. But Ford is still expected to report weaker sales, and GM results could be mixed to slightly higher, analysts said... [read more at money.cnn.com]