DETROIT – General Motors Corp. on Tuesday extended its Employee Discount for Everyone consumer incentives program through Aug. 1, a move that is prompting Ford and Chrysler to mount similar programs to move excess inventories and keep GM from gobbling up market share.
Ford is telling potential customers its all in the family with the launch of the Ford Family Plan incentive program, while DaimlerChrysler?s Chrysler Group will follow with a new incentive program of its own Wednesday.
Under the GM program, which was launched last month, GM has been selling 2005 model cars and trucks at the same lower price a GM employee would pay. The marketing campaign drove GM?s U.S. sales up 41 percent in June, the company?s best sales month in 19 years. The actual fallout from the heavy discounting won?t show up until GM reports its second quarter earnings later this month.
It cost GM an estimated $250 million more in June to sell 558,000 vehicles than it would have if it had sold the same number at May?s incentive level. Chrysler is expected to announce an employee pricing campaign on Wednesday, while Ford on Tuesday announced the ?Ford Family Plan,? similar to GM?s program, which will run through Aug. 1 and shave thousands of dollars off the sticker prices.
Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, said GM?s June incentives increased about eleven percent over May?s, to an industry-leading average of $4458 per vehicle. Chrysler sales were up just one percent in June while Ford?s fell. Meanwhile, Toyota?s and Nissan?s sales were up by double digits in June.
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