Toyota, Honda doubled incentive spending in August

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Toyota, Honda doubled incentive spending in August

Posted Thursday, Sep 3, 2009, 1:39 pm in Employee News

Toyota and Honda might have been among the biggest winners from the month-long cash-for-clunkers stimulus, but in order to close those sales, they spent more than twice as much in August as they did a year ago on cash-back rebates, discounted financing and other incentives, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Automakers do not publicly divulge how much they spend on incentives. But estimates from Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, N.J., show that government vouchers of up to $4,500 were not enough to close many deals, the paper said. Across the industry, automakers cut incentives on pickups, vans and SUVs and boosted them on passenger cars to attract cash-for-clunkers buyers. Industry spending on passenger car incentives jumped 31 percent in August, to an average of $2,265, compared with the same period a year ago, Autodata’s estimates show, the Free Press said.

By more than doubling incentive spending on the cars that were popular under the clunkers program, Toyota posted an overall sales gain of 6.4 percent, the paper said. Honda sales grew 9.9 percent. Ford, meanwhile, reduced car incentives by 14 percent and truck incentives by 40 percent and still posted a sales increase of 17 percent during August, which shows Ford’s growing market strength, the story said. (Detroit Free Press)