General Motors Corp and Ford Motor Co launched new US sales incentives on Friday as both auto-makers struggle with falling market share and high inventories of unsold vehicles.
GM, the world's largest auto-maker, 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.
Auto-makers typically boost incentives in early autumn to clear out older models, but one dealer said the GM incentives were particularly high.