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Edmunds.com: Import Automakers Not Immune to Incentives

From November to December, Korean, European and Japanese manufacturers lost market share though their incentives increased.

by Staff
January 6, 2005
2 min to read


In December 2004, Korean automakers increased incentives spending by $26 to $1,853 per vehicle sold, European automakers increased incentives spending by $17 to $1,781 per vehicle sold and Japanese automakers increased incentives spending by $188 to $1,076 per vehicle sold. These are record highs for import automakers, according to Edmunds.com's research. From November to December, Korean, European and Japanese manufacturers lost market share, going from 4.44% to 3.74%, from 7.53% to 7.33% and from 31.5% to 31.0%, respectively. Domestic manufacturers gained market share during that period, rising from 56.3% to 57.6%, according to Edmunds.com. Comparing all brands in December, Mini and Porsche spent virtually nothing on incentives, while Scion spent only $134 per vehicle sold. At the other end of the spectrum, Lincoln was the biggest spender at $5,419 in December, followed by Cadillac at $4,690 and Pontiac at $4,465 per vehicle sold. Among vehicle segments, in December, large SUVs continued to offer the highest average incentives, $4,179 per vehicle sold. Other segments with high incentives were large cars at $3,494 and large trucks at $2,990 per vehicle sold. Compact cars had the lowest average incentives at $1,391, followed by sports cars at $1,782 and luxury sports cars at $1,888 per vehicle sold. Edmunds.com's monthly True Cost of Incentives(SM) (TCI(SM)) report takes into account all of the manufacturers' various United States incentives programs, including subvented interest rates and lease programs as well as cash rebates to consumers and dealers. To ensure the greatest possible accuracy, Edmunds.com bases its calculations on sales volume, including the mix of vehicle makes and models for each month, as well as on the proportion of vehicles for which each type of incentive was used.

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