http://press.arrivenet.com/bus/article.php/552787.html

Date : Wednesday - January 05, 2005
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/

Edmunds.com (http://www.edmunds.com/) reported today that the average
manufacturer automotive incentive in the United States was $2,512 per
vehicle sold in December 2004, up $57, or 2.3%, from December 2003,
and up $117, or 4.9%, from November 2004.

"As we close the books on 2004, we are confident that we have not seen
the end of generous auto incentives," stated Dr. Jane Liu, Vice
President of Data Analysis for Edmunds.com. "However, unlike the
past's traditional cash and financing incentives, the future will
likely show us more creative offers, like Volkswagen's new In The Car
program that covers car insurance for the new owners' first year."

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.

Overall, combined incentives spending for domestic Chrysler, Ford and
General Motors nameplates averaged $3,420 per vehicle sold in
December, up $41 from November 2004. Chrysler lowered incentives
spending for the third straight month, by $104 to $3,325 per vehicle
sold in December, and lost 0.7% market share, falling to 13% of the
U.S. market. Ford also decreased incentives spending for the third
straight month, by $217 to an average of $2,924 per vehicle sold in
December, while its market share fell by 0.5% to 17.4%. GM increased
incentives spending in December by $269 to $3,789 and its market share
increased 2.6% to 27.2%.

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%.

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.

Large SUVs have lost the most market share since December 2003,
decreasing from 7.2% to 6.3%, while large cars have gained the most
market share during that period, up from 4.6% to 5.9% of the new
vehicle market.

See also:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2005/01/06/2003218279

and

http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0501/05/A01-50668.htm