Mixed News on Market Share

[RichardJensen]

From the Freep:

 

Another positive sign in the numbers, for GM and Ford anyway, is that these retail gains were made with lower discounts.

 

GM dropped its incentives, such as cash-back rebates and special financing deals, by $200, or 6%, in the third quarter versus the same period a year ago, according to an analysis provided by Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, N.J..

 

Automakers don't publicly release their incentive spending, so independent companies such as Autodata provide estimates based on market intelligence.

 

Ford, meanwhile, dropped incentives by $477 in the quarter versus a year ago, a substantial 11% cut, Autodata reports.

 

Ford's NA brand retail market share remained steady during the 3rd quarter at 13%, while cutting incentives 11%; GM grew their market share just under 2% (22% to 22.4%) with a 6% reduction in incentive spending.

 

I suppose it's debatable whether GM should've done better or worse, given their newer lineup, but the news for Ford is pretty positive. Flat market share on lower incentives is not bad at all.

 

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID.../710130372/1014

Edited October 13, 2007 by RichardJensen

[DCK]

From the Freep:

Ford's NA brand retail market share remained steady during the 3rd quarter at 13%, while cutting incentives 11%; GM grew their market share just under 2% (22% to 22.4%) with a 6% reduction in incentive spending.

 

I suppose it's debatable whether GM should've done better or worse, given their newer lineup, but the news for Ford is pretty positive. Flat market share on lower incentives is not bad at all.

 

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID.../710130372/1014

Didn't GM have the lowest incentives of the Big 3 to begin with?

 

Also they(GM) did post those two months of terrible sale numbers in I believe August and July...........weren't they down 20-25% for two months? I could be wrong.

Edited October 13, 2007 by DCK

[waymondospiff]

I have a bit of anecdotal evidence...

 

...my Great Aunt purchased a 2007 Saturn Aura XE on Sept 30th to take advantage of the GM incentives (And with it got rid of the last horribly-unreliable Chrysler minivan in the family - yay!) Her deal was:

 

22,700 sticker price

-1,500 rebate

-1,000 "conquest" discount (non-GM owner)

-1,000 "Time to Buy" weekend-only incentive

 

So, essentially, my Aunt's Saturn had $3,500 in rebates, or approximately 15% of MSRP in rebates.

 

That's a very limited example, and on a car that's underperforming in the marketplace, but I wonder how well that's accounted for in the above survey.

 

Scott

[RichardJensen]

I assume that the incentive measuring methodology doesn't change year over year, and that if it's inaccurate it's at least generally inaccurate, meaning that if they say incentives are lower, they are lower, even if it's difficult to say by how much.