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In the month of November, Ford outpaced all other automakers in incentive dollars per vehicle; unfortunately, truck loads of cash incentives did not boost sales. Ford led the way over all manufacturers with $4,231 per vehicle in incentives, followed by Chrysler at $3,735 and GM at $3,011. Interestingly, Nissan was next at $2,236, with Honda and Toyota at $914 and $751 respectively. Now Ford is stepping up yet again with an additional $1000 bonus cash in addition to any existing rebates or interest rate deals on 19 of its Ford and Mercury vehicles, which now includes the popular Mustang coupe and Explorer SUV.

Ford states that inventory levels, at a 93-day supply, are "outstanding". That number compares to 90-days at GM and 76-days at DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group. Working to get production more in line with demand, Ford has reduced its inventory from 752,900 units in November of 2005 to the current 627,800.

One glaring concern is in the profit-critical truck market, where Ford's problems were most pronounced. Demand for Ford trucks was down 51 percent from a year ago, and incentive spending was up 51 percent In contrast, GM's incentive spending on trucks is down 13 percent for the same period, and sales were up 16 percent, mostly due to the introduction of the new GMT900 platform trucks. While the F-150 will still reign supreme in sales this year, its current year-to-date total of 725,459 units through November is 10.7 percent off last year's pace.

[Source: The Detroit News]