GM has said it will bring back incentives to clear stocks as the 2007 model year approaches. That news came as GM forecast that US light vehicle sales overall will decline this year.
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GM said it will offer 0% financing for up to six years on most Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac and GMC models during a sale that begins Thursday and ends July 5.
The automaker announced last June that it would let customers pay the employee price for vehicles, and it was followed in July by Ford and Chrysler, pushing sales to record numbers.
Those records won’t be topped, so sales this year are likely to drop a bit from 2005, said Paul Ballew, GM’s executive director of global market and industry analysis, according to AP. Higher interest rates and fuel prices also will keep sales lower than last year, he reportedly added.
The Big Three US carmakers saw their combined US market share fall to 56% in the first quarter of this year, down from 58% the year before, the report added.
GM also said that its June sales likely will be 30% lower than the same month last year, because at that time, the company was offering an employee-discount promotion.
But GM officials said they have no plan to return to employee pricing, even though such a program is said to be under consideration by Chrysler Group.
A Chrysler spokesman told AP that no decision has been made on incentives but an announcement would likely be made Friday, the day the company’s current incentives expire.
