Dealer Incentives Help Rev Up Sales

Heavy incentive activity helped prop up U.S. car and light-truck sales during November, keeping them flat to slightly higher than year-ago levels, analysts said Friday.

Also helping the total were strong performances by some individual new vehicles, such as Chrysler Corp.’s new Dodge Durango sport-utility vehicle, Honda Motor Co.’s new Accord sedan and Toyota Motor Corp.’s new Sienna minivan.

Chrysler and Honda are expected to report November sales on Monday, with Toyota following on Tuesday and General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. releasing results on Wednesday.

Analysts estimate that Americans bought cars and trucks during November at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of roughly 15 million to 15.5 million units, compared with 15.2 million a year earlier and 14.7 million in October.

But without increased cash rebates and new cut-rate financing offers--particularly on passenger cars--sales would be much lower.

“That’s what’s keeping the market up,” said Kurt Brown, an automotive analyst with DRI/McGraw Hill in Lexington, Mass. “It’s a very tough market, and you don’t seem to do very well unless you put some dollars on the hood or you have very hot product.”

The incentives are eating considerably into auto makers’ profit margins on passenger cars, but light trucks remain relatively rebate-free, particularly the higher-profit, full-size sport-utility vehicles such as Ford’s Lincoln Navigator.