FCA kept incentives down

FCA’s average incentives per vehicle in December were high, but not as high as some competitors.

While GM spent $4,611 per car sold, and Volkswagen Group (including Audi and Porsche) spent $4,392, FCA spent $4,291 per car. That’s not quite as good as Ford’s $4,190, but it put FCA out of the unwanted “#1 discounter” position — indeed, they were at #5 (BMW and Mercedes were also heavier with incentives).

FCA raised incentive spending from November by just 0.5%, while GM’s high incentives were actually lower by 3.6%, according to Automotive News (quoting ALG).

The entire industry raised incentives over December 2015, as car buyers started to flee and numbers started to fall. Of the majors, Ford had the highest increase from 2015 — 34% (Subaru dwarfed all others with a 103% rise, to $1,162 per car). FCA’s increase was 22%, while the industry average increase was 20%.

GM, Ford, and FCA all announced production cuts in December.