By Paul Rachwal
Wednesday, May 30th, 2012 @ 5:03 pm
 
Ford has raised its cash incentives in May in order to help shore up sales, the automaker's sales analyst revealed on Wednesday. The move was prompted after the automaker says it reduced incentives too much in April.

Last month wasn't an especially strong one for the Dearborn, Michigan, automaker: Between its Ford and Lincoln divisions, sales tumbled 5 percent.

In April, Ford reduced incentives by about $300 per vehicle, Automotive News reported. The boost reflects similar moves from other players in the industry, with Ford sales analyst Erich Merkle calling the practice "very disciplined."

Currently, almost every Ford model has at least some sort of "customer cash" incentive on its hood, including a few 2013 models (a $500 rebate applies to the 2013 Mustang and Flex, while the more volume-oriented 2013 Explorer has a hefty $1,000 rebate).

As analysts predicted, Ford is losing market share in the US, with April sales seeing it lose 5.1 percent. Compared to last year, Ford's market share fell from 16.2 to 15.4 percent in the time period through April.
  

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