In a major break from tradition, Honda offered numerous, substantial incentives to its U.S. dealers in June. Typically, Honda doesn’t offer any incentives – or very, very small ones – but the automaker offered an average of $1,221 worth of incentives per vehicle to its dealers, a low number for the industry, but a record one for Honda.
Dealer incentives are typically not visible to customers, so they offer the dealership the choice of passing them onto consumers. Nearly all manufacturers participate in some sort of incentive program and Honda’s is actually one half the industry average, but it still marks a major turning point for the traditionally stingy Japanese carmaker.
Automotive News reports that Honda ’s vehicle inventories are up, too. Combine that with the record-breaking high incentives and one might think Honda was in trouble – but the manufacturer’s market share has been increasing, too. Honda placed most of its incentives on the Pilot and Ridgeline – the manufacturer’s two least efficient vehicles – and the Accord, a lame-duck model which will be replaced in just months.
Toyota also saw especially high incentives in June, an average of $1,567, mostly on the Tundra pickup. Toyota saw great sales success with its incentives as the Tundra sold much better than expected.
The industry averaged $2,442 per vehicle
