As the new model year begins, automakers usually boost prices and reserve discounts for the previous year's few leftovers. Not this year.
Automakers are in an all-out price war.
Deflation has come to the auto industry - and it may be here for a long while. It doesn't look like it will change soon. What makes this fall unusual is that discounts are on the rise while the economy's running on all cylinders, gasoline's cheap and summer sales were robust. There's never been a period when incentives were this high and the economy and the market were as good as they are now. The primary reason for the intense competition is the industry has more capacity to build vehicles than worldwide demand warrants.