The website Edmunds.com has said the average manufacturer incentive per vehicle sold in the United States was $2,287 in April 2003, up $581 or 34.1 percent from April 2002 and up $52 or 2.3 percent from March 2003. On average, vehicles sold 65 days after arriving on dealer lots in April 2003 compared to 64 days in March 2003 and 52 days in April 2002.

According to Edmunds.com, incentives spending for domestic Chrysler, Ford and General Motors nameplates averaged a record high of $3,089 per unit in incentives in April, compared to $1,558 for European manufacturers, $1,432 for the Koreans, and $879 for the Japanese.

Edmunds.com also said incentive spending continues to have a disproportionate effect on manufacturer market share. Chrysler spent $3000 per incentive in April, up 1.4 percent from $2960 in March, while its market share went down to 13.3 percent from 13.9 percent. In the same period, Ford increased incentives by 8.6 percent to $2,804 per unit and experienced a minor increase in market share, up to 19.6 percent from 19.3 percent. General Motors' incentives spending per unit dropped .4 percent to $3,334 this month while its market share rose 1.5 points to 27.6 percent.

Edmunds.com further said incentives had a somewhat more predictable effect on market share of vehicle segments. Large SUVs had an industry high $3,678 incentives per unit sold in April, up 17.5 percent compared to the prior month. Simultaneously, US market share of large SUVs increased to 4.9 percent in April from 3.9 percent in March. The large pick-up truck segment also saw a jump, up 15 percent for the month to $2,959 per unit, while that segment's market share went up about a percentage point to 14.2 percent. Conversely, the luxury car segment's per unit incentive decreased 13.4 percent to $2,540 in April while market share declined from 4.0 percent to 3.8 percent.