General Motors said Oct. 15 that it backpedaled on consumer incentives in the third quarter, as an improving U.S. economy allowed for less generous discounts on new cars and trucks, according to a Reuters report.

The drop in cash rebates and other deals from second-quarter levels was thought to be the first quarterly drop at GM since it introduced interest-free loans to spur sales immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. GM has led Detroit's brutal price war since, Reuters said.

The incentives are "modestly lower but frankly I'll take it after a few years of going up," GM CFO John Devine told industry analysts and reporters in a conference call, Reuters noted.

"I'm encouraged by what we saw from the second and third quarter," he said, according to Reuters.

Devine gave no specifics on how much discounts had declined in the April-June period. But he said further cutbacks in incentives, which have eroded profits across the industry, could be expected, Reuters reported.

"As the economy recovers, and we're seeing that, I think it is reasonable to expect some tail-off or some stabilization, on the incentive wars," he said, according to the report.