General Motor Corp.'s recent attempt to persuade its dealers to participate in a key industry survey is drawing heated complaints from Ford Motor Co. dealers, according to the Detroit News.

General Motors Acceptance Corp., the automaker's finance arm, is offering Bose Wave Radios, DVD players and $200 Circuit City gift

certificates to GM dealers who fill out J.D. Power and Associates' Dealer Financing Satisfaction Survey, according to the News.

The skirmish underscores the increasing importance automakers and dealers place in scoring well in third-party surveys. GMAC could use a favorable score as a marketing tool to gain more business with dealers who finance inventory and new-vehicle purchases.

Ford and GM are trying to recover from failed

projects -- including plans to own and operate dealerships -- that damaged dealer relations. Ford dealers worry that a higher showing by GM

dealers in the surveys will undermine the automaker's efforts to improve dealer relations.

In letters sent last week, GMAC told dealers the

gifts are meant to encourage dealers to fill out the survey, which is used to rank banks, credit unions and auto finance companies on how

well they satisfy dealers.