Japan’s No. 2 auto giant Honda weighed in late in the game this week with lease incentives promoting plenty of “0”s on TV, Internet and print ads.
But its charging hard on bigger rival Toyota’s month-long – and by most accounts successful – zero percent financing deals on most of its models. Analysts predict a 40 percent surge in sales for Toyota in March.
Honda has countered with “The Really Big Sales Event” that pushes lease deals with $0 down payment, $0 security deposit and $0 first-month payment on Accords and other models.
Leasing and low-interest financing deals are expected to boost auto sales this month and industry incentive spending is expected to be the highest so far in 2010, according to Edmunds.com, the online resource for automotive information.
“Many of the major automakers are offering zero-percent financing on their vehicles to match Toyota’s unprecedented incentives program this month,” said Jessica Caldwell, director of Pricing and Market Analysis for Edmunds. “Even many newly introduced models have incentives on the hood.”
A price war between the Toyota and Honda, though, is very rare, but since the massive recalls for unintended acceleration by Toyota last month, and the torrent of publicity that followed, nothing is quite normal in the auto industry.
Honda itself issued a major recall for brakes that might regress closer to the floor on its popular Odyssey minivans. But Honda’s problems pale in comparison to its rival, and satisfaction surveys recently show that Honda and U.S. carmakers are springing ahead of the formerly stalwart quality leader Toyota.
Ford and General Motors followed Toyota this month with their own new or expanded zero-percent offers.
