Heavy Incentives Land Escalade, Insight Hybrids on Edmunds' Best Deals List
By John O'Dell October 21, 2009
Incentive spending by automakers is soaring as a continued weak buyer market has inventories, which shrunk during the Cash for Clunkers program, piling up again.
It's unusual to see hybrids on the list of heavily incentivized cars, but this week two gas-electric models, the 2009 Cadillac Escalade hybrid SUV and the 2010 Honda Insight hybrid sedan, have both landed on Edmunds.com's "Deals of the Month" list.
"There are finance and cash deals on several of GM's hybrids, largely because sales have been slow all year and the automaker is hoping to move the 2009 models off the lots before the 2010s start piling up," said Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell.
"And the Insight just hasn't been moving very well, so the reduced lease they're offering is a good hook to pull people into Honda dealerships to look at them," she said.
Sales of the heavyweight Escalade hybrid have been falling all year - a $73,000 sticker price more than $10,000 above the base price for the conventional model, doesn't help move metal in a bad economy.
Now you can get one with a cash discount of as much as $4,000, or less cash and reduced interest rates on purchases or leases, according to Edmunds' national incentives database.
Honda's Insight, launched amid great fanfare as a Prius fighter, has lost that bout and now is struggling to achieve Honda's sales targets. A relatively weak hybrid system and uninspiring fuel economy figures (compared to the Prius) have hurt, and even a base price several thousand dollars below the entry-level Prius haven't helped the Insight catch on with shoppers.
As a result, Honda is now offering the entry-level Insight LX, which has a base price of $20,510, with a discounted 3-year, 36,000-mile lease of $199 a month.
You can click here for data on all the month's best deals.
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