Dogpile on the Rabbit: Incentives Galore! (and other news)

We’ve reported previously on GM offering Toyota owners and lessees incentives for trading in their car.  Now, Ford is adding an extra $1,000 to any Toyota trade-in, as well as Lexus, Scion.  They’re also including Honda in the extra trade-in values, for good measure.  While AutoBlog says this includes Acura vehicles, check with your local Ford dealer to be sure.  Not to be left out, Hyundai is offering the same $1,000 extra on Toyota trade-ins, but only until next Monday, and only for these models: Sonata, Elantra, or Elantra Touring.  Meanwhile, Honda says it’s not joining in the feeding frenzy.  There’s more going on, so click past the jump!

If the incentives from its competitors isn’t bad enough, Toyota has to contend with a House committee hearing next Thursday, Consumer Reports has put a hold on its “recommended” status for the recalled Toyota models, and rental fleets across the country have stopped renting Toyotas.

This all spells bad news for Toyota, and their stock price has taken a 16.7% hit this week, so says Automotive News.  Toyota fired back to the Associated Press with this statement:

“Our highest priority is to fix the accelerator pedal problems for our existing customers, and our pedal supplier is starting to ship newly designed pedals to dealers to meet the most immediate needs. One of the main reasons we are stopping production next week is to make more of the new pedals available to dealers right away. But at the same time, we are continuing to test effective pedal modifications for existing vehicles on the road that will be available to our customers quickly. We expect to announce a comprehensive remedy program for all affected customers and new vehicles soon.”

by John Suit

Source: Automotive News, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News via AutoBlog