Blackwood�s $10,000 Rebate Paces �Buyers� Market� - Ford Forums

Stacy94PGT · 11-20-2002, 07:57

by Mac Gordon/TCC 11-20-02

Automakers are throwing more incentive money on the hood to help dealers attract customers in the highly competitive holiday market. The year-old zero-percent loan offers by factory finance arms have spread to nearly all brands. Payment holidays (no loan payments for 3 to 12 months) are proving increasingly popular. And iInducements have reached record levels on some discontinued models � namely, the�02 Lincoln Blackwood, which offers nearly $10,000 off as a dealer sales incentive.

The florid black-only Blackwood was cut from the lineup by Ford after only 3600 units had been built. Ford had planned to sell 10,000 Blackwoods a year, but the truck lacked four-wheel-drive and offered less bed space than most pickups. Lincoln dealers are adding a few thousand dollars to the $40,000-ish price it commands with the wholesale spiff, and several are offering a �free� $17,000 Mercury Cougar (also on Ford�s dropout list) with a Blackwood purchase at its full MSRP of $53,000.

Other has-beens sharing the high incentive list with Blackwood are the Lincoln Continental, at $7,500; Jaguar�s XJR, at $9,000; Cadillac�s Eldorado, $6,754; the Chevrolet Camaro, $2,942; and the entire Oldsmobile lineup (Silhouette, $6,500; Alero, Aurora, Bravada, Intrigue, each $5,000).

Cheaper leases are slowly beginning to return as well. Saturn offers a no down payment lease on its mid-size L-Series for payments of $209 over 39 months.

�It�s a heckuva buyers� market,� says NADA Chairman H. Carter Myers, a multi-brand dealer in Charlottesville, Va. �I can�t remember seeing a Blackwood discount like this one, well over $10,000. Every day brings more players into the picture, raising rebates, cutting lease payments, no pay for up to a year. It�s a great time to buy.�