Last year, through November, incentive costs, including subsidized loans, rebates and warranties, rose to $2,291 a vehicle for the Big Three, compared with $1,146 for Asian automakers, according to the AutoData Corporation, a research firm in Woodcliff Lake, N.J.
The relentless barrage of discount loans and rebates from Detroit companies is another competitive concern, and it is a game that Mr. O'Neill is loathe to play.
Still, that was above some analysts' forecasts of 16.2 million, largely because of the aggressive use of low-interest loans, cash rebates and other incentives to buyers.
Despite free loans and rebates worth several thousand dollars, G.M. and Ford are losing sales to perennial competitors like Toyota and newer rivals like Hyundai.
In August, auto companies offered substantial incentives, including interest-free loans and rebates, to clear out 2003 model year cars and trucks before new models began arriving in September.
The city plans on giving companies and individuals tax credits, government loans, and rebates if they choose to install solar panels to generate some of their power.
A handful of state and federal subsidies, loans, and rebates have also eased Colorado energy companies down the renewable path, but as energy quotas are increasingly met, industry experts fear withering public investment will lead to a broad decline in the state's appetite for more.
Hundreds of state programs exist in the form of grants, rebates, loans, loan guarantees, and tax incentives.
More to the point, it accuses China of keeping its currency at an artificially low level, and of other dirty tricks such as "state subsidies and the proliferation of non-performing loans and rebate schemes".
If Congress had kept a proposal to deduct interest on car loans, the rebate would have been worth $1,250 per car, and boosted U.S. car sales by 359,000 vehicles, nearly a factory-and-a-half's worth of production.
