Ford Truck Rebates

Companies making major comeback

What a difference a couple of years can make.

In late 2008, Chrysler and General Motors were in free fall, with bankruptcy being a given, and their istence being a very real question.

Losses in the billions, often questionable build quality, and products that weren't up to the standards being set by Japanese and Korean makes, and more and more, Ford. Both companies were basket cases.

2009 and 2010 saw massive changes with both companies. Government loans and equity stakes, union concessions, and in the case of Chrysler, the purchase of a major stake by Italian car maker FIAT saw both companies turn around to the point where they have both returned to profitability and are currently paying back government loans.

While the pain experienced by employees and dealer affiliates has been extreme in cases (notably in this area Belleville's Bob Clute Pontiac Buick, which lost the right to sell new GM product), it is nice to see that there seems to be a real light at the end of the tunnel -- and not another oncoming freight train.

GM dumped Swedish subsidiary Saab, canned Saturn and Hummer, and laid to rest the venerable Pontiac division. They then began releasing cars such as the Buick Regal, the Buick Lacrosse, Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain twins (fraternal...), the Chevy Cruze, and the new Cadillac CTS wagon and coupe.

They have seen their Consumer Reports scores improving, and along with the big Chev Traverse/GMC Acadia/Buick Enclave crossovers and the Chevrolet Malibu and Camaro, all released before the crisis, GM now sells a lineup of vehicles that are legitimate contenders in their classes, rather than also-rans reliant on rebates to sell.

Chrysler has in many ways seen an even more extreme makeover of the vehicles. Long criticized for poor build quality and cheap design and materials, the company held off releasing their 2011 models until the first half of calendar year 2011 -- or 6-8 months after most 2011s were released.

During that time, essentially every Chrysler vehicle had an exhaustive interior redo, using better quality, soft touch plastics and improved cloth to go with improved ergonomics.

The Dodge Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee were redesigned from the ground up on a platform shared with the Mercedes Benz M-class sport-ute. The Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 had extensive facelifts.

On top of these improvements, Chrysler debuted it's new "Pentastar" 3.6L V6. A world-class engine, it brings to the table both a 20-33 per cent power increase along with better fuel efficiency compared to their older V6s.

Ford Truck Rebates | Ford F150 Pickup Trucks

Why is it that you get $ 9,000 off in Atlanta and only $ 1,000 in Los Angeles on a Ford or Chevy?

My brother lives in Atlanta. I live in Los Angeles. Here if you want to buy a truck you get a discount or 1000 a number of low financing rates. In other places in America bids are almost 10 times more than good. Why? Its cheaper to buy in Atlanta and drive across the country, I think.

It looks like you compare year to year because I doubt there are all the vehicles on either side with this kind of swing incentives.

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