GM, Ford Extend Employee Rricing Promotions

General Motors surprised the auto industry this week by extending by extending its popular employee discount sales program through Sept. 6. The move came Tuesday, a day after the consumer promotion was scheduled to end and a day after the Ford Motor Corp. extended its own version of the incentive pricing program.

GM reported that it delivered 530,027 cars and trucks during the month of July , up 20 percent compared to the same month last year and GM’s best sales since 1979. Truck deliveries (360,655 units) increased 34.5 percent, establishing a new record for July and posting the second-best-ever sales month, outpaced only by June 2005, which had industry-record truck deliveries. GM introduced the employee-pricing promotions in June – a move that was soon copied by automakers Ford and DaimlerChrysler.

Ford also has extended its price reduction offer until Sept. 6. The company reported a sales jump last month of 366,548 vehicles – 28.5 percent more than in July 2004. Ford also said it set a modern-era industry record for monthly car or truck sales with 126,905 F-Series pickups sold last month. The automaker believes that is higher than any monthly tally for a single model since the Ford Model T in the 1920s.

According to AdAge magazine, Ford said that it would not end its "Employee Discount" promotion this week as originally planned but will extend the price-cutting program through Labor Day.

While the GM promotion excludes medium-duty commercial vehicles, models including the GMC Sierra and Canyon remain part of the promotion. Ford's promotion includes 2005-model cars, SUVs and trucks through the F-350 and E-Series models through E-350, as well as 2006-model Escape, Expedition, SupderDuty (through F-350) and Econoline (through E-350).