All About Japan Autos

Daily Auto News

General Motors emerged from bankruptcy just last year, but that doesn’t seem to have taught it anything about empathy. The financially troubled Big Three automaker recently announced that it’s offering a variety of attractive cash-back rebates and financing incentives for Toyota owners who switch over. Now Ford has hopped on the bandwagon, too.

It appears that, when you’re the world’s largest automaker, everyone’s out to get you. All’s fair in cars and war, right?

The more profitable Big Three automaker is offering Toyota owners $1,000 trade-in cash on Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles. The offer even extends to Acura, Honda, Lexus and Scion owners. The rebates are also available to Toyota and Honda leaseholders with contracts expiring by June 30.

Edmunds Inside Line says Ford “has not specified when this incentive program will end,” though Business Week reports the program will run through March 1. GM’s program also runs through the end of February.

So who’s next to kick Toyota when it’s down? According to Business Week, it won’t be Honda, Nissan or Hyundai. They report that spokespeople for Toyota’s overseas brethren have confirmed they will not be introducing similar incentives.

We have to hand it to the brands for sticking together. They’ve shown a form of decency that isn’t often seen in the cutthroat auto industry.

But then again, maybe it has nothing to do with decency. Maybe they just don’t need the money as badly.

Which begs the question: When is Chrysler going to throw its hat in the ring?

If you’re in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year’s best cars as well as this month’s best car deals.