ROCHESTER, NY and IRVINE, CA – AutoVIBES, a monthly automotive study from Harris Interactive and Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research tracking consumer automotive buying intentions, revealed that car buyers say the purchase of their next vehicle is still heavily dependant on rebates and incentives. Nearly half of U.S. adults in the market to buy or lease a new car within during 2005 say that they are not likely to purchase a new car in the absence of incentives, rebates, or special financing. This measure had fallen to 44 percent in October, which was the lowest it had been all year, but crept back up to record levels in November and December.

“Automakers have been talking about reducing and even eliminating incentives in the new year, but with continued consumer dependency on them, there will have to be a staunch effort among all of the manufacturers for that to happen,” said Charlie Vogelheim, then-executive editor at Kelley Blue Book. “Incentives are a great tool for moving slow-selling vehicles and it affords manufacturers pricing elasticity. When it comes to incentives, we expect ‘status quo’ in 2005.”