Ford Australia paying people $200 to buy competitor vehicles

Conversely, if you test drive a Ford then go on to purchase one, the company will give you $500 off the price of the car.

The campaign, called the Test Drive Challenge, applies to every model in Ford’s local showrooms excluding FPVs and runs between now and the end of October.

The $200 offer is available to private buyers of new competitor vehicles, while private and select fleet customers can claim the $500 on new and demonstrator Ford vehicles.

Ford will provide the $200 in the form of a prepaid Visa card after consumers provide proof of purchase of a competitor vehicle.

Ford Australia has kicked off the campaign with an advertisement featuring the top-selling Toyota HiLux ute and the Blue Oval’s rival, the Australian-designed and -engineered Ranger.

Ford is not the first brand to pay new car shoppers for buying rival vehicles. In 2010, Suzuki Australia ran the almost identically named Kizashi Test Drive Challenge campaign. Like Ford, the Japanese brand gave $200 to people who took a Kizashi for a test drive but went on to purchase a rival mid-size model, such as a Ford Mondeo, Mazda 6 or Toyota Camry.

Ford was the strongest-growing brand of any inside the top 10 in August, with sales up 11.0 per cent to 6908 in a market down 5.5 per cent overall. The company is down 3.7 per cent year to date, however, hanging onto fifth position with 57,459 sales.