Market forces drive most pricing. Right now, there is great demand. When demand degradation sets in, prices will soften and incentives may make a return. It's like the price of gasoline and diesel. When everybody cut back on driving, prices began to drop. Part of that though was all the oil producers were holding back their production for a better price. When the price dropped, people began to drive more and the price is starting to inch up.Several of my cousins work in the oil fields and one in a refinery so I'm hearing that when oil prices got soft, the tanks got emptied.
The market in general is beginning to soften. In addition, manufacturers are starting to look to the future. The drive to luxoboats has a lot of vehicles sitting for lack of parts. Ford for instance has filled the parking lots at the Louisville speedway with partially finished F series trucks. One part they can't get enough of is the blue oval grill emblem. This is one reason why Ford, as well as GM, are looking to source parts onshore.
The future market is also a factor. I know this is a GM forum but I don't have information on GM's plans. Ford though is adopting a 3 tiered sales system for dealers. Top tier is the Ford E+ (I think). It will entail a Ford dealer to spend anywhere from $500,000 to $1.2 million in remodeling. They will sell the electric vehicles and will be required to install charging stations for ALL makes and models. Yes, this includes Tesla's. The prices will also be LOCKED into what the dealer advertises. No bumping it up to make a few extra bucks when the customer is standing there.
Next will be the Blue Oval dealers. Basically, the dealer as it sits today. Then there will be the dealer who many deals in commercial vehicles. I wouldn't be surprised to see GM do something similar down the road.
Dealers jacking the prices up have been the bane of manufacturers in the lasy couple of years. I have a Mazda CX-5 and when it was in for service, I wandered around the lot. Their one new car at that time had a $4000 market adjustment. The next time I was in, there were FOUR new cars. Along with 10 or so used ones. None of the new cars had market adjustments. Evidently Mazda didn't want to alienate future buyers.