SANTA MONICA, Calif. -

Automakers have significantly pulled back on incentive spending, which dropped to a six-and-a-half-year low in April, according to Edmunds.com.

This trend bodes well for the industry, as it likely means consumers are hungry to buy and don’t need incentives to push them along, the firm emphasized.

Specifically, Edmunds found that the True Cost of Incentives hit $2,071 per vehicle last month.  Average incentive spending hasn’t been this low since October 2005, when automakers put an average of $1,962 per vehicle toward incentives.

April’s TCI marked a 1.8-percent year-over-year decrease and a 2.2-percent month-over-month dip.

“This is the clearest indication yet that consumer motivation is high and that automakers feel little pressure to rely on incentives in order to keep sales churning,” said Edmunds senior analyst Jessica Caldwell. “We’ll likely see incentives linger at these low levels until auto sales ease off the torrid pace we’ve seen so far in 2012.”

Among the six major automakers included in Edmunds’ analysis, the one whose change in incentive spending the firm found most notable was Nissan. The Japanese automakers spent $2,136 per vehicle.

While this was up 16.3 percent from April 2011, it represented a 13-percent drop from March and the most dramatic month-over-month change.

Ford was close behind with a 12.6-percent sequential decrease in incentive spending, putting $2,360 toward each vehicle. This was a 0.8-percent year-over-year rise for Ford.

The rest of the group increased incentive spending from March.

On a year-over-year basis, Honda decreased incentives by 40.9 percent, as its TCI was $992. Toyota was the only other OEM among the six to drop from April 2011, as its TCI fell 19.8 percent to $1,388.

General Motors spent $3,446 per vehicle, up 5.8 percent from March and 14.3 percent from April 2011. Chrysler’s TCI was $2,495, which marked a 0.4-percent month-over-month gain and a 3.9-percent year-over-year uptick.

TrueCar Spots Month-Over-Month Downturn

Over at TrueCar.com, analysts also noticed waning incentive spending compared to March.

According to the firm’s Average Incentives Forecast, the industry spent $2,446 per vehicle on incentives during April. This is up 5.6 percent from April 2011, but down 4.7 percent from March.

"Incentives continued to decline for most automakers with the exception of Honda and Toyota as both are vying for recapturing their lost market share from last year,” stated Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends and insights for TrueCar. “Ford is now spending less on incentives as a percentage of their average transaction price then Honda.”

TrueCar shared incentive spending estimates for eight major OEMs. As Toprak mentioned, six of the eight automakers in its forecast trimmed incentives from March.

Believed to have shown the biggest month-over-month dip was Nissan (down 10.7 percent), whose average incentives were estimated at $2,723. Following close behind was Ford (down 9.9 percent at $3,071).

Year-over-year, six of the eight OEMs increased incentive spending.

The only two TrueCar found to have shown decreases were Hyundai/Kia (down 4.4 percent at $1,223) and Toyota (down 2.9 percent at $1,823).

Sharing the rest of its estimates, Chrysler’s incentive spend was at $3,071 in April (up 10.3 percent year-over-year; down 6.1 percent month-over-month). GM spent $3,156 per vehicle (up 2.9 percent year-over-year; down 3.4 percent month-over-month) and Honda spent $2,398 (up 10.5 percent from April 2011 and up 8 percent from March).

Volkswagen was projected to have spent $2,277, which was up 25.2 percent from a year ago and down 6.1 percent from March.