Incentive spending went up in March and will likely rise again as the spring moves forward; that much, at least, appears to be one consensus among some of the monthly forecasts making the rounds.

The implication and degree of that increase is where there are moderately differing viewpoints.

Starting with Cars.com, the company released an analysis released Monday where it pegged average incentive spending for March at $2,714. This  would be an 8.1-percent year-year-over lift and a 4.5-percent month-over-month hike.

“Weak first-quarter sales caused inventory levels to swell, and manufacturers have had to be more generous with their incentive spending in order to accelerate sales, as evident by the 8-percent year-over-year increase,” said Jesse Toprak, chief analyst for Cars.com.

“The good news is that consumers continue to prefer well-equipped models, which has helped keep transaction prices up despite the larger incentives,” he continued. “We expect incentive spending to continue to increase into the summer in a controlled manner — not with an all-out incentives war — and ATPs to stay mostly flat.”

Over at Kelley Blue Book, senior analyst Alec Gutierrez was predicting last week that March new-vehicle sales would begin to “bounce back” from two tough months to begin 2014, setting the stage for a stronger spring, both in terms of sales and available incentives.

 “Although we aren’t expected to hit 16 million SAAR, indications show that consumers are returning to showrooms in spring,” Gutierrez said.

“The momentum built in March should set the market up for a big month in April.  Those consumers that delayed a purchase in January and February will find a modest increase in available incentives, which should help to offset gains in average transaction prices,” he added.

Meanwhile, TrueCar’s analysis released last week called for a 7.9-percent year-over-year increase in incentive spending for March, putting the average spending per unit at about $2,773. This would be a 2.6-percent month-over-month increase.

“The spring thaw has resulted in a slight improvement in vehicle sales, but not nearly the improvement analysts hoped they would see,” said Larry Dominique, president of ALG and executive vice president of TrueCar. “With incentives rising at a rate four-times greater than sales, expect an aggressive final week of selling in March and an equally aggressive April. An incentive-fueled battle is on the horizon.”