New GM incentives aimed at stealing irked Toyota owners, rental firms pulling recalled models

We're honestly tired of writing about Toyota and its recall-to-end-all-recalls, but the news keeps coming so our fingers get no rest.

Just like the Honda dealer in Dallas that's apparently hoping to gain a few extra customers at Toyota's expense (above), General Motors has announced a new incentive campaign that it hopes will woo customers away from a bruised and battered Toyota still trying to contain the fallout from this latest recall. Effective today through the end of February, GM is offering three deals to any Toyota customer who wants to switch to a Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac or GMC product. The skinny:

• Lease Customers: Waiver of three payments up to $1,000
• Financing Customers: Zero percent financing for 60 months
• Cash Buyers: $1,000 purchase bonus

We're very interested to see how delicately GM handles promoting these new incentives. Will The General kick its Japanese competitor while it's down – or just land a love tap on the jaw?

Meanwhile, the recall's negative impact for Toyota has spread to some of its fleet customers. Both Avis Budget Group and Enterprise Holdings have reportedly announced they will pull thousands of Toyota models each from their fleets. Avis Budget estimates it will pull 20,000 units, while Enterprise Holdings, which manages its Enterprise, National and Alamo brands, didn't give a number, except to say that about four percent of its fleet would be affected. Both companies reiterated that the action was just a precautionary measure, but that has to be of little solace to Toyota in the midst of a barrage of negative press surrounding its unintended acceleration woes.

[Sources: Fox Business, The Detroit Free Press | Image: Edmunds TwitPic]