- Steve Miller

The Dodge Ram pickup might as well be in the discount bin next to the Billy Joel cassettes and copies of Mac OS9 for Dummies. Chrysler is offering up to 40% off for select 2008 models as part of its latest incentive program for dealers.

From trucks to sedans, other Chrysler vehicles will come with desirable incentives as well. The price savings will be promoted in the new "Shop 'til You Drive" campaign breaking this weekend.

The new incentives, which are the highest in the industry, per car-buying auto site Edmunds.com, are aimed at pulling in buyers who had hoped to lease a Chrysler.

This week, Chrysler announced it is no longer leasing vehicles.

August is typically a strong month for dealer association advertising as automakers try to sell down their inventory to prepare for the next model year. However, the company this week announced that it was no longer financially feasible to lease vehicles because of the drop in resale values of pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles. The vehicles are usually turned back to the company after a lease, and rising fuel prices have made the vehicles difficult to resell. Ford and GM are also cutting back on lease programs.

"We are trying to save the people who have liked to lease," said Chrysler rep Stuart Schorr of the deep discounts for new cars and trucks. "We are packaging a couple of different things, including cash back and discounted finance rates, and together, if you finance a new truck the payments are lower than last month and lower than if you leased it."

The fire sale comes a month before the new Dodge Ram is scheduled to begin shipping to dealers, who are already facing a large inventory of trucks and SUVs.

"Inventories have been building over the past few months, but I don't think we've ever seen anything quite as dramatic as this kind of incentive, at 40%," said Jessica Caldwell, analyst at Edmunds.com. She noted that Ford pushed back by two months the shipping of its retooled full-sized pickup, the F-150, because of a large inventory already on lots.

Still, while the truck and SUV segment has suffered greatly because of fuel prices, "Chrysler has been the most aggressive with its incentives" due to the higher number of large vehicles in its fleet, said Caldwell.

The new "Shop 'til You Drive" advertising, via BBDO, Detroit, will run on TV, online and in regional print publications. The media buys will be handled mostly by regional dealer associations.

Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep combined to spend $1.24 billion on ads last year (not including online), per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.