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AutoNation Inc. (AN), the nation's largest auto retailer, is pushing back against efforts by General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler LLC to prop up vehicle sales by trying to get dealers to order more cars and trucks.

Facing deep sales declines, GM and Chrysler are promising more cash and perks to those dealers that order more vehicles.

The automakers, surviving on $13.4 billion in federal loans, have until March 31 to prove their businesses are viable or risk losing the money. Part of making that case involves slowing dramatic sales slides in the U.S.

GM and Chrysler "have implemented wholesale incentive programs where they basically say to get the incentives for the inventory you want, you have to buy more inventory," AuoNation Chief Executive Officer Mike Jackson said Thursday in a conference call to discuss fourth-quarter financial results.

"I think this is the wrong thing to do," Jackson said. "We are not playing that game."

Jackson said GM and Chrysler are trying using rich incentive programs to persuade dealers to order more vehicles. Many manufacturers are pushing for more vehicle orders, he said, though GM and Chrysler are the most aggressive.

Chrysler executives this week launched a cross-country tour in which they will plead with dealers to order roughly the same number of vehicles as they did toward the end of last year despite the deepening sales slump. GM, in a meeting with dealers last week, also asked them to keep buying new vehicles.

AutoNation's fourth-quarter sales tumbled 34% as the slumping economy, growing unemployment and lack of access kept consumers out of showrooms.

The retailer is planning for a market of 10 million seasonally adjusted vehicle sales through March, a 24% reduction from last year's already-depressed levels.

"We do believe that there's the possibility of an improvement in March if credit really begins to thaw, but we are taking a wait-and-see attitude," Jackson said. "We want to see it before we'll stop at that level."

AutoNation, with 230 dealerships in 15 states, on Thursday reported net income of $67.1 million, or 38 cents a share, up from $51.7 million, or 28 cents, a year earlier. Results for the latest quarter included a net 26 cents in gains. Revenue dropped 34% to $2.74 billion.

Falling auto sales and financial woes that pushed GM and Chrysler to the brink of bankruptcy last year are weighing heavily on auto dealers.

Auto sales have slumped as the housing crisis, rising unemployment and credit crunch have damped consumers' appetites for large purchases, with 2008 industry sales hitting levels last seen in the early 1990s. This year is expected to be even worse.

AutoNation expects 2009 industry sales of about 11 million, compared with nearly 13.5 million in 2008.

-By Sharon Terlep, 248-204-5532; sharon.terlep@dowjones.com.

(John Kell and Shirleen Dorman contributed to this report.)

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