DETROIT -- General Motors, which has typically used big discounts to drum up sales, on Monday said it was cutting sticker prices and boosting features on many of its 2006 model-year vehicles in a new twist in Detroit's long-running price war.

GM's new "Total Value Promise" strategy is aimed at weaning car buyers away from big rebates by offering prices that are closer to final transaction prices and highlighting the value and quality of its vehicles.

The world's largest automaker, however, said it will continue to use incentives, albeit in a targeted way, to boost sales because of the "intensively competitive automotive market."

Deep discounting and high costs contributed to a $2.5 billion loss in GM's North American automotive operations in the first half of the year.

The new promotion, which replaces GM's popular "Employee Discount for Everyone" program, reduces sticker prices on vehicles by a range of few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars.

For example, the price of GM's best-selling Silverado Crew cab pickup truck has been cut by $3,055.

Crosstown rival Ford Motor Co. on Monday also slashed sticker prices on some 2006 model-year Ford and Lincoln-Mercury vehicles, including its Explorer sport utility vehicle.

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GM said Monday it is changing the prices of 30 of its 76 models and is adding features to other models to make them more competitive. Under the new pricing strategy, the base price of the Chevrolet Malibu is $17,990, or $1,835 below the 2005 model, while the base price of the Saturn Ion sedan is $12,490, or $2,455 lower than the 2005 model.

Other vehicles will have new standard features. For example, Buick is adding a four-year, 50,000-mile warranty, parking assist alerts and a theft-deterrent system to the Rendezvous sport utility vehicle without raising the base price of $27,465.

According to Autodata Corp., GM spent an average of $4,458 per vehicle on incentives in June, higher than any other automaker. With its 2006 models, the world's largest automaker hopes to wean customers away from incentives in favor of lower prices.

GM has said customers researching vehicles on the Internet have found it difficult to see what price they would pay for a vehicle, since incentive deals weren't included in the base price. The new strategy should help alleviate that problem, GM said.

"It's real simple. Americans love a great value and know it when they see it," said Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president of North American sales and marketing.

Some analysts have questioned whether GM's strategy will be successful, saying the company has conditioned customers to expect incentives ever since introducing zero-percent financing plans in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

GM shares were down 7 cents to $36.75 in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Ford shares were up 6 cents to $10.80 and DaimlerChrysler shares were up 85 cents to $49.27.