Ford is in the midst of a product renaissance that helped catapult it ahead of other U.S. automakers in sales in recent months – and helped it place vehicles in the top five positions on twelve of our best car ranking lists.  With its newfound confidence, the company has set out to steal loyalists from other brands.

Autoblog reports, “The company’s ‘Swap Your Ride’ campaign is back in full swing, and will run wide open until the end of next month. All you have to do to qualify for zero-percent financing and a $1,000 trade-in bonus is simply hand over the keys to your old set of wheels.”  Customers trading in a competitor’s product under the program qualify for the $1,000 trade-in bonus.

A few cautions are in order.  Any program using a “trade-in bonus” still relies on the dealership to estimate the value of your trade-in before applying the bonus, so shoppers should be certain a Ford dealership doesn’t low-ball the trade-in, then add the “bonus” just to bring it back to market value.  There are also some important exceptions.  The offer doesn’t extend to any Ford hybrids.  Some high-performance special editions like the Shelby GT 500 Mustang and SVT Raptor pickup are also excluded. 

The incentive campaign, FourWheelsNews notes, “will start with over a dozen TV commercials that will show owners of rival brands praising Ford cars after taking week-long test drives.” 

The Detroit Free Press explains, “Ford randomly picked 31 people who were driving competitors’ cars and trucks in Texas and California and allowed them to test-drive a Ford for a week.”  The test drivers weren’t necessarily car shopping.  “At the end of the week, TV celebrity and Ford ad pitchman Mike Rowe” interviewed the participants for commercials.

If it sounds familiar, that’s because you may have seen the same campaign before.  The UPI notes that the program mimics “a marketing campaign that began in 2007.” 

If you’re in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year’s best cars as well as this month’s best car deals.