European governments are giving price discounts directly to buyers of new cars, hoping to stimulate sales for troubled automakers, fuel national economies and replace older, more-polluting cars, according to USA Today.

The explosion of simultaneous plans has astonished analysts.

"Europe seems to be going quite mad, launching schemes to help," says Nigel Griffiths, chief auto economist in consultant IHS Global Insight's London office. "Very good job; very fast. All done independently in the past six or seven weeks."

IHS says the sweeteners will "put a floor under the European market" some 500,000 car sales higher than without the discounts, for an estimated 11.7 million instead of 11.2 million this year in Western Europe.