NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The three major U.S. automakers reported lower domestic March sales Tuesday as they hiked incentives in a move to spur lagging sales.

Auto executives said industry sales were roughly the same as in first two months of the year, with March slightly stronger than some expectations, leaving the industry on track for only a modest decline from 2002 sales for the full year. Executives of industry leader General Motors Corp. and No. 2 Ford Motor Co. both said they didn't see any noticeable decline in sales after the fighting in Iraq began March 19 compared with the first part of the month.

"Some of the feedback we got was there was less traffic, but people who were there were people there buying cars and trucks," said George Pipas, Ford's manager of sales analysis.

"Frankly, you almost would have wondered if there was conflict going on," he told analysts and journalists. "Some of feedback we got was there was less traffic but the people who were there were people there buying cars and trucks."

General Motors Corp. reported sales were off 3 percent to 387,786 units. Sales of cars fell 5.3 percent, while light trucks, which include sport/utility vehicles, pickups and vans, slipped 1.7 percent.

Earlier Tuesday, GM kicked off a zero-interest financing offer for up to five years, or $2,000 to $3,000 cash back to buyers on virtually all its vehicles. GM executives acknowledged they were doing so due to weakening consumer confidence.

Chrysler Group, the U.S.-based unit of DaimlerChrysler, quickly matched the financing offer for most of its vehicles. It reported a 3 percent decline in its daily sales rate to a total 201,941 for the month. Light trucks increases slightly in daily sales rate due to one fewer selling day, even though the number of light trucks sold slipped by about 2,000 to 157,071. The daily sales rate for cars fall 20 percent

Ford Motor Co. sales fell about 8 percent March to 302,463. The decline at the No. 2 automaker was spread fairly evenly between cars and light trucks. All its makes except Volvo and Land Rover posted year-to-year declines. The drop came after year-to-year gains for Ford in January and February and left its first quarter sales off 2 percent.

Ford had yet to announce its response to GM's and Chrysler's incentive offers, but Pipas said its new offer would be out later Tuesday, and that he expected the offers across the industry would spur a very strong sales month, giving it an annual rate up to 12 percent greater than seen in March.

"Think we'll see a sea change in sales," Pipas said. "I don't think we'll see a sea change in the economy. There is nothing like a simple compelling offer."

Pipas said Ford saw almost no fall off in sales when fighting in Iraq began March 19, compared with the first two-thirds of the sales month.

Shares ofGeneral Motors (GM: up $0.23 to $33.85, Research, Estimates) were slightly higher Tuesday afternoon while Ford (F: unchanged at $7.52, Research, Estimates) and DaimlerChrysler (DCX: Research, Estimates) slipped slightly.