Late December is an excellent time to be out trying to deal on a new vehicle. Traffic is low at dealers as shoppers' priorities shift to gifting, and sales managers have their eyes on final annual numbers. There are often unpublished incentives offered by manufacturers and finance companies. You may not be able to uncover exactly what the incentives are, but you may find aggressive bargaining rewarding at this time of year. Play your local dealers against each other, and by all means make use of their internet sales departments. Internet sales managers are often authorized to get much more quickly to the bottom line than floor salespeople are.

As part of an end-of-year sales drive, Ford announced a $1000 cash-back incentive on 12 models, including the Mustang and Explorer. The cash can be used on top of other existing incentives. Get the details directly from Ford here.

General Motors announced today that 0% financing will be available on Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac and GMC models during a special promotion available from Thursday, June 29 through Wednesday, July 5. There are no plans to bring back the employee pricing program, which was popular last year.

Details and Exceptions:

0% financing for up to 72 months on all Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac and GMC models except for the Chevrolet Corvette, Hummer H1, medium-duty trucks, and the Pontiac Solstice and the G6 convertible.

0% financing for up to 60 months on 2006 Cadillac, Saab, and Hummer models and some 2007 sport utility vehicles, including the Chevrolet Tahoe, Suburban and Avalanche and the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL.

Reuters and Automotive News are reporting that Chrysler Group, a division of DaimlerChrysler AG, will be offering a new series of discounts in July. Automotive News quoted several sources stating that the prorgram would involve employee pricing on a number of models, although that was not confirmed by Chrysler.

Chrysler has been trying to increase traffic to dealerships and sales throughout the year, including a 0% financing program in May.

Luxury shoppers may not find the same deals at Chrysler's sister Mercedes-Benz brand. DaimlerChrysler reported record May sales for MB USA.

Sources:

Bankrate.com reports that auto loan rates for three to five year terms all average more than 8% this week. They do say that auto financing rates have not increased as much as other types of debt as interest rates have risen. See their full report at

Bankrate's Auto Finance Report

Shop around as much as you can for financing specials provided my manufacturers as incentives, and also consider other sources such as credit unions who may offer lower rates.

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