They’ve been doing it for 60 years and their opinions are well respected in the industry, and by automotive buyers.

Some of the categories that Motor Trend uses in making it’s decisions are: engineering excellence, design advancement, interior, performance, ease of use, efficiency, safety, and value. They thoroughly test the vehicles, measure everything that can be measured, and compare each vehicle to other vehicles in the same category.

This year, there were 23 cars contending for the title, including Toyota Prius, Volkswagen Golf, Subaru Legacy, Porsche Panamera, Hyundai Genesis, Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, Buick LaCrosse, BMW Z4, Volkswagen Routan, Suzuki Kizashi, Nissan Cube, Nissan 370Z, Mazda3, Mercedes-Benz E, Lexus HS 250h,Kia Soul, Kia Forte, Honda Insight, Ford Taurus, and BMW 7 Series.

To those car buyers who are less technical or not especially interested in details,  and want to get to the bottom line quickly, the winner of the 2010 Motor Trend Car of the Year is …….(drum roll)…….. the 2010 Ford Fusion. You can read more details in the January issue of the magazine.

One of the most important factors that helped decide the Ford Fusion‘s win was value — what you get compared to what you have to pay. With the Ford Fusion, you get a lot of car, a lot of performance, a lot of quality, a lot of safety for the money you spend — more than almost any other car.

So, what the Motor Trend people are saying is that even if you paid full MSRP (sticker price), you were getting great value.

But you can pay less because Ford has some outstanding promotional incentives on the Fusion right now.

For a 2010 Ford Fusion, the Ford Motor Company is currently offering $1000 customer cash rebate, plus another $1000 bonus cash that can be combined with a 0% APR loan offer (36 months) or 4.9% for 48 months, or 5.9% for 60 months. There are additional bonuses available for military/police members or college students.

Also remember that you should negotiate additional dealer price discounts on top of the manufacturer-provided rebates and bonuses. In this way, you should be able to get at least $3000 off the MSRP of the car, which is an outstanding deal on this award-winning vehicle.

You can get free price quotes on the 2010 Ford Fusion from Edmunds.com.The quotes will automatically include any cash-back rebates, bonuses, and discounts that are currently available.

Chrysler

The new Chrysler incentives are in the form of direct factory-to-customer rebates, zero-percent loans, low-interest loans, and “hidden” factory-to-dealer rebates that are usually applied as price discounts.

The Chrysler company has announced no special lease deals because it is no longer directly offering car leases. However, Chrysler dealers now use GMAC for lease financing and GMAC is offering lease deals. Furthermore, Chrysler is offering several cash bonuses on some models to customers who choose to lease. So if you are thinking about leasing, ask your dealer about the GMAC deals and bonuses. Also visit our sister web site, LeaseGuide.com, for important tips and advice about car leasing. 

Here are some examples of current Chrysler deals for December:

2010 Chrysler 300 – $3000 customer rebate or 0% APR loan for 36/48/60 months, 1.9% for 72 months

2009 Chrysler 300 – $4000 rebarte or 0% APR loan for 36/48/60/72 months

2010 Chrysler PT Cruiser – $2000 rebate or 0% interest loan for 36/48 months, 1.9% for 60 months, 3.9% for 72 months — plus $1000 factory-to-dealer cash

2009 Chrysler PT Cruiser – $3000 factory-to-dealer cash

2008 Chrysler Pacifica – Note this is a leftover 2008 model – $5000 factory-to-dealer cash

2010 Chrysler Sebring – $2000 rabate or 0% APR loan for 36/48 months, 1.9% for 60 months

2009 Chrysler Sebring – $3000 factory-to-dealer cash

2010 Chrysler Town and Country – $1500 rebate or 0% APR loan rate for 36/48 months, 2.9% for 60 months — plus $1500 bonus cash to customers who lease

You can get free dealer price quotes on any of the above Chrysler cars from Edmunds.com. The quotes will automatically include any cash-back rebates or discounts that are currently available.

BMW

Overall the BMW deals are very good, especially on the 2009 models. However, in most cases, the new 2010 models also get good incentives, just not quite as good as the 2009s.

As usual, BMW’s incentives are a bit unusual with some odd variations. Although the company doesn’t often (hardly ever) offer direct factory-to-customer rebates, they are doing it in this round of incentives. The rebates are called “Holiday Credit Cash” and are either $1500 or $2500, depending on the model. Furthermore, most but not all models get the special rebate. In order to qualify for the rebate, the vehicle must be financed or leased through BMW Financial Services.

Most models, including 2010 models, also get low-interest loan deals, which can be combined with the “Holiday Credit Cash.” Although there are some very low interest rates being offered, all for 24/60 months, there are no 0% loan deals in this incentive program from BMW. The best rates are, of course, on 2009 models. Rates range from 0.9% APR (2009 6-Series and M6), 1.9% ( 2009 Z4 and some 7-Series), 2.9% (2009 M3 and X3), 3.9% (2009 3-Series, 2009 and 2010 5-Series, 2010 X3, 2010 Z4), to 4.9% (2010 3-Series, 2010 6-Series, 2010 7-Series, 2009 and 2010 X5, 2009 and 2010 X6).

For a few select models, BMW is providing dealers with factory-to-dealer cash with which the dealer can discount prices on those models, although in some cases the discounts can be restricted, for example, by not being allowed if the customer also wants the special loan interest rate also being offered. This is true for the $2500 dealer cash on the 2009 3-Series and M3. However, the 6-Series and M6 get a whopping $6000 dealer cash deal that can be combined with a very nice 0.9% APR loan rate for either 24 or 60 months.

Overall, these deals are well worth considering if you are in the market for a BMW. In fact, these are some of the best deals we’ve seen from the company this year.

You can get free dealer price quotes on any BMW vehicles from Edmunds.com. The quotes will automatically include any cash-back rebates or discounts that are currently available.