Who Has the Best Car Deals for March?

March 15, 2010

chevrolet deals The best new-car deals come from manufacturers who are offering the highest incentives, which could be a combination of direct factory-to-customer rebates, low-interest loans, 0% APR loans, and special lease deals.

Good deals can also be created when manufacturers provide dealers with “secret” per-car factory-to-dealer cash. Even though dealers can use this money for advertising and sales promotions, much of it usually ends up back in customers’ pockets as price discounts.

For March 2010, we have identified where you can find the best deals:

Ford is leading the pack for March with excellent rebates and 0% APR loans on nearly every 2010 model in it’s line. With Ford’s rapidly growing reputation for quality products, good styling, and great reliability, it’s hard to go wrong.

Chrysler is not far behind Ford, at least in terms of incentives. Rebates, on average, are a bit smaller, but 0% APR loans are available on nearly every model.

General Motors has very attractive rebates on all 2010 makes/models (except Cadillac) but fewer 0% APR loans, although very low interest rates are available on models that do not offer 0%. However, if you are interested in picking up a leftover 2009 model, you can get some incredible deals — rebates as high as $4000 ($6000 on Hummer H3 and H3T), and 0% APR on nearly every model.

Nissan is next, offering very good rebates, as high as $5000, on most 2010 models, and even higher rebates on some leftover 2009 models. Alternatively, Nissan is also offering 0% loan rates on nearly every 2010 model, as well as on 2009 models.

Hyundai/Kia comes next with some decent rebates in the $1000-$2500 range, depending on model and low interest loans (a few zero percent). However, rebates become higher ($1500 – $5000) for certain 2009 models.

Mitsubishi is offering, for March, some modest rebates on every 2010 model except the Lancer Evolution, higher rebates on 2009 models, and 0% APR loan rates on nearly all models, 2010 and 2009.

Toyota, at this time, is offering limited rebates and 0% loans on most models. We expect to see more from Toyota later, possibly as late as next month.

Other manufacturers, such as Acura, BMW, Honda, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Infiniti, Mercedes, Subaru, Volkswagen, and Volvo, are offering only selected low-interest loan rates.

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