You’ve seen the headlines: automakers on the brink, sales slowing to a crawl, credit tighter than ever. Yet amid all of this gloom there’s a silver lining: deals of a lifetime. But to snag one, you have to learn how to navigate today’s uncharted market.

Rule No. 1: You can find a deal anywhere, and we mean anywhere

You can hardly escape the grim news surrounding the car industry: an 11th-hour federal loan package to help General Motors and Chrysler survive to the new year, frugal consumers shying away from big-ticket purchases - especially four-wheeled ones - and tighter credit making it tougher for the few willing buyers to borrow. November auto sales plunged 37% from a year earlier, according to Autodata, a sales tracking firm. Even after production cutbacks, ports are stacked high with new cars that can’t fit on dealer lots.

Where there’s an inventory glut, there’s a fire sale, and that’s great news for you. Desperate car makers are begging you to buy with extraordinary deals, from 0% loans to more than $7,000 cash back. “The level of incentives is unprecedented,” says Jack Nerad, a market analyst at car-price publisher Kelley Blue Book. “It is almost mind boggling.”

Rebates and low-interest loans are nothing new, of course. What’s different today is how large they are - and how widespread. Last summer, with gas at $4 a gallon, the incentives were limited mainly to gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks. Now you’ll find deals on small cars too.  Read the rest of this entry »