Many auto companies are offering employing pricing or huge rebates. Some, like Chrysler, are even offering both. Shop around, because the lure of employee discounts may not necessarily equate to the best deal. This kind of generosity surely won’t last. Post restructuring and adjustment of production levels, automakers won’t need to unload inventory at the expense of profit, like they are right now. You’ll find domestic automakers offering much larger discounts than foreign at this time because they are finding it more difficult to deplete their excess inventory.

We crunched reliability and crash-test scores. We considered standard and optional safety features and looked at how easy it is to find cars with those options. Finally, we considered gas mileage along with our own qualitative impressions — things such as cabin comfort and driving enjoyment.