Incentives Are Low Compared to Last Year

Although many companies tried to take advantage of Toyota's woes with trade-in discounts for ex-Toyota owners, the overall offers had declined when one looks at figures in both December, and January a year ago.

This month could be productive, especially around the traditional President's Day Weekend sales that occur, but buyers may want to be mindful that incentives have not been as forthcoming.

In fact, many automakers are increasing their overall sales by selling to governments and rental car fleets. Unlike these groups that buy in bulk, the discounts for individual car buyers were a couple hundred dollars less than last January.

It may make more sense to wait right now if you are considering a vehicle at the upper end of your budget, or to check out a similar vehicle that is more inexpensive within the same class. If the economy heads down again this year, you can be sure automakers will be increasing incentives.