As gas prices hit an all time high with oil now hitting $126 a barrel, automakers are having a hard time moving cars out of the showrooms. With sales down 2.5% last year to 16.1 million cars sold, automakers are now offering incentives that have never been seen before by the industry.

Chrysler recently announced that it will offer buyers of new Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge customers a gas card to immediately lower their gas price to $2.99 a gallon.

To keep from sales to go down further and to save new vehicles from premature death, automakers are offering incentives on cars considered by auto experts as reliable and of good quality.

So if you’re one of the few in the market for a new car, be sure to check out Forbes list of Top 11 America’s Best New Car Incentives.

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In the beginning of April we saw a leaked image of the 2010 Ford Taurus that somehow got out the design studio in Dearborn. While we have no idea what’s going to reside under the hood of the 2010 Taurus lineup, there has been talk on the web that Ford is considering bringing back the SHO when the 2010 model hits showrooms.

Ford recently put together a focus group in Chicago where it invited previous Taurus SHO owners to talk about the 2010 Ford Taurus and a possible SHO version. So what happened at this ‘focus group’ meeting? According to a visitor who writes over at V8SHO, Ford decided not to show any concept, sketches or teasers of the 2010 Taurus. Instead they had a Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and a Chevrolet Impala on hand.

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Check out this awesome muscle car face-off by InisdeLine including the new 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 and the 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt.

Refresher:

Dodge Challenger SRT8: Power comes from a 6.1 liter HEMI V8 engine producing 425 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque. Pricing starts at $37,995.
Ford Mustang Bullitt: Power comes from a 4.6 liter V8 engine that produces 315 horsepower and 325 lb-ft. of torque. Pricing starts at $31,075 with a limited production of 7,700 units.

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Bill Ford Jr, FoMoCo Executive Chairman gave a huge shout-out to CEO Alan Mulally and his efforts in restructuring and resurrecting the struggling Dearborn automaker.

“Alan Mulally has done a fantastic job, and you’ve seen the results every quarter,” he said. “He’s done it quicker than I thought he would.”

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FoMoCo says it plans to double the use of more fuel-efficient 6-speed automatic transmissions by the end of next year, The company is looking to get the transmission in 98 percent of North American vehicles by 2012. Ford’s Sterling Heights transmission plant will produce 1.3 million 6F35 transmissions a year.

According to Ford, the 6-speed automatic transmission return 4 to 6 percent better fuel economy than the 4 or 5-speed automatics. In 2009 Ford plans on fitting its 6F35 six-speed transmission in the 2009 model year of the Ford Escape, Mercury Mariner and the 2009 Mazda Tribute. Currently, all are offered with a four-speed automatic.

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FoMoCo and the General said today that they have no plans to match or compete with Chrysler’s offer to cap the cost of gas for its new Chrysler cars, pickups and SUV buyers.

Chrysler announced yesterday that it will offer a gas card to buyers of new and unused Chrysler models to immediately lower their gas price to $2.99 a gallon.

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While we still don’t and probably won’t get it on the stateside, Ford has added a premium sport edition for its flagship Mondeo. The Ford Mondeo Titanium X Sport is visiually enhanced, packed with standard equipment and is powered by a new premium diesel or 5-cylinder petrol engines.

Feeding to the demand of a top end version of the Mondea, the Titanium X Sport Mondeo comes with 18-inch alloy wheels, twin chromed exhaust tailpipes, body-colored side skirts and a sporty interior with red stitching on leather/alcantara seats. The aluminium trim is replaced with stylish piano black inlays.

Buyer can choose from two powerful and efficient powertrains including a 2.5 liter turbocharged 5-cylinder engine producing 216-hp or a 2.2 liter TDCi diesel engine producing 175-hp. 0-62 for the 2.2 liter TDCi comes in 8.4 seconds with a fuel-economy of 38mpg.

Standard equipment includes in-dash Sony six CD player, voice control, rain sensing wipers, automatic headlights, front and rear park assist, dual-zone climate control and Ford Power start button. Prices start at £23,355 (5 door) and £26,605 (estate).

Ford Mondeo Titanium X Sport:

   

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Ford just announced pricing of the new 2008 Ford Shelby GT500KR which arrives in showrooms at the end of this month. Starting at $79,995 Ford will offer 1,000 units for the 2008 year run and an additional 746 for 2009.

Refresher: Power comes from a  5.4L supercharged V8 540-hp and 510 lb-ft of torque. The engine is mated to a 6-speed manual transmission with 3.73:1 rear axle ratio.

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2008 Ford Shelby GT500KR:

   

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German tuner Geiger Cars is well known for tuning imported American cars. Based out of Munich, the company recently now imported the giant F650 to give it their touch.

Measuring 21.3 feet in length and weighing 5.2 tons, the Ford F650’s 6.7 liter engine produces 320-hp that will hardly do anything performance wise. Knowing that, Geiger Cars was more interested in torque to increase the main function of the truck, which is to simply haul cargo and drive through any terrain possible. Geiger engineers gave the massive F650 a peak torque of 737.6 lb-ft, which compares to the likes of the Mercedes-Benz 65 AMG and Audi’s V12 TDI engines.

Mated to a 6-speed automatic gearbox this giant will run you some 99,000 euro (that’s close to $153,000). And if you want to throw some more money away, you can customize the F650 with gullwing doors, a leather interior and a navigation entertainment systems. Of course we’re not even going to think about the fuel-economy of this thing.

Geiger Cars Ford F650:

   

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In response to Jerry York’s recent comments that implied that FoMoCo may drop Volvo from its portfolio, Volvo’s Chairman Lewis Booth said today that the brand is not for sale.

“We’re focused on improving the business,” Volvo Chairman Lewis Booth told Automotive News Europe.

Booth said that Volvo’s product program is in good shape, however the company was recently hurt by rising raw material costs and the strength of the euro against the weak dollar. Volvo reported a pretax loss of $151 million in the first quarter of 2008, compared with a profit of $94 million during the same quarter last year.

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In an attempt to piss you off and make you jealous this lovely Friday afternoon, we are bringing you brand spankin’ new images of the Ford Kuga. Why would you be pissed off? Well, there is no word yet whether the Ford Kuga will ever make its way to the stateside. You may express your anger in the comments section below and let Ford know that you’ll take this over the Ford Escape any day.

Refresher: Power comes from a 2.0 liter Duratorq TDCi which produces 136 horsepower and 236 lb-ft of torque. The engine is mated with a six-speed manual transmission. The FWD system allows for a fuel-economy of 37mpg while the AWD allows 36mpg.

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Ford Kuga (UK):

   

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Celebrating Carroll Shelby’s 85th birthday, Shelby will reproduce the three 1966 Shelby American GT40 race cars that won a number of titles in American automotive racing history. The new GT40’s chassis is almost an exact replica of the original race car besides the use of the electro-galvanized sheet steel in the construction.

The Shelby 85 Commemorative GT40 is built to accommodate only Shelby branded engines and the top of the line engine includes the Shelby 427FE V8.

Available in three colors including Arcadian Blue, Black with Sold Silver and Red with Solid White, Shelby will only 85 units of each color. The standard Shelby 85th Commemorative GT40 is as close to a race car as one can get to driving on the street. However a race version is also available that comes with roll bar, fuel cell and A/C delete.

Shelby 85th Commemorative GT40:

   

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Ford first offered the SYNC system on the 2008 Ford Focus followed by the Ford Edge, Taurus, and the Lincoln MKX and Lincoln MKZ. After much demand from customers and dealers Ford announced today that it is offering a dealer-installed SYNC accessory kit that allows select 2008 Navigator and Navigator L customers to enjoy Microsoft-powered system.

Customers that own a 2008 Lincoln Navigator or Navigator L equipped with the Elite Package can get the SYNC accessory kit installed for under $550. And if you care to know, installation time is under 2 hours.

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