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.

Click through for the list.

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Things are shaping out pretty well for Korean automaker Hyundai. After introducing its first engine about seventeen years ago, Hyundai now makes a variety of 4-clyinders, 6-cylinders, all the up to the Tau V8 that it will offer as an option on new Hyundai Genesis sedan.

Until 1991, Hyundai relied on Mitsubishi for engine technology, now, according to Dr. Hyun-Soon Lee, President of the R&D and Corporate Product Planning of Hyundai-Kia Motors, the automaker can build anything it wants.

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While Ford and GM are drifting away from the minivan market, Hyundai is introducing a minivan for big families, small businesses and ‘anyone with lots of friends,’ for under £20,000 (around $39,000). Meet the Hyundai i800 which unlike most MPVs that only have room for seven-passengers, can comfortable fit eight.

Power comes from a 2.5 liter turbodiesel that produces 170-hp. The rear-wheel-drive minivan averages a fuel-economy of 28mpg and can do a range of 560 miles between fill-ups.

As with all Hyundai cars, the i800 will be covered by a five year, manufacturer backed, unlimited mileage warranty. Uh huh, can we get one here on the stateside as well?

Click through for more images and the press release.

Hyundai i800:

   

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Ever since Hyundai started teasing us with the Hyundai Genesis sedan, it was thought that Hyundai would pull a Toyota/Lexus move and offer the Genesis nameplate as its luxury division. Hyundai even admitted at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, during the U.S. premiere of the Genesis sedan, that it was testing the market by unveiling two Genesis Sedans, one with the Hyundai logo and one without.

With the sedan hitting the market later this summer followed by the Genesis Coupe later next year, the Genesis could be launched as a Lexus like brand. According to MotorTrend, the decision to make the move on a premium brand could be three to fours years away.

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This is the kind of news that usually folks like Reuters and Automotive News report, but our friend Ray Wert from Jalopnik is out hanging out with the Koreans this week for the Hyundai Genesis launch in Korea. Here are the latest details about the upcoming Kia pickup we told you about back in March. Simply put, there won’t be one.

Dr. Dong Jin Kim, Vice Chairman and CEO of Hyundai, said that the automaker has interest in the pickup market, however high-gas prices are killing the truck market.

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The cost of owning a vehicle goes beyond the purchase price. Expenses like insurance and maintenance can add up.

But most of all, it must start life with a sticker price well below even the most affordable luxury cars. A low purchase price holds down insurance premiums, taxes and fees, financing costs, and, especially, depreciation.

That’s why the priciest car on our list of the Top 10 Least Expensive Cars to Own is the tenth ranked Honda Civic DX, which starts at just $15,010.

Click through for the list of Top Least Expensive Cars to Own.

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They said it before that they would do it and now it seems like Microsoft is ready to share its auto-technology and software with other automakers. Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group and Microsoft announced today that they will be working together to produce a Ford SYNC-like technology that uses voice commands to control personal music players and mobile phones.

Together, the two will offer a solution based on the Microsoft Auto software platform, bringing the future of in-car technology to Hyundai-Kia drivers worldwide.

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Finding out what appeals to female drivers takes more than just putting on a skirt and high heels. But that can be a start.

To find out which vehicles women prefer, we compiled two lists. One looks at luxury vehicles most driven by women, and the other ranks the overall top 10 vehicles most driven by women, regardless of whether they are luxury or non-luxury.

Click through for the list of the Top 10 Cars Driven by Women.

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In an effort to boost fuel-economy for its U.S. lineup, Hyundai will introduce a new strategy named 50/50 where 50 percent of the increase in fuel-economy will comes from vehicle structure and equipment while the rest will come from powertrain efficiency.

For 2007, Hyundai’s vehicle lineup averaged 32.4mpg while trucks averaged 25.5mpg. Under the new proposed fuel-economy regulations, the Korean automakers is required to average 37.5mpg by 2015.

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It’s not like we didn’t see this one coming. According to John Krafcik, product development vice president for Hyundai, the Tiburon will be produced until the new 2010 Hyundai Genesis Couep goes on sales next spring. That means that the 2008 Tiburon will be the last run for the two-door car. However, Krafcik says that the Genesis Coupe won’t be a replacement for the Tiburon.

“We are seriously looking at a small front-wheel-drive coupe to replace the Tiburon, but I can’t say when that will happen,” Krafcik told Automotive News.

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Hyundai will be unveiling the new facelifted 2009 Hyundai Elantra at the Beijing Auto Show that will take place later this month.

As you can see from the images, the 2009 Elantra will have a completely redesigned front end compared to the U.S. model, inspired by the i30 and Elantra Touring models. The new Elantra will also get a slightly new rear-end with a new bumper, tail lamps and a redesigned trunk.

No word on technical specs or when the new Elantra will make its way over to the stateside.

2009 Hyundai Elantra:

   

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Hyundai has no intentions to stop making headlines and turning heads at auto shows. Recently the Korean automaker surprised the industry with their new 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe, which it says will be a direct rival to the Infiniti G37 (or those that want G37 power for much cheaper).

When producing the Genesis Coupe, Hyundai had set its sights on the G37 as the benchmark. So how does it compare to the Infiniti G37? Besides the size and the looks, the Genesis Coupe is also up-to-par in the performance segment.

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We won’t be getting the 2009 Hyundai Genesis until later this summer, but the luxury sedan has already won over its home market in South Korea. The Genesis helped Hyundai reach a 12 percent increase in sales on its home turf.

Hyundai sold 495,379 vehicles in March as compared to 462,796 a year earlier.

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