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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Yes, it’s quite an odd match-up here. However if you look closely at the specs and pricing, both coupes, the BMW 135i and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR, offer 300-hp in the mid $30,000 range.

Check out this comparison of the BMW 135 against the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR by Motor Trend. Let us know what you think in the comments section after the jump.

Refresher:

2008 BMW 135i: 3.0 liter inline 6-cylinder engine that produces 300 horsepower and a peak torque of 300 lb-ft.
2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR: 2.0 liter 4-cylinder 16-valve DOHC MIVEC engine that produces 295 horsepower and 300 ft-lbs. of torque.

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Kelley Blue Book has announced its picks for the Top 10 Coolest New Cars Under $18,000. To make the list, the editors at KBB.com thought like consumers, picking cars that they felt were safe, good in fuel-economy, interior size, comfort, technology and fun-to-drive.

Now remember just because a vehicle is listed first doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the cheapest or the coolest on the list. All cars on the list are considered cool and are under $18,000. They are just listed in alphabetical order.

All the cars on the list were chosen using Kelly Blue Book’s New Car Blue Book Value which reflects real transaction prices and provide a useful comparison to the MSRP of the car.

Let us know what you would buy in the comments section below.

Click through for press release and the list.

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Mitsubishi is finally on a comeback despite slow sales in the U.S. The company has reported a record full-year operating income for the fiscal year that ended March 31. Emerging markets in Europe, Asia and Latin America are helping Mitsubishi’s resurrection.

U.S. sales were flat at 124,000 units and what’s more is U.S. sales are expect to fall to 104,000 in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009.

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Mitsubishi has fitted the new Outlander with the option of its high-speed semi-automatic gearshift system found in the Lancer Evo X. Early next year, the Twin Clutch SST will find its way into the Mitsubishi Outlander with steering wheel-mounted paddleshifts.

Mitsubishi will expand the use of the system offering it in a 2.2 liter diesel powered Outlander. Benefits of the Twin Clutch SST include almost no power loss during shifting, better fuel consumption and lower emissions than your traditional automatic transmission.

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If you ask us, we think its both cars are from different size categories for a comparison. Nonetheless, here is the first TV review of the 2008 Mazda 6 that should be headed to the U.S. very soon.

Out of curiosity, let us know in the comments section below which car you would pick out of the two.

Click through for the video.

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You would think that the 2.0 liter 4-cylinder engine that produces 295 horsepower would be enough for the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X. But HKS felt they could do a little more with the new EVO and ended up giving it an additional 81-hp.

The HKS engine pack adds an uprated turbo, upgraded intake manifold and a modified ECU. All that gives the new Lancer EVO X a total of 376-hp and a torque of 354 lb-ft of torque.

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Mitsubishi today displayed their iMiEV electric car at the 2008 New York International Auto Show and announced plans to do fleet testing with select U.S. power companies in the fall.

Derived from the iMiEV, the iMiEV SPORT is powered by an electric motor that powers the front wheels. The car uses Mitsubishi’s S-AWC (Super All Wheel Control) to manage power and traction to all four wheels. To boost its power generation the iMiEV SPORT comes with solar panels in its roof and a generator turbine driven by the airflow passing through the front grille.

Click through for live images from the 2008 New York Auto Show and the press release.

Mitsubishi iMiEV and iMiEV Sport:

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Mitsubishi today announced a new mid-term business plan called ‘Step-Up 2010′ for the fiscal years 2008 through 2010. Target sales volume in 2010 will be 1.42 million with expect growth in markets such as Russia and Ukraine, as well as expanded sales in resource-rich areas such as the Middle East and Latin America. This exceeds the 2007 forecast of 1.33 million units by 85,000.

Mitsubishi’s product strategy will be focused on the development of global products including minicars and small cars, medium-sized cars, and SUVs. The Japanese auto maker said that it will also focus on environmental-friendly vehicles with the pinnacle of its environmental strategy being the release of the next-generation electric vehicle i MiEV, which is currently under development. It will also concentrate on the development of clean diesel engines and its high-efficiency automated manual transmission Twin Clutch SST (Sport Shift Transmission).

In the U.S., Mitsubishi is hoping to expand sales with the new model of the Lancer Evolution released earlier this year. It also confirmed that it will add a sport hatchback Lancer model before 2010 based on the Prototype-S Sports Concept. However Mitsubishi still expects sales to drop by 15,000 units by 2011.

Click through for the press release for more on Mitsubishi’s Step-Up 2010 plan.

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Wonder how the new Mitsubishi Prototype-S Sport hatchback looks when its moving? Check out this 1 minute video of the new Lancer inspired hatchback in action. Powered comes from a 2.0L 4-cylinder DOHC MIVEC intercooled turbocharger engine that produces 235hp and 253 lb-ft of torque.

The Prototype-S Sport will make its debut next week at the Geneva Motor Show.

Click through for the video.

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Nissan and Mitsubishi said today that they would increase cooperation on the supply of vehicles in an effort to save development cost. Both automakers currently have an agreement in which Mitsubishi supplies 660cc mini vehicles under the Nissan badge in Japan, while Nissan will begin producing light commercial vehicles for Mitsubishi later this year.

Under the new expanded agreement Mitsubishi will start supplying Nissan about 4,000 Pajero SUVs (pictured above) annually for the Japanese market. Both will consider further cooperation in LCVs as well.

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After showing us sketches of the Prototype-S sport, Mitsubishi has finally released official images of its new hatchback concept it will debut at the 78th International Geneva Motor Show on March 4.

Derived from the Lance sports sedan, the Prototype-S is powered by a 2.0L 4-cylinder DOHC MIVEC intercooled turbocharger engine that produces 235hp and 253 lb-ft of torque. The engine is mated to Mitsubishi’s Twin Clutch SST automated manual transmission that.

Mitsubishi will also show the i MiEV concept and the new Lance Evolution to the Europeans.

Click through for more images and the press release.

Mitsubishi Prototype-S Sport Hatchback Concept:

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So how do you go green, when most of your popularity comes from your gas-guzzling performance cars like the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X? Currently Mitsubishi doesn’t offer any hybrids or diesels in the U.S., but at recent auto shows, the Japanese auto maker has been showing concepts that outline its upcoming environmental-friendly push. In Tokyo, Mitsubishi revealed the Concept-cX and the Concept-ZT, both powered by clean diesel engines.

And it seems like Mitsubishi isn’t kidding around. In Detroit, the auto maker released the Concept-RA, which industry analysts say, outlines the next-generation Evo. Could it be that Mitsubishi will offer a fuel-sipping version of the next-generation Evo alongside the 300 horsepower beast?

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