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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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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Toyota will almost double its stake in Fuji Heavy Industries, the maker of Subaru cars, the two Japanese car makes said in a joint press conference Thursday. Toyota will buy 61 million Fuji Heavy Industry shares increasing its stake from 8.7 percent to 16.5.

The two also said that they are working on rear-wheel-drive sportscar to together that is set to go on sale by the end of 2011. Toyota said that it will handle the basic design of the car while Fuji will provide the engine. No other details were given but AutoCar had reported yesterday that a naturally aspirated version of the boxer engine with 175-hp is being considered for the base model, and there is potential for a 2.5 liter turbocharged model later.

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It’s time for the midday video. Check out Fifth Gear’s review of the new 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STi. Tiff doesn’t seem too impressed with it.

Refresher: powered by a 2.0 liter 4-cylinder Dual AVCS 16 Valve DOHC twin scroll turbo engine that produces 305 horsepower.

Click through for the video.

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Subaru today revealed its new R1e electric vehicles and said it will being evaluating possibilties in the U.S. this summer. Based on the R1 minicar currently sold in Japan, the R1e was developed in partnership with the Tokyo Electric Power Company.

The Subaru R1e is powered by a fast-charger lithium ion battery technology that eliminates typical lithium ion battery issues of charge memory loss, meaning frequent chargers don’ depreciate battery life. Producing 53-hp the R1e is capable of a top speed of 65mph with a range of up to 50 miles.

The R1e is capable of charging itself up to 80 percent in 15 minutes.

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

Subaru R1e:

   

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Subaru today announced pricing for the new redesigned 2009 Subaru Forester crossover. Powered by a 2.5 liter 4-cylinder engine the base 2009 Forester starts at $20,660, a $1,085 drop from the outgoing model. The engine comes with a choice of manual or automatic transmission, while the 224 horsepower turbocharged variant comes standard with an automatic transmission.

The 2009 Subaru Forester will come in three different trim levels including X, X with Premium Package and the L.L. Bean Edition. The turbocharged Forester is available in only two trim packages including the XT and XT Limited.

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Do you really care about fuel-economy when you’re looking to purchase a car like the Subaru Impreza STi or the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution? Well Subaru thinks you do. The guys over at AutoExpress have learned that Subaru is working on diesel version of its rally-going all-wheel-drive hatchback.

Subaru will first offer its new 2.0 liter 4-cylinder boxer unit producing 148 horsepower in the Impreza range this September. The company may use a tuned version of the engine producing 180 horsepower in a racy STi version.

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Subaru execs could be considering a model that would fit between the Impreza WRX and the WRX STi. With the release of the 305 horsepower WRX STi ($34,995), Subaru left a gap of $10k from the base 224 horsepower WRX ($24,350).

“There is the potential to do that [fill the price gap] and while we have looked at it there’s not going to be one this year,” said Subaru Australia managing director Nick Senior at this week’s STI launch in Tasmania.

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A slew of new vehicles suggests that diesels are coming back in a big way, but consumers may not be ready to embrace them just yet.

More than 10 diesel vehicles debuted at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit this year – a staggering number when compared to previous shows, where maybe one or two, if any, were unveiled with little fanfare. As manufacturers ramp up efforts to start selling new diesel vehicles this fall, it seems as though diesel is becoming the new darling of alternative fuels.

Click through for the list of the Top 10 New Diesel Vehicles.

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That brand new Audi S5, Lotus Exige S or Corvette Z06 you’re dying to own may seem a little expensive now but one day those very cars could be collector items that you could auction off for a couple of hundred thousand dollars at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale. Hagerty Insurance, an insurance company that specializes in protecting collector cars, has created a list of 10 new cars for sale in 2008 that it believes have the greatest potential to be collector items in 15-20 years.

And according to their list, even the frugal consumer can one day auction off his/her car for a couple of hundred thousand dollars – well, if you’re willing to wait 15-20 years. Prices of the cars on the list range from $12,000 to more than $70,000, while horsepower ranges from 70 to more than 500.

Click through for Hagerty’s list.

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Toyota may be teaming up with its partner Subaru to build the next-generation Celica.  According to Japanese magazine Best Car, Toyota will offer two version of the Celica when it is revealed to the public in 2011 or earlier.

The first will be the cheaper GT version that will be powered by a 2.0L Subaru 4-cylinder engine that produces 200hp, much like the boxer engine in the entry level Impreza. Target pricing for the base GT version is rumored to be under $20,000. The range-topping GT-Four version is rumored to have four-wheel-drive and is expected to be powered by the 300hp engine from the Japanese spec Subaru Impreza WRX STi.

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It really doesn’t get better than this. Best Motoring’s Tsukuba put the two hottest rally kings head-to-head on the track along with their predecessors. The lineup includes the new 2008 Mitsubishi Evolution X vs the 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI. The race also includes the new Mitsubishi Evolution X with manual and SST transmission, the Mitsubishi Evolution IX GSR and the old WRX STi and Evo.

The new 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR and MR are both powered by a 2.0 liter 4-cylinder 16-valve DOHC MIVEC engine that produces 295 horsepower. The new Subaru Impreza WRX STi is powered by a 2.0 liter 4-cylinder Dual AVCS 16 Valve DOHC twin scroll turbo engine that produces 305 horsepower.

We’ll leave it up to you to watch the video to see who wins.

Click through for the video.

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After a teaser and a bunch image leaks Subaru has finally released the first official image of the 2009 Subaru Forester Crossover SUV. The SUV will make its official debut at the North American International Auto Show next month in Detroit.

The 2009 Subaru Forester gets an all new design and a new platform with sport-sedan dynamics. Subaru says that the ‘new-generation 2009 model projects a bolder, more SUV-like design and making a major leap in safety technology, comfort, refinement and driving dynamics.’

The new Forester is powered by a wide array of new turbocharged/intercooled 2.5-liter Boxer engines. Technical specs such has horsepower and torque are still yet to come. We’ll bring you more from Detroit next month

Click through for the press release and the high-res image.

2009 Subaru Forester Gallery:

   

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