New Car Deals

Among the best car deals this season: BMW is offering a $369 monthly lease for its 3-Series sedan — about the same rate as a well-equipped Ford Taurus or a Honda Accord, even though the BMW costs much more to purchase. Ford Motor Co. is offering 0% financing on its popular Escape Hybrid. General Motors Corp. is offering a $1,000 bonus in addition to a $2,000 cash rebate currently available for the popular Chevrolet Silverado — for a total of $3,000 cash back — through the end of February. (Buyers can opt for $1,000 cash and 1.9% financing instead.) Toyota, for its part, is offering 0% financing on its new 2008 Highlander and on the 2008 Camry, the best-selling car in the U.S

Earlier this month, for example, Capital One Auto Finance, a unit of Capital One Financial Corp., lowered the interest rate available on new car loans to 5.74% — which includes a 0.5% discount if borrowers opt to have their loan payments automatically deducted from a checking account — from 5.99%. Last summer, the rate was 6.19%. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s Chase Auto Finance says its auto loan rates have dropped by nine-tenths of a percentage point since the Fed started cutting rates last fall.

Consumers can boost their chances of finding attractive rates by getting approved for a car loan online and then visiting the dealership, says Jeff Ostroff, president of CarBuyingTips.com.