For auto buyers, credit crunch has a silver lining

Eric Dash at the Times describes the upside of tight economic times for car buyers. By the way, you may want to hurry and read the article before Pinch folds his cards.

...for consumers, the credit crunch may have a silver lining.

“Dealerships are desperate to sell cars,” said William Ryan, who follows the auto finance industry for Portales Partners, an independent research firm in Manhattan. “The reality is, you are probably going to get a pretty good deal if you can afford it. There is a lot of heavy discounting going on.”

On average, automakers are doling out incentives worth more than $2,675, up 23 percent from a year ago, according to the auto information site Edmunds.com (which lists rebates on its site). Some dealers are discounting S.U.V.’s by more than $10,000.

...“It’s a buyer’s market right now,” said Adam J. Renie, sales manager at Gray Auto, an independent used-car dealership in Greenfield, Ind. “Anybody who is an able buyer, you are making sure they end up in your vehicle.”

Dash offers a good overview of financing choices and ways to minimize the costs associated with a purchase.