5 Surprising Buyer Incentives

Automobile manufacturers and their dealers are coming up with some seriously creative programs to move stagnant 2008 inventory.

Sweet local and regional deals - often time-limited - are popping up like wildflowers. Just last week, Fort Worth GM dealers Will and Corrie Churchill purchased 5,000 shares of Company stock to seed a promotion that offers each of the first 100 Frank Kent Motor Company car-buying customers 50 shares of GM stock. We suggest you hold 'em.

Only BMW and Volkswagen are currently offering dealer incentives, which are great sales motivators. Meanwhile, customer incentives abound. Word to the wise: the savvy buyer should go for the best deal he can cut before even discussing incentives.

One source of the very latest incentive programs is Cars.com. Here are our five current favorites.