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This month's deals on wheels: 3 cars with incentives, rebates

On television, they come at you rapid-fire: truck deals, car deals, SUV deals. You don't have time to read the fine print, and many sound too good to be true. What follows are three deals that are both good and true. And check out our entire list of incentives and rebates. VOLKSWAGEN JETTA: With Dieselgate winding down and VW's all-new three-row SUV – the Atlas – winding up, Volkswagen is selling sedans with incentives. The Jetta remains VW's bestseller in the US. If you're looking for an immodest deal on modest transportation, you can do worse than a lease on the 2017 Jetta S. THE DETAILS: Purchase at 0.9% APR (no down payment required, available on new 2017 Jetta models financed by Volkswagen Credit, participating dealers only). At that rate, you could save $1,600 over the life of a loan. Offer ends May 1, but given the tepid market interest in sedans, incentives will probably continue through the balance of the model year. NISSAN TITAN CREW CAB: While some buyers will wait for Nissan's recently announced Titan King Cab, and commercial users will grab the regular cab and 8-foot bed, we'll recommend a lightly optioned 4X4 crew cab with standard V8 power, California-penned sheetmetal and a made-in-America footprint. Nissan's full-size pickup is finally a credible competitor in the pickup segment. THE DETAILS: With $3,500 cash back, on top of whatever deal you negotiate, Nissan is effectively reducing the window sticker of a Titan S crew cab by almost 10 percent. MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER: Some cars show up on buyers' radar, some don't. Some aren't anywhere near the radar room. Mitsubishi's Outlander is one of those. But that doesn't diminish its basic attractiveness, especially for young families looking for an affordable three-row SUV with responsive power and competitive features. Add one of the industry's longest warranties and a compelling deal, and you suddenly have reason to track down a Mitsubishi dealer. THE DETAILS: It couldn't be simpler – negotiate your best deal on a 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander, and then receive a $2,000 rebate; on a remaining 2016, it's $3,000. We'd select a fully-equipped GT 3.0S – AWC, which hooks Mitsubishi's V6 to a conventional automatic (vs. a CVT on lower-priced models) and all-wheel drive. That's a window sticker of about $34,000, and you can count on an aggressive posture by the dealer to get your business. Mitsubishi Nissan Volkswagen Car Buying Buying Guide Truck SUV Sedan

Tesla about to sell 50,000th Model S

Nissan sold its 50,000th Leaf a total of two years and two months after introducing the EV to dealerships. Tesla isn't as established as Nissan, and its Model S - with its higher levels of luxury and performance - costs multiple times more than the Leaf. Consider the Tesla's starting price of $70,000-plus (and easily much more with a bigger battery and a few upgrades), and compare that to the Leaf's base MSRP of just a bit over $30,000 before its 2013 price cut. It would make sense, then, that it would take the Model S longer to hit 50,000 unit sales. But, no. The Model S could meet the 50,000 sales milestone before the end of October (in fact, it may already have done so). This is just two years and three months after it launched in late June 2012. The Model S could meet the 50,000 sales milestone before the end of October. Tesla hasn't released its sales report for the third quarter, but the Palo Alto-based automaker sold 39,128 units of the Model S through June. Previously, Tesla estimated it would have 7,800 third quarter sales (putting it at 46,928 through September), other independent estimates put Tesla at 50,000 sales in late October. The Model S may not have beat the Nissan Leaf to 50K, but it's not hard to see how this is a win for the California automaker. Arguably, this is a case where we all win. Anytime some buys an EV instead of a traditionally powered vehicle - regardless of marque - that's less energy consumed while driving, fewer emissions and an example set to others who have yet to make the switch. It's hard not to be impressed by Tesla's relative success. Furthermore, Tesla coming so close to Nissan in selling 50,000 EVs is, above all, a testament to the desirability of the Model S, despite the Leaf's clear advantage in terms of attainability.

Nissan promising autonomous car production by 2020

Nissan will bring the autonomous car to consumers by the end of this decade. The announcement was made by CEO Carlos Ghosn at the company's US headquarters in Irvine, CA. Nissan has already begun construction of a dedicated proving ground for the self-driving cars in Japan, with completion targeted for the end of 2014.
Teaming with MIT, Stanford, Oxford and others, Nissan has already outfitted Leaf EVs with the Autonomous Drive (Nissan's brand name for the tech), a suite of new technologies developed from the brand's existing Safety Shield technology. The current iteration of Autonomous Drive uses the Around-View Monitoring system and laser scanners to analyze the environment, while artificial intelligence systems have been installed to help navigate and operate in a changing environment.
While it's easy to say that Nissan will bring the technology to market within the next six or seven years, it's more difficult to say at what price Autonomous Drive will be available. Most remarkable about all of this is Nissan's claim that self-driving cars will be both commercially viable and available at "realistic prices for consumers." It's expecting Autonomous Drive to be available across its range within two vehicle generations.