Currently there is a $2000 tax deduction, which means $2000 less of your income is taxed so you save $500-600 usually. In 2006 there'll be a tax credit which means you actually get $2100. So the difference is about $1500 in real money.

Of course I bought my car already just because I'd rather not wait.

 

Right now interest in the hybrids may be cooling because gasoline prices have dropped an average of 70 cents from the September highs.

I think the newspapers and TV will be full of stories about the tax credit as the New Year rolls in, and there will be plenty of new buyers awakened by that reminder. There may be a new buying frenzy in the first month or two of the year.

 

This might seem like an overly-simple solution, but wouldn't it just be easier to get a car from the allotment in the same month that you want to buy it? (eg: if you want a car in January, it would come out of the January shipment.) What's the point of typing up a "December" car (that the dealer could sell in December) if one is not going to take delivery until January? It's not like Honda is going to run out of cars

I just told the dealer when I wanted to write the Long Hairy Check for the car, and let him figure out the grimy details on how to get it here from Japan by that time.

 

Good thinking.
I may buy one next spring or summer.

 

Sure. There's always time. In my case I'm trying to thread a proverbial needle. I have a car with a lease ending on January 19th. I'd like to get the HCH no earlier than Jan. 1 to qualify for the tax credit, but I also want it early enough that I can apply for the California HOV stickers and have a chance of getting them before January 19th. Otherwise it will cost me a one month lease extension to keep driving in the carpool lane.