Car Shopping in a Recession

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That's why the present U.S. economic downturn is so ill-timed for Detroit. As the saying goes, it's hard to remember your original purpose was to drain the swamp, when you're up to your you-know-what in alligators.

"Fuel economy is foremost on the minds of consumers," Ford's Farley said. He argued Ford is in a better position than it was a couple of years ago, having introduced the Ford Edge crossover a year ago and the redesigned Ford Focus last fall, for the 2008 model year. "We sold 21,000 Focuses last month. That's an incredible transformation for a company that not too many years ago was so focused on trucks and SUVs," Farley said. That represented a more than 31% increase over February.

Fully Loaded

Ford and its domestic rivals can also take what comfort they can from the fact that customers who downsize from a bigger gas-guzzler to a smaller vehicle, and even first-time buyers, are ordering cars with many more extras than they did a couple of product generations ago.

"At the higher-end grade of vehicles like the Focus, the Fusion, and the Edge, the [Mercury] Mariner and the Escape, we are seeing a lot higher demand as people move down into these products, a big preference for higher-end equipment like Sync," Farley said.

Ford's Sync system, developed with Microsoft (MSFT), is a $395 option on entry-level versions of the Focus. It allows customers to link Bluetooth-enabled phones and other devices to the car's controls, including voice control. Farley said transaction prices for the redesigned 2008 Focus are about $2,000 higher than the model it replaced.

Best Budget Picks

So as automakers begin to offer increasingly similar models—smaller, more fuel-efficient cars and crossovers—what should budget-minded buyers be looking for?

We looked at IntelliChoice's list of "best values" for the 2008 model year and factored in those cars IntelliChoice regarded as its "best deals" for March. We then compared that list with data from Vincentric in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Vincentric analyzes the costs of vehicle ownership for fleet buyers, car dealers, and other auto industry customers.

And because people who fear a recession probably shouldn't be wasting their money on frivolities, we only focused on practical cars and light trucks. Tough times don't exactly call for convertibles or fancy German coupes. But we also looked at resale values and saw that some cars, such as the Edge and the Yaris, failed to score higher than others.

Check out the BusinessWeek.com slide show to find out which cars you should buy in a recession.

Henry is a reporter covering the automotive industry and automotive trends in BusinessWeek's New York office.