Eight of March's 10 best-sellers returned to the table in April, but one of the newbies may surprise you according to USAToday.

In March, an incentive-heavy 2012 Nissan Altima (the redesigned 2013 will be on sale soon) fell just 1,517 cars short of the redesigned Toyota Camry, clinching the No. 2 best-selling car position. Incentives remain high, but Altima sales dropped drastically enough to knock it off the top 10 list. Instead, shoppers drifted toward the Honda Accord and Toyota Prius.

The Accord, one of April's two newcomers, gained 25.6% last month, snapping three months' sales malaise to fall just 1,435 cars short of the hard-charging, recently redesigned Camry. The shift surprised us, given the Accord is in its final year before a redesign while incentives are about the same as a year ago.

There's little surprise that the Prius' sales catapulted 101.7% despite gas prices leveling off this month. Three new Prius variants — a subcompact Prius c, larger Prius v and rechargeable Prius Plug-in — accounted for 76% of that rise. Strip those away, however, and even the original Prius handily outpaced its year-ago sales.

The Chevrolet Malibu is this month's other newcomer. Malibu sales are down, but April 2011 was a banner month for the sedan. If the Malibu and Accord reshuffled the deck for top-selling family cars, their compact counterparts stayed in closer order. Despite stable incentives, the aging Toyota Corolla stayed in the top 10. The redesigned Honda Civic fell 8.8% but stayed put, too. However, the Ford Focus, Chevrolet Cruze and Hyundai Elantra lined up offstage, with Elantra and Cruze sales down more than 20%. Focus sales were up 12.5% but not enough to keep a top 10 ranking.

Detroit's pickup trucks gained some traction in April, as combined sales for the Ford F-Series, Chevrolet Silverado and Chrysler's Ram trucks gained 7.4%.

April auto sales rose just 2.3% overall, falling short of the industry's double-digit rise in the first three months of 2012. GM and Ford posted slight losses, while Chrysler's meteoric rise continued with its best April since 2008. Toyota took up some of the slack, with sales up 11.6%, while Hyundai-Kia, Nissan and Honda stayed about even.

Why the slowing? For starters, April overlapped five weekends, leaving buyers three fewer days to shop than a year ago -- only twice in the last decade has there been three fewer days year-over-year in a month, a GM spokesman noted.

Moreover, April saw the incentives gap narrow for the first time in months. CNW Marketing Research data show car buyers reaped 15% off the average MSRP in total dealer and automaker incentives. But rising MSRPs outpaced the discounts, so transaction prices shot up: The average car sold for $31,216 in April, or $1,657 (5.6%) more than a year ago.

This month's numbers might seem average, but they portend a stabilizing. April 2011 also saw relatively normal inventories from Japanese automakers as the impact of the March tsunami hadn't been felt at the dealer level. We expect May 2012 sales for Japanese automakers to have huge spikes versus 2011 numbers that saw drastic drops versus 2010. The upswing in 2012 could look shocking.

Finding the right financing for a new or used car or truck is easy when you research online. You can apply for a new car loan with great rates or a used car loan online at OpenRoad Lending.com. If you are not in the market for that new or used car or truck, consider an auto refinance loan where with a few clicks, you can lower the payments on an existing car loan. The time it takes to save money is minimal and you will be happy you did.

The fender bender you were just in appears to be minor. No one looks injured and there is minimal damage to the vehicles. First breathe a sigh of relief – then take these precautions to help prevent your small accident from becoming a big problem.

Owning a car sure does make life more convenient. It allows you to go wherever you want to whenever you want to get there. But cars are expensive, and most people take out auto loans in order to be able to afford to buy a car. When they first decide to purchase the car, they cross their fingers and hope to get a low interest rate, but they may ultimately end up with a higher rate than they would have liked. They accept it, believing that they have no choice but to live with this rate until they pay off the car. But refinancing a car loan can actually get you a lower rate.

After you've owned the car for a year or two, you can look into refinancing a car loan. If your credit has improved since the time you originally applied for your auto loan, you may be able to get a lower rate by refinancing your auto loan. Depending on the company that you choose to do your refinance through, your new rate may be significantly lower than your original rate was. Interest rates in general may have come down since you first applied for your auto loan, and that might allow you to get better rates, too.

One of the other reasons why refinancing a car loan could potentially lower your interest rate significantly is that most people don't shop around their car loan rates when they first purchase a car. They just take whatever rate the dealer tells them they have to take. But when you refinance your loan, you usually shop around for the lowest rates. It opens up your options and allows you to compare rates from competing companies. This can help to ensure that you get the lowest available rate for your auto loan.

All it really takes to refinance is a little research and time in order to ascertain the lowest rate. You want to make sure to stick with your original loan for a while, just to show that you have some stability, and that the loan companies can expect a certain degree of loyalty from you as long as they provide you with a low rate. But if you don't try car loan refinancing, only one thing is for sure: you'll end up paying more money on your loan than you really need to. If you don't want to overpay, think about refinancing.

Loans make a lot of thing possible for ordinary folk. Most people can't afford to purchase a car outright, but getting a loan makes it possible for them to own a car. But the bane of the person with a loan is the interest. It can be frustrating to know that you'll ultimately end up paying a lot more for your car than the price you were quoted, thanks to the interest. But, fortunately, there are ways to soften the blow. Saving interest by refinancing a car loan is the simplest way to make sure that you do not have to pay more interest than you absolutely have to.

Most people know that, when they're quoted a sticker price on a new car, it's rarely the price they'll actually end up paying. You can negotiate down to a lower price, and you'll probably want to add a few popular options. And, unless you're paying for your car with cash outright, you shouldn't forget the possibility that you may have to pay interest on your auto loan. Interest will make up a big part of what you end up paying for that car, but it doesn't have to be as big as you expected it to be when you first found out the rate you were getting. Auto refinancing can lower that amount.Auto refinancing allows a new loan company to buy your old loan from your original loan company.

Most people hear offers for auto loan refinancing and lower interest rates, and it's just white noise to them. It's hard to get motivated to do the research required to find a lower auto loan interest rate. Many people just think, "what's the difference, if all I'm saving is half a percent?" But they forget that, when the amount is large, even one percent can be a significant amount. If you have a car loan for $20,000, then one percent can mean a difference of $100. Even a half a percent can make a big difference in your monthly payments.

Many people check out their options for auto loan refinancing because they want to save money on their interest. A lower interest rate obviously makes for a lower interest charge over the life of the loan. You can check with different companies to see the interest rates that they can offer you. You'll also want to consider the kind of service you can get on your loan from each company. Not all loan companies are created equal, and you don't want to just consider the cost of the loan. You'll also want to consider whether or not this company is stable, so that you can count on their being there for the duration of your loan.

Some people are reluctant to consider auto refinancing because they assume that they can't possibly qualify for a lower rate. But there are many factors that can contribute to your ability to find a lower rate elsewhere. Maybe your original loan company was charging you too high an interest rate and you could have done better from the get-go. Maybe your credit rating has improved since you first applied for your loan. Maybe interest rates in general have dropped since you got that loan. Auto loan refinancing is the only way you can really find out how much you could be saving.

It's not as though you have to take the first offer that comes along, or any offers, for that matter. Looking into auto loan refinancing is just research. If you decide that you'd rather stick with your original loan company, that's up to you. But if you find that you could be getting a much lower interest rate by refinancing, of course you're going to decide to refinance. Most people are looking to save as much money as they can these days. And, with a refinance, you can certainly save more.

The lack of a good night's rest can do more than put you in a sour mood. It can also impair your driving, leading to potentially disastrous consequences. According to the National Sleep Foundation, 28 percent of adults in the U.S. say they've nodded off at the wheel in the past year.

The first thing you should do in deciding if a car refinance is something you should consider is to check the documents on your current loan. You want to be sure that there is not any penalty for prepayment and that the interest on your auto loan is not based upon "The Rule of 78s." Loans that use the "The Rule of 78s." basically collect 75 percent of the interest due on the note during the first 50 percent of the loan's term.  Very few lender issue loans under the rule any more, but you still need to check.

The primary objective of a car refinance is to lower your monthly payments due on the loan.  This can be accomplished by lowering the interest rate on your note, extending the term of the note or some combination of the two.  One of the most common reasons for a car refinance is when someone accepts expensive dealer financing and then finds out they can get a much better rate at their bank or credit union. In fact many times the bank or credit union will give the borrowed the new-car rate if the vehicle was purchased within the past 90 days. Still even the current year used car interest rate is likely 4 percent or more lower than the dealer rate.

Or a car refinance may be in order if your credit score had a few dings when you purchase the car but now it has improved.  The better score may allow you to shave several points off the interest rate and get a longer term, dropping your monthly payment considerably.

The bottom line being if you are considering a car refinance loan you need to do your research before you sign on the dotted line with a new lender, be sure that you are in fact saving money with your car refinance.

Sometimes the only way to purchase a car or truck is to rely upon the help of a car financing company. These companies will give you the money you need to finance your new or used car purchase, and allow you to pay back the money with interest over the course of a few years. If you are considering using a car financing company to obtain a car loan for your new or used car then you may want to consider using some of these tips to help you secure the best loan offer you can get.

Shopping around for a car loan can help you get the best loan offer possible. Many people rely upon the car dealership’s financing company to help them secure their loan. The problem with that is the dealership knows people rely upon them and therefore offer higher interest rates. Ask for quotes at several different banks or financial lenders to see what interest rates and loan terms they can offer you. Shopping around and securing a loan before you go car shopping will not only help you get the best deal possible on an auto loan, but it can help give you leverage when trying to negotiate the price of your car.

Another way to secure the best possible loan offer is to put a down payment down on the car or truck. Financial lenders view down payments as a sign of financial responsibility, and are willing to offer better interest rates and loan terms to people who finance their cars with a down payment. A down payment will not only help you secure a better loan deal or interest rate, but it can help lower your monthly car payments as you have already paid a portion of the car off before securing the loan.

Improving your credit score can also help get a better loan offer. Many financial lenders use a credit score to determine what interest rates and loans a person is qualified to take on. A low credit score will result in high interest rates and even a denial of a car loan, while high credit scores can lead to lower interest rates. People who have the time to improve their credit score before applying for car loans can see a substantial improvement in the interest rates and loan offers people receive. Improving a credit score by making regular monthly payments, paying down debts, and checking for mistakes can help secure a better car loan offer.