• The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, February 26, 2008 11:01 AM

Carmakers are offering buyers with good credit low financing rates, rebates, lease deals and other incentives on a wider range of models than usual as they scramble to stem a sales decline that made 2007 their worst year in a decade. The average amount that carmakers spent on incentives in January increased to $2,418 per vehicle sold from $2,234 a year earlier, according to Edmunds.com.

Most of the in-your-face offers are coming from the Big Three U.S. automakers. But popular foreign makers such as Honda, Toyota, Nissan and BMW--which rarely provide big incentives--are joining the party, even though their sales have held up better than those of their American counterparts.

Retail auto sales, measured by deliveries to consumers by dealers between Feb. 1 and Feb. 17, fell 16.4% from the same period a year earlier, according to J.D. Power & Associates. Each of the six top automakers saw a softening in sales over that period.

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