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Toyota Motor Corp. says it will delay opening its new plant in Blue Springs, Miss., indefinitely as it copes with the downturn in the auto industry.

The plant northwest of Tupelo was scheduled to begin production in 2010 and make the Prius hybrid.

Toyota (nyse: TM - news - people ) spokesman Mike Goss says the plant's construction is about 90 percent complete. He says the company will finish building the plant but will indefinitely delay the installation of equipment.

Goss says the roughly 100 people who have been hired to oversee construction and human resources at the plant will not lose their jobs.

The plant was initially to be up and running in late 2009 or early 2010, but earlier this year, Toyota pushed the date back to mid-2010 after seeing signs of a slowdown in the U.S. auto market.

Looking for an upside to the downturn? Check out the auto showrooms.

If you qualify for a car loan (credit score above 500 and proof of employment), deals can be had. Thank the recession, the meltdown of Detroit's Big Three and the downward spiral in consumer confidence.

"If you are a bargain hunter, there has never been a better time," said Philip Reed, senior consumer advice editor for Edmunds, which specializes in consumer automotive information. "If it gets any better, they will be giving cars away. In the cases we are looking at, it's 25 to 30 percent off sticker price."

But before you run out, be warned: There are no giveaways. And if you're looking real cheap, you'll be hard pressed to find a car below $10,000 -- except for a bare-bones Nissan Versa without air conditioning. Even your basic Toyota Yaris -- known as a "price leader" designed to draw customers -- runs $11,390 on the Darcars Toyota Silver Spring lot.

The best deals go to those who can pay cash. If you are borrowing at zero percent interest, which is making a comeback, most dealers will not give you as big a break on price because the zero-interest loan is looked upon as the bargain.

"It all comes down to how much you finance," said Ethan Rossignol, general sales manager at Darcars Toyota Silver Spring. For those borrowing money, a credit score over 700 will probably bring an interest rate in the 5 or 6 percent range, said Al Toueg, general sales manager at Buick Pontiac GMC on Nicholson Lane in Rockville, part of the Fitzgerald Automalls network. The lower your credit score, the higher the interest rate. A credit score of around 600 might cost the buyer an annual interest rate of 8 or 9 percent. People in the 500 range will have trouble getting approved.

With car sales expected to hit 13 million this year compared with 16 million last year, dealers have thrown out the book on showroom economics. Profit margins, which is the amount they keep on each car, are thin or almost nonexistent.

The margin is normally someplace between what they pay for the car ("invoice price") and what they would like you to pay for the car ("sticker price" or "manufacturer's suggested retail price-MSRP"). That margin can range from $300 on a Toyota Corolla to a few thousand on GMC's lumbering Denali sport-utility vehicle.

Darcars' Rossignol swears he is losing money on some small cars.

Take a Toyota Corolla, one of the hottest selling cars in the country. Rossignol sells a Corolla with power locks and windows, an automatic transmission and air conditioning. Its invoice price is $16,522. The MSRP is $17,865, which is what Toyota suggested he get for it. That would have given him a $1,300 profit. The car's price: $14,790. Even if the manufacturer gives him some extra cash for the Corolla -- known as "dealer cash" -- it's likely that Rossignol will make little or nothing on the sale. A year ago the car would have probably fetched more than its $16,522 invoice.

"Six months ago, you had zero incentives," Rossignol said. "Now you have a choice of $1,000 customer cash or zero percent financing. Incentives from the manufacturer is something that we have never seen. And Toyota has never, ever put zero percent [interest rates on loans] like it just did. Now we have zero [percent loans] on 12 models."

General Motors, which says it will soon fail if it doesn't get billions in government loans, is knocking thousands off its prices to bring in customers. The bigger the car, the bigger the deal.

A Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor employee polishes the company's luxury sedan Century at the company's showroom in Tokyo. Toyota has slashed its 2009 global sales target due to slowing demand

After taking over as Toyota (TM) president in June 2005, Katsuaki Watanabe regularly warned of the dangers of complacency creeping in at the Japanese automaker (BusinessWeek, 3/5/07). But until recently, it was a tough message to get across. The company was doing too well: In the year through March 2008, Toyota sold 8.9 million vehicles, an increase of 32% over five years, while its net profits rose 53%, to $17 billion. This year it will likely overtake GM (GM) to become the world's largest carmaker.

These days, though, Watanabe need only point to Toyota's stock price to keep employees' feet on the ground. Since the beginning of the year, Toyota's shares have fallen 37%. While roughly in line with Japan's benchmark stock index, the performance isn't much better than troubled GM, whose stock is down 39%. And Toyota's recent sales, though not nearly as bad the Big Three's, hardly instill confidence. Through September, sales were down 10% in the U.S. and were sluggish in Europe. In Japan, where Toyota's market share is more than 40%, car sales will likely fall short of last year's figures, which was the company's worst in more than two decades. Even in China, where the automaker aims to increase sales 40% this year, the numbers aren't looking as promising as Toyota's top brass had hoped.

Some analysts are sounding the alarm. In an Oct. 10 note to investors, NikkoCitigroup auto analyst Noriyuki Matsushima predicted "a sudden and substantial earnings decline" for Toyota. "We believe Toyota needs to draft a new strategy that changes its existing course and includes initiatives to secure appropriate sales volumes," he wrote. Lowering his projections for the current fiscal year, Matsushima expects Toyota to post operating earnings of $11 billion, a 50% decline compared with the year that ended Mar. 31, and $5 billion less than the company's projection.

Cash Hoard Supports 0% Financing Offer

Time for investors to bail out? Not exactly. Even if Toyota's earnings drop by half this year, the company's operating profits are still likely to exceed $10 billion. And with a solid balance sheet, more than $20 billion in cash, and a slew of new car initiatives, Toyota is better placed than most automakers to weather economic uncertainty. "Once [Toyota executives] have made the decision to do something, they can get on and do it without having to arrange financing," says Andrew Phillips, an analyst at KBC Securities in Tokyo.

For now Toyota's problems seem minor compared with the Big Three's (BusinessWeek.com, 10/7/08)—and it's moving to keep it that way. Toyota's bulging coffers will help it most in the U.S. There, it's using the cash—$3 billion at its U.S. financing unit, as of the end of June—to plug falling sales. Facing an increasingly severe slowdown and growing inventory, Toyota on Oct. 3 began offering for one month interest-free financing on 11 models, including the Corolla, Camry, and Tundra full-size pickup. The risk, say critics, is that 0% financing could undermine car-resale values and hurt the brand if the company decides to extend the offer.

Toyota is also taking radical steps at its North American factories. After opening a plant for big Tundra pickup trucks in San Antonio in 2006, the company has since curtailed production. It also has suspended production at three U.S. plants for three months in August to retool them so there's more emphasis on smaller, fuel-efficient models.