Americans eager to drive a new car or truck have rediscovered leasing deals. In fact, leasing hit a new high in the first quarter according to Experian Automotive which tracks the auto finance market.

"Leasing is definitely back," said Melinda Zabritski senior director of Automotive Credit with Experian. "People want the lowest monthly payment possible for a new car or truck and many times they can get that with a lease."

Experian says leases account for 27.5% of all new vehicles financed in the first quarter. That was a 3.1% jump from the first quarter of last year and is the highest level of leasing Experian has recorded since it started tracking the auto finance market in 2006.

(Read More: Pick-Ups Power May Auto Sales)

Lower Monthly Payments For a Longer Period

Despite the amount financed by auto loans increasing $620 to $26,648 in the first quarter, consumers have managed to keep their monthly payments in check. During the first quarter Experian says the average monthly payment for new vehicle loans was $459, a drop of $3 compared to the same time last year?

How have car buyers kept monthly payments from edging higher? In part they've done it by spreading out the length of their auto loans over a longer period of time.

In the first quarter the percentage of auto loans stretching out 73-84 months jumped 27.4% and now makes up 19.5% of all new vehicles financed.

America's resurgent housing market, along with strong demand from the booming energy sector, are pushing pickup truck sales to their strongest levels in six years.

"We are seeing a lot of increased business primarily due to the increases in housing. Availability of consumer credit is obviously not hurting us either," said Kurt McNeil, Vice President of U.S. sales for General Motors. "The housing and the truck sales have sort of lead, but we are seeing the American family coming back now too with pretty good crossover and utility sales."

(Read More: 'Silverado High Country' Gets Chevy Into Luxury Pickup Race)

Overall, the large full-size market is expected to make up 11.5 percent of all auto sales last month, an increase of 1 percent compared to the same period in the last 3 years.

The strength in pickups is one reason May sales are slightly higher than estimates.

As the summer vacation season kicks into high gear and you head out on the road, expect to see a familiar sight. Recreational vehicles and motor homes are experiencing a rebirth. That's welcome news for Winnebago Industries, which has survived one of the roughest periods for the RV industry.

"During the depths of the recession we weren't even running the factory at times, it was so slow, business was that bad," said Randy Potts, Chairman and CEO of Winnebago Industries. "Now we are running the factory every week. In fact people are working overtime."

Winnebago's crews are working longer hours because the company is seeing a pick-up in sales. In February of 2012, Winnebago's backlog of RV orders was 1,004. By February of this year, the backlog had grown to 2,752.

(Read More: Recreational Vehicle Resurgence Buoys Indiana Town )

"The order backlog is strong and it is just an entirely different environment than it was during the recession," said Potts.

Tesla Motors is building out its supercharger network adding a couple of hundred charging stations by 2015 that will be able to provide power even if the national grid goes down.

The solar-powered supercharger stations will have battery packs for grid storage of power so they'll work "even if there's a zombie apocalypse," CEO Elon Musk said. He then laughed and added, "I can see the headlines now: 'Musk warns of zombie apocalypse.' "

The battery storage capability of the stations was one technological advancement Musk pointed to in explaining the future of Tesla's charging network.

Coast to Coast by Year-End

Starting next month, Tesla will begin a rapid expansion of its supercharger network. It will triple to 24 locations in the U.S. by the end of June with new charging locations in the Pacific Northwest, Texas, Colorado and Illinois.

(Read More: Tesla Repays $465 Million Loan from Federal Program)

Then over the next two years Tesla will add another "couple hundred" locations, Musk said.

"The overarching goal here is to give people a sense of total freedom of travel," he said. "We don't want people to feel constrained that because they have an electric car they won't be able to drive where they want and how they want."

Less than four years after borrowing $465 million from the government, Tesla has become the first automaker to repay its loan under the Energy Department's Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program.

In a statement issued after the money had been wired, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, "I would like to thank the Department of Energy and the members of Congress and their staffs that worked hard to create the ATVM program, and particularly the American taxpayer from whom these funds originate. I hope we did you proud."

The payment of nearly half a billion dollars was made possible in large part by Tesla's raising more than $1 billion with a stock and debt offering last week.

Romney's Loser Now A Winner for Obama

During the presidential campaign, Republican candidate Mitt Romney cited Tesla as one of the "losers" that had received funding from the federal government. Romney was trying to make the point that the ATVM program had a less than stellar record in supporting companies such as the Vehicle Production Group, Fisker and A123, an electric-vehicle battery maker that eventually went bankrupt.

(Read More: Lutz Sees Stripped-Down Fisker as Potential Gem)

Tesla is one of the few examples the Obama administration can point to as an ATVM success story.

Officially, the DOE still has $16.6 billion to lend, but given the improving economy and past recipients' checkered history, many believe the agency is unlikely to make another loan anytime soon.

The DOE lent a total of $8.4 billion, with the vast majority going to Ford and Nissan. Both companies still have years to repay what they borrowed, and there's no reason to think they will ever default.

(Read More: Tesla Alters Financing Program to Silence Critics)

Gearing Up With More Cash

With its DOE obligation fulfilled and increased liquidity, Tesla will focus for the rest of the year on two major endeavors.

The first is building and selling more Model S sedans. Tesla moved more than 4,750 in the first quarter and recently raised guidance for full-year sales to at least 21,000.

Executives will also turn their attention to the Model X SUV, which is scheduled to be in showrooms next year.

Bob Lutz isn't afraid to roll the dice, especially when he sees the possibility of hitting the jackpot.

That explains why the former vice chairman of General Motors, who now plays a leadership role with VL Automotive, is teaming up with Chinese auto parts supplier Wanxiang Group in a bid to buy the ailing Fisker.

CNBC has been unable to reach Lutz for a comment on the bid, but sources confirm the VL Automotive-Wainxing bid is one of three offers to buy Fisker.

No other details have been revealed about how much Lutz and his Chinese partners are offering, but it would include buying Fisker through a pre-packaged bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is important because it would allow the company's new owners—whether VL Automotive-Wanxiang or another bidder—to get a stripped-down automaker with a clean balance sheet.

However, it's unclear whether Fisker's $171 million loan with the Department of Energy would be involved in a bankruptcy filing.

(Read More: Fisker Fires Most of Its Rank-and-File Employees)

Mercedes-Benz is digging in and putting more features into its redesigned flagship S-Class sedan. This is not just another ultra-luxury sedan. Mercedes believes the all new S-Class, packed with cutting edge technology, will set the tone for the entire line-up of Mercedes models.

More importantly, the changes are designed to keep the S-Class on top of the ultra-luxury sedan market—models sell between $80,000 and $130,000.

"This S-Class is a huge amount better [than the previous model] in all aspect, so we are very confident about the position of this vehicle regardless of the competitors," said Dieter Zetsche, Mercedes-Benz Cars CEO and Chairman of Daimler.

Zetsche was all smiles at the official unveiling of the S-Class in Hamburg, Germany. The event was held at the Airbus A380 delivery center. As part of the event, the new S-Class was driven across the runway before it rolled into a pavilion where Zetsche talked about the luxury cars new features.

Some of the most popular small SUVs have failed crash tests that simulate a common and deadly front end collision.

"These are troubling results," said Joe Nolan with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "These small SUV's are very popular and for the most part pretty safe, but with these tests most of them did not do well."

For the first time the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety conducted small overlap crash tests with small SUV's. Eleven of the thirteen models tested received marginal or poor ratings.

An increase in auto repossessions due to borrowers defaulting on their car loans is raising new questions about whether the auto industry is going too far selling new cars and trucks to those with subprime credit records.

According to Experian Automotive, the percentage of auto repos in the first quarter jumped 16.9 percent, and the average charge-off for bad loans jumped more than $600 to $7,401.

Combined the two figures suggest dealers and lenders are selling cars to those who are not a good credit risk, but not everyone sees it that way.

As used car deals go, this is one to make you think twice. Used Fisker Karmas, which sold for $103,000 just a year ago as new models, are now being sold for roughly half price. In some cases, those trying to sell the luxury extended-range electric car on eBay cannot even get bids above $50,000.

Just ask Bill Michlin, a dealer with the Fields Auto Group in the Chicago suburb of Glencoe. He just wrapped up an eBay auction for a 2012 EcoChic version of the Karma with a top bid of $45,100. "I had 2,000 look at that car on eBay," he said. "We didn't sell it because it didn't meet the minimum reserve bid, but it will eventually."

Used Fiskers selling for 50 cents on the dollar is the latest example of how far the electric car company has fallen over the last four years. A company once touted as an example of how start-up automakers were changing the auto industry now owes the federal government $192 million and is no longer building new models.

The New DeLorean?

Thirty years after the DeLorean came to symbolize a futuristic car that failed to take off in huge numbers, the Fisker Karma is now viewed in a similar light. Approximately 2,500 Karmas were built in 2011 and 2012. But the Karma never became more than a niche luxury model. The electric car was rated by the EPA to get the equivalent of 52 mpg and was panned by Consumer Reports after the Karma model it was testing actually broke down.