SANTA MONICA, Calif. -

Late last week, Edmunds.com came to the rescue of consumers worried about being “haunted” by the fear of paying too high a price on their next vehicle.

Putting a timely spin on its True Market Value Predicted Price Trends this Halloween, the company identified which vehicles on the market qualify as “tricks” or “treats” — price-wise —  in an effort to help car shoppers decide whether to buy or wait.

“With 2012 fast approaching, Edmunds.com anticipates that dealers will be willing to sell remaining 2011 inventory at big discounts,” said Edmunds.com senior analyst Jessica Caldwell.

“But the cream of the discount crop is the mid-level luxury segment, with great deals on vehicles like the 2011 BMW 5 Series and X5, the 2011 Infiniti M56 and the 2011 Mercedes Benz E-Class,” she continued, highlighting a few of this holiday season’s steals.

Starting with the “treats," or rather the units consumers should consider driving off the lot, Edmunds.com highlighted that with fall typically being a “truck season;" the company expects a “surge” of incentives on most leftover 2011 model year compact pickups. The trucks expected to have higher incentive offers include the Nissan Frontier, Dodge Dakota, Ford Ranger, Toyota Tacoma and Chevy Colorado, to name a few.

Another “treat” to keep an eye on takes a well known industry rule into account: When a car has been on the lot for a long time, it sometimes means the dealer has had trouble “unloading inventory,” officials surmised.

That said, the dealers will often offer the biggest discounts on such cars, like the 2011 Kia Sorrento and 2011 Mazda6, which each average among the highest days-to-turn in the industry, at 170 and 149 days, respectively.

Edmunds.com analysts also explained the 2011 Jeep Wrangler, 2011 Mitsubishi Outlander and 2011 Nissan Altima also fall into this category, all with days-to-turn higher than 100 days.

Now that the “treats” has been unveiled, what units should consumers steer away from this Halloween?

Edmunds.com first warns car buyers to avoid the “newest cars on the market.”

Though 2012 models have just hit the market and can be popular among the consumer public, Edmunds.com officials stress that some new model year vehicles “offer few or no design or feature changes from the previous year.”

The company offered the example of the new 2012 Mini Cooper. According to Edmunds.com, the True Market Value price of the 2011 model is more than $1,000 less than the “nearly identical" 2012 Mini Cooper.

In cases such as this, it could potentially be a smarter move to go with a new 2011 model, while they’re still available, company analysts surmised.

Wrapping up the “tricks” of the season, Edmunds.com also cautioned buyers to avoid two popular models. Strong demand for the 2011 Kia Optima and 2011 Kia Soul might make getting deals a bit more difficult, with the prices expected to remain stable until the end of the year.