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Is this week the best week of the year to buy a new car?
Depends on whom you ask.
Some analysts call the year’s final few days prime time to approach auto dealerships with bargaining authority. Automakers are offering end-of-year incentives and dealers want to reduce inventory as well as meet end-of-month (and end-of-calendar) sales goals.
“We call this ‘new car new year’ because it’s really the single biggest car-shopping week of the year,” Philip Reed, senior consumer advice editor for the auto sales site Edmunds.com, said in a statement. “There are bargains, discounts and also incentives and these will increase as you get closer to the new year.”
This time of year, manufacturers typically boost their spending on advertising in order to get customers in the door, said Jay Lawrence, general manager for the Jeff Wyler Auto Mall in Springfield. Weather can have a significant impact on sales, so manufacturers often boost incentives late in the year to help boost sales.
“It’s a very well incentivized month for the manufacturer,” Lawrence said. “They put a lot of money into getting rid of product this time of year.”
For Jeff Wyler, the last week of December is often the biggest sales week of the month.
“If you’re not having fun in the car business right now you don’t have a pulse,” Lawrence said. “It’s been a great year.”
Others have challenged the notion that this is the best time of the year to buy a vehicle. An August 2014 Money magazine article quotes TrueCar Chief Executive Scott Painter and others as saying August is actually the best time. The thinking there is that dealers want to get rid of previous model year vehicles to make room for new model-year offerings.
Regardless, if you’re a serious prospective car buyer, there are plenty of dealers out there who want a word with you.
Blake Arbogast, general manager of Dave Arbogast Buick GMC in Troy, likes the idea of an end-of-year sales surge.
“The manufacturers push it, the dealers push it,” he said. “I mean, everybody is trying to finish up the year on a high note.”
This year, General Motors is offering 20 percent off on oldest-age inventory, which Arbogast called “unheard of.”
“I’ve never seen that before,” he said. “I’ve been calling my friends and family and telling everybody I possibly can about this 20 percent off.”
Dan Nagel, general manager at White Allen Honda in Dayton, said everyone wants to close a sale these days.
“It’s not so much just the individual dealerships,” Nagel said. “But it’s also the auto manufacturers. They’re throwing out zero-point, zero-percent (financing), extra financing incentives, along with individual sales dealers trying to meet their sales quotas.”
This year has been a strong year for auto sales anyway, many say. Arbogast said his store’s sales rose 10 percent compared to 2013. Nationally, as of early December, sales of cars were up 1.3 percent compared to last year, while light-duty truck sales were up almost 10 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal. SUV and crossover sales rose 11.7 percent in 2014, the Journal reported.
“Usually we’re pretty busy between Christmas and New Year’s,” said Jim Foreman, owner of Jim Foreman Buick, GMC and Cadillac in Springfield. “A lot of the plants are shut down and people have time to come out and shop.”
He also noted GM’s 20 percent discount for older inventory, which is bigger than they have been in previous years.
“We’re expecting to sell some cars,” Foreman said. “We’ve got a lot of incentives and those all go away Jan. 2, so this is the time to get it done.”
Chris Tobey, co-owner of Key Chrysler Jeep Dodge in Xenia, agrees that these last days are a good time to test the waters.
“I would characterize the week between Christmas and New Year’s as probably the single busiest week of the year,” Tobey said.
Eric Hartter, chief financial officer for Huffines Auto dealerships in Texas, agrees that the incentives are out there.
But he said dealers also try to hit monthly and quarterly automaker quotas for volume. A large-volume city dealer can see “significant money” from an automaker for hitting those targets, he said.
Dealers also want to move vehicles off lots to avoid heavy property taxes, he said.
“In most states, dealers are trying to reduce inventories to reduce property taxes,” Hartter said.
The bottom line, dealers say: “You’re going to get as good as it gets this last week of the year,” Arbogast said.
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