This is a question that many new car shoppers wrestle with constantly. How do I know when is the best time to buy a vehicle? It is hard to discern, especially when we are constantly under a barrage of advertising from dealers claiming "This weekend only, the best deals of the year!" If you fall in love with a particular vehicle and develop a "gotta have it" mentality you will end up paying too much. Just think back to the Mazda Miata, the Dodge Viper, and even the Dodge Ram of 1995. All of these vehicles had addendums or add on prices on top of the window sticker and people were getting on waiting lists to buy them! The Miata and the Viper sold for as much as $5,000 over sticker and often there were people standing in line to pay it.
My advice is wait, wait until the initial excitement and fervor has calmed down to where you can negotiate a reasonable price. A couple of other considerations are the following: Some new models have bugs that may be worked out over the first three or four months and also if the sales aren't what was expected the factory may come out with rebates which will save you big money. From the standpoint of the best time of the month to buy, the end of the month you can usually get a better deal.
The reason for this is that most dealers set quotas for their mangers and salespeople to meet and they will usually do whatever it takes to get the deal so they can meet their quota. Just be sure of the expiration of any incentives that may exist on the vehicle you are interested in. Beware end of the year sales. Why do I say this? Most dealers are going to make the same amount on a car at the end of the year as they would at the beginning, unless you can practically steal the vehicle I don't suggest buying at the end of the year when the next year's models are coming in.
You are getting a car that is already one year old, even though it may have no miles on it, it is still going to be worth thousands of dollars less immediately. In general some time in the middle of the model year is the best time of the year to buy. If you want a really good deal don't go looking on the weekend when the dealer is overflowing with customers. Go shopping late at night right before the dealer is going to close or go shopping when it is cold or rainy.
When the customer traffic is slow, the dealer will do more to make the deal.
Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. For quality car care products go to http://www.carcarewizards.com
