The Best Time To Purchase

Absolutely there are better times to buy then other. Going to a dealer showroom the first Saturday in May is like hanging a sign around your neck saying "please take me for all I have"! You see there are less incentives and dealers hold steadier to their figures in the prime selling season. You need to be a student of the process to appreciate what is being done.

Manufacturers build the cars and sell them to dealers at invoice price and give dealers incentives to reach quotas or "sales numbers" for the month. The dealers then sell to consumers (that would be you) at a price suggested by the manufacturer (this would be the Manufacturer Selling Retail Price or MSRP). The reason for the MSRP is for dealers to make a profit as well as pay their employees, building costs, etc.

You would believe that this is fair to a dealership and that they shouldn't be deprived of this source of revenue. The problem with this logic is that the car dealership make the majority of their profit in their service area so they really aren't hurting at all. The ones that feel it the most when you bargain dollars on the deal is the salesperson that is working for straight commission and the dealership doesn't care since they are into numbers of sales.

Now getting back to the main topic, the dealer is trying to reach the sales number that the manufacturer sets since they will discount the price that they sell to a dealership by reaching that magic figure.

If you've been paying attention and know yourself what working under a deadline is, you can now see that your chances of a better deal comes closer to the point where time is now the factor in the process. Buying a car in the last week of the month is much smarter that buying in the first.

How about time of year? There too you can be sure that there is a better time of the year to buy than other times. Knowing that a new car model year comes every year (used to be that new cars weren't shown until the 1st of September, but that has gone by the wayside in the past few years.

Still there is a point where new models are choking a dealership and the old ones need to go. Buying from July to October can find many more incentives that during other times. Purchasing in December can also be a good experience since many dealers are looking to make the end of calendar year sales quota.

Whenever you are in the market for a new vehicle be sure to do your homework before ever going to a car dealership.