Is There a Best Time to Buy or Lease a Car?
The short answer to the question of when is it best to buy or lease is … when everybody else is NOT buying. A car dealership is like any other business in that they are eager to keep sales flowing. When sales are slow, good car deals are more likely to be available.
Notice in the above paragraph that we used the word “available” and not “offered” which means even though a dealer might be inclined to give up a great deal, if the customer never asks for it and doesn’t work for it, the great deal might never be offered. So, just because a slow sales period might be good time to buy or lease, buyers shouldn’t expect the deals to simply fall into their laps.
What are the best times?
Traditionally, good times to buy or lease are rainy days, cold days, snow days, weekday evenings, holiday periods, or any time that other potential customers are staying home or doing other things. Although these times might offer a better chance at a deal, it’s certainly not guaranteed. There are many other factors that come into play.
For example, if you are shopping for a hot new car model that is high demand, it really doesn’t matter what time you do your buying — you simply aren’t going to get a great deal.
On the other hand, if your dream car is one that most other people are not buying and a dealer has a large inventory of that vehicle, you are likely to get a good deal regardless of the time you buy.
Another good time is at the end of a month or quarter.
Dealers often have sales quotas for which they can receive large bonuses if the quotas are met. If a dealer is nearing his quota for a given month, he will be eager to make deals to make the additional sales he needs to reach his goal.
Of course, there’s no way for us as customers to know how a dealer is doing against his quota, or even if he has a quota. He may have already met the quota, or is so far from making it that there is no way he’ll get there. An ideal situation would be that in which it’s the last day of the month, late in the day, and the dealer is one sale away from making quota — and a serious customer walks in the door. It’s a good bet that that customer is going to get the deal of his life.
Of course, buying or leasing last year’s models as new-year’s models begin arriving is a good time to make a deal. Dealers and manufacturers want to get rid of existing inventory of older models to make room for new models.
The “catch” here is that dealers may not have inventories of all models and styles to choose from. To get a good deal means being a bit flexible in shopping for model, style, options, and color.
Since new-model vehicles arrive all though a year, there is no particular month or part of a year in which these kinds of deals are available, although the days between Christmas and New Years have always been a good time for car deals.
Finally, the best time to buy or lease a new vehicle is … when car companies are offering special incentives. These incentive deals are nearly always better than deals that could be independently negotiated with a dealer.
Incentives are offering in a variety of forms. There are cash rebates, low interest loans, zero interest loans, subvented leases, various bonuses, and hidden factory-to-dealer rebates that are usually given to customers as price discounts.
These are genuinely good deals — if the vehicle you want is one of those being promoted, and if you are able to take advantage of the deal within the limited time it is available.
