Best time of year to buy a car?

In general it is during the beginning of the new car year, when they want to get rid of all the new cars from the old car year, around October. Some manufacturers debut their new cars early, so you want to watch for that.

December. Anything you own on 1/1 you pay personal property on right?!

For New, I would say at the end of December or the beginning of January. It is always when I got my best deals. I guess it is because shoppers are broke after xmas and if this wasn’t in their budget to buy, they will wait a few months to recover from the xmas shopping. Plus all the cars depreciate in value at the turn of the new year. At least, I think the last one may be the reason they try to reduce prices. Buy January they will be getting ready for the 2015 cars that will be coming in soon. They only have a few short months to be rid of any 2013 and the rest of the year to get rid of the 2014.

As to which is a better deal. Used can be a better deal than new. A car quickly depreciates at a fast rate the first year. So if you bought the car on a loan you can lose quite a bit. Say you bought a new car for 30k. You total your car a few months later. You insurance will only pay the current value. You probably lost 7000 the first year. So they pay 23000 and you still have to pay the other 7000 and purchase another car.
Now if you get a good used car that is only few years old and is in good shape and you got a good deal, Then you may come out even if you total the vehicle.

June. The dealerships start getting the new ones in in August/September, and they want to clear their lots.

Anywhere between Oct to end of Dec because they really want those cars in the outgoing year off their lots. Another way to get a good deal is with cash, you can really negotiate something when you are in a position to walk in and are able to just pay for it. I would also go one year old rather than brand new since the second you drive it off the lot you loose money.

I heard yesterday on “This American Life” that the best time to buy a new car is at the end of the month because dealerships are struggling to achieve their monthly sales quotas entitling them to huge bonuses from the auto makers. The program was actually a fascinating and revealing look at 2 days in the life of an auto dealership and the desperate tactics dealerships will employ to achieve those quotas which usually mean the difference between profit and loss.

I bought a car on December 31, best deal I ever got, because it bumped the salesman up in the sales goal incentives, plus the dealership got to consider it a sale in that year.

I got a great deal on my wife’s car at the End of the Year Clearance Sale.

I still had to do a little haggling with the salesmen but all in all we were pleased with the purchase.