[Glen e]

Well it's December, this is absolutely the best time to buy a car IN STOCK. Simply because this is a perfect storm and confluence of three factors that come together that are not available any other time of the year. Dealers are trying to make a:

monthly goal,
quarterly goal
and an annual goal

And each goal can net them huge amounts of back end money. So they will let a car go cheaper now, than ANY other time of the year. Best thing to do is have your financing in place, be ready to offer a low price of whatever you feel comfortable with, and do it in the last 10 days of the month. It is a real situation..

[Fraxum]

Originally Posted by Glen e

Well it's December, this is absolutely the best time to buy a car IN STOCK. Simply because this is a perfect storm and confluence of three factors that come together that are not available any other time of the year. Dealers are trying to make a:

monthly goal,
quarterly goal
and an annual goal

And each goal can net them huge amounts of back end money. So they will let a car go cheaper now, than ANY other time of the year. Best thing to do is have your financing in place, be ready to offer a low price of whatever you feel comfortable with, and do it in the last 10 days of the month. It is a real situation..

Interesting, I had always thought January and February were the two big in stock months due to the weather here in the northeast. I was not aware of annual goals. Do they exist for all manufacturers? Of course the Chevy 20% off is going to beat most of thoses deals.

[Chemkid1115]

I've never bought a car in December. It makes sense that dealers are looking to end the year strong.

[JBinSD]

The interesting dynamic here is the cross-over from 2016 to 2017 MY, where the '16's have been deeply discounted, but the MY '17's have been around, and the '18's are probably only 6 mos off, so any remaining '16's should go quickly, but we'll also start seeing '17's being reduced. I always "try" to buy in Dec, but couldn't wait, and didn't want to have trouble locating exactly what I wanted, so the 20% in Oct was good enough to me. A '16 with a tag will probably be a steal this month, if there are any left. . . .

[LStick]

If I'm in the market, I usually find the car online I'm going to zero-in on about now, for an end of year purchase.
I visit the car on the lot, look it over for obvious flaws, touch base with a salesman, and then go home.
I keep in contact with the salesman (only when he contacts me first)

I wait for additional Holiday Cash to be announced
I know what ($$) it will take to earn my business.
By then, its probably a week before Christmas.

If I get the "Are you ready to do business" phone call.....I go in and try to make a deal. Sometimes it works....sometimes not.
If I don't get the phone call.....I show up un-announced.....and try to make a deal.....usually surprising the salesperson. Again...sometimes it works....sometimes not.

If that car happens to have been sold, having done my homework, I research cars.com, auto trader, or cargurus and move on to another similar car.
A back up plan.

Last year, I waited out on a certain new leftover 2014 Silverado, hoping to score huge cash off.
By the time it all played out, I ended up buying a new 2015 Silverado, that was a fresh build that hadn't been sitting around a lot for 2 years waiting to get sold.
The 2015 was $2000 less than the '14 I had been worrying about. Saw the 2015 in a pop-up ad online. Couldn't believe the price and drove to the dealer 1/2 hour later.

I drove it off the lot that night. Five days before Christmas.

[c4racer]

I've bought new cars all times of the year, one was in December - Mazda that we currently own.
I think each year is different and stock levels and what car, mfg, etc.
Often stock of current model years is getting pretty thin by December.
I've had better luck in Sept-Oct timeframe for buying a left-over.
But December should be a good time to find the last few '16 Camaro hold outs.

[Glen e]

It's really not different every year. December is the culmination of external and internal goals every dealership has got hit with manufactures and owners and it's been this way for years. During the year there are certain incentives that change things but the last 10 days of my the year is everybody's trying to make numbers. I'm sure there will be a few other people to work for dealerships to come along to verify this. In addition there are salesman recognition programs that run annually that end in December.

[aka Reckless]

I think some states dealers may have to deal with taxes or something on current inventory when the year rolls over? I've just heard this before, and not sure of the validity??

[pdiddy972]

Originally Posted by Fraxum

Interesting, I had always thought January and February were the two big in stock months due to the weather here in the northeast. I was not aware of annual goals. Do they exist for all manufacturers? Of course the Chevy 20% off is going to beat most of thoses deals.

The 20% is only on leftover 2016s though, right?

[paul84043]

Car dealers end their fiscal year at the end of September as do the majority of US corporations, that's why the new year models start coming out around august. October through December is Q1 across most of the Western world.
Decmeber is a decent month because lots of models don't sell well in the winter, it's cold across most of the US and people don't want to stand at a car dealer and freeze their butts off to buy a car.

[m666etal]

I think the 20% rebate from Chevy on 2016 models was the best deal so far this year. Hope for the best in December.

[Glen e]

Originally Posted by paul84043

Car dealers end their fiscal year at the end of September as do the majority of US corporations, that's why the new year models start coming out around august. October through December is Q1 across most of the Western world.
Decmeber is a decent month because lots of models don't sell well in the winter, it's cold across most of the US and people don't want to stand at a car dealer and freeze their butts off to buy a car.

This isn't about what fiscal quarter of the dealer is in. That may be on the dealer P&L, but all manufactures care about what they sell in a calendar year. All sales goals , CSI dollars, dealer rankings are finished in the fourth quarter December 31. The biggest month-end close of the year is December 31.

Also automotive news publishes dealer volume rankings which are extremely important dealers, they are based on the calendar year.

[OddJack]

Originally Posted by pdiddy972

The 20% is only on leftover 2016s though, right?

Yes, only 16

[txferrari]

Was in the car biz for a few years. Every month is a close out month. Not just December. If you rely on December to meet your goals, that means you failed in the previous 11.