Best time of year to buy a new car

mcbert

Hi,

family growing, so need a bigger car soon. If I went all out, traded in my car for a brand new one, is there an optimum time of year, price wise, to buy one??

My thinking is it would be when sales volume is lowest, I suppose before license plates change, i.e. in Nov/Dec and maybe April/May?

Simple as that? Is there enough difference in offers to bother waiting until April?

Thanks.

power pants

not really, depends on if you are buying brand new or 2nd hand and the price range of the 2nd hand cars

towards end of a month/quarter I suppose if salesmen need to meet their targets

mcbert

power pants wrote: »

not really, depends on if you are buying brand new or 2nd hand and the price range of the 2nd hand cars

towards end of a month/quarter I suppose if salesmen need to meet their targets

Wondering about brand new.

Hmm. They have monthly targets? Don't new cars generally have an order lead time of a few weeks? So I call in to a dealer on the last day of the month, they push me to take whatever new car they have on site, sign on the dotted line there and then...

bazz26

The most optimum way to buy your new car is to sell your old car privately rather than trading it in. Then you can negotiate a straight deal discount off the new car. However dealers have a lower margin on brand new cars than used ones.

It also depends how good a negotiator you are when it comes to striking a deal. There maybe a bottom price on a new car that the dealer can sell it for but you may be able to negotiate on things like free servicing or extras like Bluetooth, mats, etc. If you are financing a new car through the garage then that is another advantage as the dealer gets commission from the finance company for getting new business.

With the new registration system in place it might also be more financially beneficial to buy a brand new 141 reg car in May or June as opposed to July when the reg changes to 142.

One more thing, if you are buying a car that the dealer already has in stock then it might also work out that bit better for you as he is shifting what he already has as opposed to ordering something from the factory.

mcbert

I thought paying cash instead of finance would get a better price. ok, I understand, avoiding finance works out cheaper, if I need finance, it lets me push harder for a better deal. Got it.

So...

Dont trade in what I have, sell privately.
Negotiate on extras.
Negotiate on finance.
Wait until June.
Buy a car in stock.

Thanks.

Bpmull

mcbert wrote: »

I thought paying cash instead of finance would get a better price. ok, I understand, avoiding finance works out cheaper, if I need finance, it lets me push harder for a better deal. Got it.

So...

Dont trade in what I have, sell privately.
Negotiate on extras.
Negotiate on finance.
Wait until June.
Buy a car in stock.

Thanks.

Talking out finance or buying for cash (ie bank draft) shouldn't make any difference to the price as the dealer is just getting the money from the lending company. Now they may push Pcp on you which is glorified car leasing although they will make it sound convincing as they are making more on it. 99 percent of time it is always cheaper to just use your own money to buy the car if you have the money the only real exception would be the odd very good finance deal such as 0% and 2% finance but these deals are few and far between. At the end of the day it makes no sense to finance a car at 8-10 % if you can easily afford to buy it without a loan.

If your current car is anyway popular it would make sense to sell privately. Although I wouldn't rule our reading in the car easy to get a price both way ie trading in and not. Sometimes there is not much difference in the price and at that stage you need to identify is it worth the hassle of selling privately.

Before the split reg system came in there was always good deals to be had in July or August but since the new system came in I think it doesn't really make a difference when you buy there is good deals to be had.

The most important thing is price like with like in different garages and compared. Ie if your looking for a passat price the same spec car in 6 or 7 vw garages not 2 but make sure there giving you the same deal ie supplying the same spec car.

Anan1

Bpmull wrote: »

Talking out finance or buying for cash (ie bank draft) shouldn't make any difference to the price as the dealer is just getting the money from the lending company.

Dealer finance is worth a little extra to the dealership in commission, so you might get the car a bit cheaper with finance than without.

Scortho

Anan1 wrote: »

Dealer finance is worth a little extra to the dealership in commission, so you might get the car a bit cheaper with finance than without.

Yeah but if the interest rate is higher than what you'd get with savings there's little point.
No point getting finance at 6 or 7% if you've the cash sitting in a bank account earning 1 % after dirt, just so the dealer can give you a couple of hundred off the price.

R.O.R

If you are going for something likely to be in stock (1.6 Mondeo Style with Metallic, Bluetooth, Heated Screen and Fogs) then I'd be going in to a dealer around the 20th March.

End of 1st quater seems to be the really big target for dealer, as manufacturer's want to finish as high up the sales table as possible at end of March. At the end of June 2013, no one cared whether they sold a car or not as everyone was waiting for July, and it will be the same this year I'd say.

colm_mcm

I'd sell the trade in and negotiate a stonker of a deal on a demo/prereg
Mondeo seems to be savage value. Pity I dislike them.

Veloce

What is the typical expected % discount for a straight deal on a used car? Or does this vary wildly?

colm_mcm

Veloce wrote: »

What is the typical expected % discount for a straight deal on a used car? Or does this vary wildly?

Varies wildly as there is no fixed RRP for a used car.