Buying used in December or January?

asteroids over berlin

What are peoples opinion on this, as there a lot of new plates in January, is it an ideal time to buy used? I
was contemplating a new plate myself but i am thinking of buying an 18 plate in January or December might save a few k's on depreciation.

Henry Ford III

It's pretty marginal I'd imagine.

Wildly Boaring

I'd hold on till Jan. There are lunatics who change annually. So those cars about.

Also we are very snobbish on reg here.

ShadowHearth

Someone who kniws about car market more will correct me, but isn't it a rule that cars drop in price around march and november. In January cars still keep same prices.

colm_mcm

Henry Ford III wrote: »

It's pretty marginal I'd imagine.

I don’t think it is. They may well be pricing ahead for the new year but some stuff will have been sitting a few months, or taken in against newer stuff that’s been sitting up they needed to offload before the new year.

Best value and choice is in January/February/March IMO, Moreso February and a March.

An 18 that comes in against a 19 will be bought cheaper than the hire car/demos you’ll get in December.

Football Friend11

I work in the car industry and If you’re buying a used car Q2 is probably the best time to get a deal.
All salesmen will be interested in in Q1 are new sales to hit targets, we will take in a lot of used stock with trade ins and then come April we’ll need to shift it to improve cash flow and obviously it’s losing value the longer we have it.
Come May no one will buy a 191 but more likely wait for 192 so dealerships will be used stock rich then and focused on selling as will need the cash flow to take in trade ins for 192 which equals reasonable deals.

TL;DR: wait till Q2 and you’ll have more choice and better chance of a deal on used cars.

Stephen15

Would you not try up North

Wildly Boaring

Football Friend11 wrote: »

I work in the car industry and If you’re buying a used car Q2 is probably the best time to get a deal.
All salesmen will be interested in in Q1 are new sales to hit targets, we will take in a lot of used stock with trade ins and then come April we’ll need to shift it to improve cash flow and obviously it’s losing value the longer we have it.
Come May no one will buy a 191 but more likely wait for 192 so dealerships will be used stock rich then and focused on selling as will need the cash flow to take in trade ins for 192 which equals reasonable deals.

TL;DR: wait till Q2 and you’ll have more choice and better chance of a deal on used cars.

Ok. So would same hold true for Q4 as Q2?

Football Friend11

Wildly Boaring wrote: »

Ok. So would same hold true for Q4 as Q2?

To an extent but you would sell a lot more 191 then 192. It’s not 50/50. Also the build up to 191 begins pretty much in October so salesmen would be as focused on that as they are selling used as usually they’ve got Q1 targets and decent incentives to hit them. A lot of 191 sales will be made before year end.

Keeping used stock down is important at all times of the year and a deal is of course possible at any time but April/May is when dealers will have the most stock/money tied up in cars potentially losing value so is the most likely time to get a good deal.

asteroids over berlin

Stephen15 wrote: »

Would you not try up North

i was thinking about this but would they take a southern reg car as trade in?

Eric Cartman

Depends on what you're buying I find.

A lot of main dealers won't keep cars more than 4 years old on the forecourt so if its something turning 5 in January then December would be a good time to make a deal before its sold off to the trade.

Most bigger indy dealers don't like cars over 10 years old now because 'de insurance goes up' , find something turning 10 in January then december is a good time also.

if it doesn't fit that then yeah April/may or September are some quiet months in between the plate changes.

Idbatterim

Nissan running the below op, might be of interest... what cars are you interested in? could well be worth importing...

AT NISSAN YOU CAN HAVE THE BEST OF BOTH. ONLY WITH NISSAN, YOU CAN BUY TWO NEW CARS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE.
CAN’T DECIDE WHETHER TO BUY A NEW CAR THIS YEAR OR NEXT?
If you purchase the All New Qashqai or the No More Nice Car Micra for 191 Nissan this year, we’ll replace it with a 201 Nissan next year for FREE! There isn’t any other 191 offer on the market that even comes close to being such amazing value.

https://www.nissan.ie/vehicles/offers/two-for-one.html

bazz26

asteroids over berlin wrote: »

i was thinking about this but would they take a southern reg car as trade in?

Some will if they have a buyer for it down south. Some Northern dealers trade cars with Southern dealers all the time so it's worth asking.