At some point, nearly everyone will buy a car. And you should want to get a good deal when you do. There is quite a bit of information out there about when the best time is to buy a car. This article and this article provide a lot of good information about timing. Both articles agree that earlier in the week and toward the end of a month, quarter (March, June, September, December) or year are the best times to buy a car.
How Can You Get a Better Deal?
Aside from timing, car shopping when you do NOT have an immediate need to buy a car gives you the best negotiating leverage: the ability to walk out and drive home in the car you already own. When you know your car may not last too much longer (maybe six months to a year from replacing it), you might consider casually starting to look for a new car. If you find the right car and can get a great price, it might make sense to replace your car a little earlier than you planned.
How It Worked for Me
Currently, I have a 2013 Toyota Highlander. It wasn’t a planned purchase, and I didn’t want to buy a car at the time. I was having some back problems that were significantly aggravated by driving my Toyota Corolla, so I took the recommendation from a friend to look at getting a more comfortable car to drive. It made sense to start looking at SUVs. I test drove 13 different SUVs. When I decided on a Highlander, I shopped around the different dealerships to see the options they had available. I went to a few different Toyota dealerships and test drove the different trim models. One dealership had everything I wanted, except it had one very expensive add-on: an $1,800 entertainment system. That was a sticking point for me. I didn’t know when we were going to have kids, so it would go unused for a while. (It ended up not being used for three years.) And it was an $1,800 portable DVD player with two sets of wireless headphones (which we still don’t use). The salesman had everything all drawn up, but I just couldn’t sign the papers knowing there was an expensive add-on that wasn’t going to be used for the foreseeable future. I decided to not sign the papers and instead get the keys for my Corolla and head home.
When I went to get the keys, the lead saleswoman asked, “What is keeping you from buying this car today?” My response was, “Basically, I can’t get past the entertainment system. It is really expensive, and I don’t know when it would actually get used. I don’t have any kids.” She replied, “So if you didn’t have to pay for the entertainment system, would you buy the car tonight?” I thought for a moment and answered, “Yeah, I guess so.” She looked at the salesman I was working with and said, “Write it up.” I was in shock. She just ‘erased’ the entertainment system from the price and gave it to me for free.
Based on this experience, I’ll be looking to use similar tactics to purchase any vehicles in the future. And for the record, with the amount of road trips we have taken with our two kids, the entertainment system might be the best feature in the Highlander. Well, aside from the heated seats.
Look Ahead
Many times, our cars send us signals that they are going to start having more significant (and expensive) problems. That may be a sign for you to have your car looked at by a mechanic or to potentially start shopping for a new vehicle. A car should never be an impulse buy. Also, you should financially prepare before you buy a car and do some research at home before you start shopping. In the next post, I’ll go over considerations before you purchase a car, but knowing when to buy a car and having the best leverage (the ability to walk away) can save you money when you are purchasing a car.
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