Best Time to Buy a Car

My wife wants a new car so I finally convinced my brother, who works for a car dealership, to spill the beans on the secrets of car buying. In this first installment, we are exposing the best time to buy a car.

I hope by reading previous posts that you are in the market for a used car and not a new car. Please remember that buying a new car is one of the worst financial decisions you can make. New cars lose about 20% of their value the moment you drive it off the lot. Even if you are dead set on buying a new car, the tips below will help you pay less:

• Time of the Year - Winter is the best time of year to buy a car. It is cold out and customers are either busy spending money on the holidays or still paying off their credit cards from the holidays. December may be the best month because many dealerships are eager to hit their annual goal by the end of the year (assuming their year end is December and not June).
• Time of the Month - The last three days of the month are the best days to buy a car. Most dealerships are charged a monthly overhead fee for each car on the lot to cover car cleaning, insurance, etc. Sales managers and salesman are also eager to deal because they want to meet and exceed their monthly sales quota.
• Time of the Week - Weekdays are the best days for car shopping. Friday night, Saturday and Sunday are the worst days because they are the busiest days. Go shopping on Monday or Tuesday, when dealers are the slowest. The salesperson will spend more time with you and be more anxious to sell a car (especially if they didn't have a good weekend).
• Time of the Day - Go shopping at night. It is a lot easier in the negotiation battle when the salesperson and finance manager are tired from a long day of work and want to go home. They will be quicker to come to terms when their significant other is calling every fifteen minutes to find out when they will be home. Sounds bad, but you will get to best price a lot sooner.

In short, I guess the best day to buy a car in 2007 would be Monday, December 31st at 7pm. Happy car shopping.