When's the best time of the year to buy/lease a new vehicle

[gravitas]

Curious to see people's thoughts on when is the best timing to get into a new vehicle? Fall and winter is when most mfg's announce the next years new vehicles and try to blow out old stock. In spring there's traditionally a general consumer spending pullback so so mfg's are inclined to offer additional incentives.

Anything?

 

[good2bbad]

Based on past experience I would lean towards the Spring. Regardless, wait till the end of the month as salespeople are trying to meet their quotas and are more amenable to dealing.
g

 

[orem]

I bought a car once one boxing day, and combined with being near the end of the month it seems to be a good time. Regardless of when you buy, it is worth the $20 it costs to get the dealers invoice cost from someone like www.carquotes.ca.

 

[Sonny]

Latter half of January and first half of February are dead for dealers and they are desperate to sell anything at all.

 

[georgebushmoron]

Latter half of January and first half of February are dead for dealers and they are desperate to sell anything at all.

That is true. Next to that, Fall is also not a bad time.

 

[necko]

From my experience, I haven't found one time of year better than another, was told by more than one sales men, all leases were figured fr sticker price or invoice . Sales did not figure in?on my monthly lease rate or amountBut rather shop around yourself for a leaseing company rather than depend on the salesman to get u a good deal. The salesman fr the cardealer ship get a cash kickback fr their leasing co,

 

[SFMIKE]

I recently bought a new vehicle and used:

kbb.com

for the dealers invoice. This is KellyBluebook. I am not sure if this applies in the Canadian market. No cost whatsoever and it really paid off when it came to negotiating.

I would be curious to know if the two sites give the same dealer invoice price. I no longer have a need to do the leg work but somebody else might want to compare the two.

I bought a car once one boxing day, and combined with being near the end of the month it seems to be a good time. Regardless of when you buy, it is worth the $20 it costs to get the dealers invoice cost from someone like www.carquotes.ca.

 

[badwolfcgy]

Latter half of January and first half of February are dead for dealers and they are desperate to sell anything at all.

This is the best time for buying. After Christmas blues for most consumers.

 

[BC visitor]

This is like one of those "who is the best escort in town" sort of posts

Anyway, the key is buying or leasing? In both cases your working to negotiate down the price, in the case of a lease it is the captialized cost. However a lease is also greatly impacted by the residual value of the vehicle. Calculating residual value is a function of guessing what the car will be worth at the end of the lease. Financing companies can really lose or make bank in this process.

With that in mind, cars in high demand tend to have higher residuals, low demand lower residuals. For a particular model year, the residuals are highest at the start of the model year and usually adjust quarterly after that to the end of that model year. Residuals are usually higher also early on in a body style life, so when a manufacturer does a full body refresh, the residuals are higher as the car will come back while that body style is still in production.

Of course inventory is a factor - I recently heard some of the traditional big 3 are offering up to $8k USD on some large SUVs.

So I guess to get a good deal on a car -

Buying - negotiate like hell and get a good interest rate.

Leasing - negotiate for the lowest capitalized cost on a model with the highest residual and get a good daily financing rate.

Again - supply & demand (just like escorts!) - if te car you want is in high demand you will pay bank for it.

 

[HeMadeMeDoIt]

This is like one of those "who is the best escort in town" sort of posts

Anyway, the key is buying or leasing? In both cases your working to negotiate down the price, in the case of a lease it is the captialized cost. However a lease is also greatly impacted by the residual value of the vehicle. Calculating residual value is a function of guessing what the car will be worth at the end of the lease. Financing companies can really lose or make bank in this process.

With that in mind, cars in high demand tend to have higher residuals, low demand lower residuals. For a particular model year, the residuals are highest at the start of the model year and usually adjust quarterly after that to the end of that model year. Residuals are usually higher also early on in a body style life, so when a manufacturer does a full body refresh, the residuals are higher as the car will come back while that body style is still in production.

Of course inventory is a factor - I recently heard some of the traditional big 3 are offering up to $8k USD on some large SUVs.

So I guess to get a good deal on a car -

Buying - negotiate like hell and get a good interest rate.

Leasing - negotiate for the lowest capitalized cost on a model with the highest residual and get a good daily financing rate.

Again - supply & demand (just like escorts!) - if te car you want is in high demand you will pay bank for it.

I agree with everything BC has stated and have a few additions:

1) Any documentation fees need a response of fuck off!

2) Any battery levy, tax, ac charge deserve tge same respone.

3) Any fees to do with after lease assesment (see above)

4) Anything other than price of vehicle and GST and PST deserve a respone of GFYS.

5) You dont need to pay last payment on a lease, thats just their way of taking your money and holding on to it for 3/4/5 yrs.

6) Make sure you're aware of all manuf. rebates and assume that none will be applied at time of purchase/lease.

Good luck and feel free to ask if you have any questions....i hate car buying for a reason but do well nonetheless