QOTD: Presidential-Grade Sales?
Even in this day and age of digital media, there are still no shortage of BUY NOW and LIMITED TIME OFFER ads on the radio or local television station. Presidents’ Day has historically been laden with so-called deals on new metal and, if a quick perusal of this year’s ads are any indication, this year is no different.
Here’s the question: with so many tools and information at our disposal these days, do you (or anyone you know) wait until a holiday like today to pull the trigger on a new set of wheels?
The dweebs at the suspiciously all-caps CARFAX kindly rounded up a sampling of vehicles advertised with plenty of cash on the hood for President’s Day, ranging from thousands of dollars off Ford machines to zero-percent financing on rigs from Kia.
Of course, some of these offers stretch well past Presidents’ Day, such as Hyundai’s zero-percent financing for 60 months on the 2020 Tucson, a rate which extends until the end of March. This puts the capper on the old saw that the question “what do I have to do to put you in this car today?” is, more often than not, more about putting another number on the sales board than ensuring you benefit from any sort of limited time discount.
Do you plan vehicle purchases around these events? Have you known anyone to do so? Sound off below.
[Image: F8 Studio/Shutterstock]
Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.
More by Matthew Guy
Comments
Join the conversation
I have been looking into a Ford Fusion Hybrid. Most dealers in S. Cal wanted about $300/month. This Presidents’ Day, offers from Ford dealers were running $199/month and $999 down. (Red Carpet cash of over $7,000 on a $28,000 auto.) This is only on the Hybrid SE model which was decontented over 2019 and 2020 (losing among other things, seat heaters and passenger front seat power adjustments.) The SEL model was more appealing to me, but no luck on the Red Carpet cash for that trim. Still, if the SE suits you, $199 a month and $999 down, without the usual Ford requirements of a trade in or being in a current lease, is a really exceptional deal.
I can't remember a time when I had the luxury of timing a new vehicle purchase to the market like this. There have always been life considerations that dictated the timing of the purchase (or, in one case, a narrow window of availability for the specific car I wanted). But, still, in a couple of cases, by choosing the right vehicle I was able to get an exceptional deal. Somebody is always trying to clear cars out.
I once bought a vehicle the day of the Super Bowl. That was fun because all the sales guys basically ignored me as they were keeping one eye on the TV the whole time. They clearly wanted to get back to watching the game so they moved quickly to close the deal and got me out the door without all the normal stalling techniques. I pretty much only buy used so my purchases tend to become more about what is available and not some silly promo or special sale. I use Car Gurus to monitor time on market and previous price drops. For my C7 I waited until 2 days before the end of the month to buy. I noticed they were dropping the price every 2 weeks but the savings were getting smaller each time. Based on sales of similar vehicles I predicted the next drop would likely result in the lowest possible price. So I made my offer at that price and they agreed to the deal. I even explained my logic to them and the sales guy seem to acknowledge that was how they operated.
Given that cars are a 365 day/year thing, and there is no "season", my favorite holiday is any morning, midweek, at the last week of the month. I tend to get good service when no one is there, and the end of month is stress on the salesman...not me. Last thing I'd ever do is show up primetime, weekend, etc....