Car Deals for December
We write these articles just before the beginning of every month, and every month we essentially say the same thing — that car makers and dealers don’t pre-announce new incentive programs before the old incentives and rebates expire. December car deals are no exception.
Many current incentive programs expire November 30 but a number of car makers (Ford, BMW, Acura, Honda, and others) announced programs at the beginning of November to extend through December until January 4, 2010. Read previously posted article on this web site for more details.
Incentives come in the form of rebates, 0% APR loans, low-interest loans, and factory-to-dealer cash. December incentives will include not only new 2010 models but also leftover 2009 models, which will be the source of some of the best deals, especially if dealers have a lot of inventory of these models.
Believe it or not, many dealers still have leftover 2008 models. They are desperate to get rid of them. These are brand new cars that have never been titled and in many cases are only slightly different than the newer 2010 versions of the same car. Some car manufacturers don’t change styling and designs every year, so you can drive a car that is 2 years old in model years but still look the same as this years model — for a lot less money.
The downside is that you might not have many choices of colors or styles if your dealer only has a few of the older models left on his lot.
December is always a good month to buy cars and get great deals. Why? Because it is traditionally a slow sales period for car dealers as customers are too busy Christmas shopping. Furthermore, dealers want to meet sales quotas for the month and year and are willing to make good deals. In many states, dealers must pay inventory tax on the cars sitting on their lot on January 1st. They would like to avoid this cost if at all possible by selling the cars before that date.
As always, we will let you know about December car incentives and deals as soon as we learn about them. Typically, car companies announce new incentives in the first few days after the old incentives expire. They don’t even tell their dealers about the new incentives until the day the new programs become active.
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