Buying An End Of Model Year Car
As mentioned in a previous article on when is
the
best time to buy a new car,
if
you have a bit of flexibility in your wants and desires, buying
an end of model year car can save you a good bit of money
on your car purchase.
When thinking this strategy over a couple of
basic questions may come to mind. First, is the end of the year
really a good time to buy a car?
Also, if I buy an end of model year
car, am I not essentially buying a car that is now a year old?
Certainly, many parts of the car buying puzzle
are just personal choices. But here are a few thoughts to consider
and how they might fit your situation and buying style.
First of all there’s no doubt that the year
end models will carry with them the most incentive for you to buy
them.
All car dealers eventually must move their inventory. So, the
longer the cars sit, the more heavily they will become ‘incentive-ized’.
So, whether you should buy a car that is technically a year old
really depends on your car buying habits.
If you tend to keep your cars for a longer
period of time (say at least 5 years) then you would be better off
to save the money up front on the year end model because after 5
years of depreciation, the difference between what was a new car and
what was the year end model will negligible.
If, one the other hand,
you are the type of person that can afford a new car on a more
frequent basis you may want to forego the previous advice and opt
for the newer model.
Another consideration for the
end of model year car
would be if the manufacturer has not made any significant changes to
the newer model via technology or a body style change. If the
difference is only slight, then the best deal from a buying and from
a book perspective would be to get the year end model car.
And
especially a few years down the road when it does come time to trade
in the difference in the model years with very few changes will more
than pay you back by opting for buying the end of year model
instead of the new car.
|
