It is that time of month again! This is it, the last weekend of October. As I told you in last week's article on the best time to buy or lease, YES, the end of the month really does make a difference.
The mindsets of the dealers change in the final days of the month. Inside a dealership, you have a lot of people trying to hit numbers, dealers trying to outsell their competitors, and in general, an overall BIG PUSH to finish a month as strongly as possible. In the car business, there is a saying: You are only as good as your last month. You go into “volume mode” this time of the month and throw away your per-car-profit averages.
Already high trade-in values magically get better, dealers work harder for the best interest rates, and if you are credit-challenged, dealers and lenders work harder for approvals at this time of the month.
OCTOBER ENDS THURSDAY NIGHT AND SO DO THE CURRENT INCENTIVES. We could see a de-escalation of incentives, probably not much, but automakers like to save money before the big end-of-the-year blitz. It does not help the dealers that their last day of the month is also Halloween.
If you have a trade-in, don’t miss these used car prices. The sooner you trade, the more money you’ll realize. Prices have been steadily dropping the last few weeks at the auction, and the actual market will adjust to that soon, but hasn’t so far.