As always, car dealers view holidays as a time when they go into volume mode. July 4th is a rare opportunity for them to start a new month on a high note.
We saw some incentive enhancements at the end of June, which was also the end of the second quarter of 2024. In many cases, we saw those incentives extended until Monday July 8th. After this round of incentives ends next week, the likelihood is that incentives will drop. That almost always happens at the start of a new quarter, but there are a lot of factors including the high inventory levels right now. Incentives will likely drop, but hopefully not by much.
Dealers will be very aggressive this week on trade values, pricing, and financing, so if you can get out and shop, the deals at our dealer affiliates will be very good. If you have a trade-in, the market is still sky high, and every dealer tells me they’d much rather give too much for a trade-in than go to auction.
Dealers also have to be concerned about the high interest rates they are paying on the millions of dollars of inventory sitting on dealer’s lots. It is a huge cost and the truth is, they are better off giving Car Pro Show listeners a smokin’ deal, than continuing to pay massive interest charges. Believe me, this is exactly how car dealers think and how I always looked at things around any holiday.
Lastly, you may have seen news about computer shutdowns at dealerships due to a ransomware attack. As of this writing, dealers’ computers are coming back online rapidly, and the rest have figured out how to work around the problem. MANY CarPro Dealers were affected but I can tell you this has not slowed them down selling or servicing vehicles. You’ll likely not notice any issues at a dealership.
Go directly to any of our terrific dealer partners by clicking on BUY A CAR, then CERTIFIED CAR PROS. Click the brand in which you are interested, put in your zip and the closest dealer will come up along with my contact person. Be sure to speak to them. If you email them, your VIP Certificate will come right back to you. Print it and take it with you!
If you’ve put buying off for one reason or another, take the leap now. It hasn’t been this good for buyers since before Covid.
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