Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Why are New Car Prices so Low on Black Friday?

According to research by Truecar.com, the day after Thanksgiving is the best day of the year to buy a new car.
The average new car discount on Nov. 27 is projected to be 7.5%. The average discount the day before and after is expected to be just over 6%. On a typical day throughout the year, car shoppers usually pay about 4.7% less than the sticker price.

Truecar.com projected particularly large Black Friday discounts on certain models. For instance, consumers should be able to pay about 28% off sticker price for a 2009 Suzuki SX4 compact car, 26% off for a 2009 Nissan Titan or Ford F-150 pick-up or 20% off a 2009 Hyundai Sonata sedan.
The article notes that one explanation is that Black Friday falls toward the end of the month when dealers are feeling the pressure to fill monthly quotas. So, that explains why discounts might be higher relative to days earlier in the month. There are also a lot fewer people shopping on Black Friday compared to days near the end of other months. With no one else around, the salesperson's outside alternative to selling to you is pretty poor, so you can bargain for better deals.

2 comments:

  1. "There are also a lot fewer people shopping on Black Friday" ???

    Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days of the calendar year. The quotas argument makes sense, but lower demand is simply incorrect.

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  2. Thanks - I try to be simple in my incorrectness.

    I meant that there are fewer people shopping for new cars on Black Friday, not fewer people shopping in general. While I know the retailers count on this day as one of the biggest of the year, I suspect that there aren't too many people at the car dealers.

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