A car buying expert reveals whether there’s truth behind the advice to wait till the last day of the month to buy a car.
Automative consultant Tomislav Mikula (@tomislavmikula) posted a video on TikTok that got to the bottom of the question.
“Should you wait till the last day of the month to get the best possible deal on a car? Well, let’s talk about it,” he says at the beginning of the video.
Mikula says that many people think that waiting until the last day of the month means a dealership is willing to lose thousands on a car in order to meet its sales quota.
But, he asks, “The real question is, is this true? Or is this just made up to get more sales?”
What’s the truth?
The TikToker argues that while you can get an incredible deal by waiting until the last day of the month to buy a car, you could probably get that deal on any other day.
“We’re talking about quotas. Quotas are extremely important. They impact incentives for the dealership. They also impact inventory,” he explains.
He acknowledges that dealers are sometimes willing to lose money at the end of the month to meet their quotas but notes that “a dealership also normally has a present amount as a desking manager that they’re willing to lose per car deal. … That would be the maximum amount [they’re willing] to lose.”
“You can get to that bottom dollar if it’s the 12th of the month, the 20th of the month, or the 30th of the month—it doesn’t matter,” he says.
Mikula says that while it might be easier to get to that bottom amount at the end of the month, customers aren’t going to be saving thousands of dollars.
So how do you get the best possible price?
His tip for getting the best price? Competition.
“Competition always drives the price down,” he says. “Of course dealerships want to hit a quota, but you know they also don’t want you to be doing? Buying a car from the competition down the street.”
He finishes the video by suggesting that customers use competition between dealerships to negotiate the best price.
@tomislavmikula Should you wait til the last day of the month to buy a car? #carbuyingtips #carbuying #cars #newcar #delivrd ♬ original sound – Delivrd
The wrong time to buy a car
Furthermore, Progressive reports there is a bad time to shop for a new car, and that’s when the buyer is desperate. “It’s better to shop for your new car while your old one still works,” Progressive states. One of the reasons for this, it cites, is that time is of the essence, which makes it difficult to wait around for a good deal. Also, if you don’t have a useable vehicle, the negotiations are automatically not in your favor, as it’s more difficult to walk away from a medicore deal.
Viewers agree
Mikula’s video received over 45,600 views, and users mostly agreed with his advice.
“It’s true. Don’t wait until the last day. We may have hit the quota already,” wrote one user.
“In my experience, the sales mgr is more likely to push a deal when they are short on their numbers which normally happen later in the month,” said another.
One person even seemed to have benefited from the Mikula’s advice already.
“I used your tips and wisdom and just got 11k off becuz i walked away yesterday only to them come back 2day with my price,” they wrote.
The Daily Dot reached out to Mikula via email for further information.
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