Hello! My wife, son, and I will be relocating from NYC to Dallas this September. Therefore, I have recently started looking for the best deals and offers to buy or lease a car and I see lots of offers but they all seem to end in July. I don’t own a car in NYC and it has been a very long time since I have bought one. My question is what is the best time to buy a car? Do these deals of 0% financing and $129/month lease that I see ending in July also exist year-round? Will there be similar offers in September/October/Novermber? Thank you!
You never know when they will end. Acura has had their .9% deal for quite some time. Normally the end of the model year is the best time to buy the previous year but the main thing is you buy when you want or need to. So for you that would be September. I have bought in March, December, July, etc. and never seemed to make much difference. For some reason I usually have bought when the general economy is in the dumps which has been the last six years. Sales were up in June though so who knows.
Best time to buy a car: when yours is no longer reliable or safe or your needs change. Not one moment before.
Best time to lease a car: NEVER. NEVER EVER. Leasing is a bad deal for a whole list of reasons, not the least of which is that you make the equivalent of a car payment and never develop one penny of equity. When the lease expires, they come take your car and leave you with NOTHING, NADA, ZIP, ZERO, not one thin dime, and you have to start all over from scratch. Oh, and if you have an accident you have ZERO SAY in the repairs or compensation because you don’t own the car. And, if you get a ding a year down the road, you cannot just “live with it” or you’ll pay to the nose when you return the car at the end of the lease. And you’ll have ZERO say in getting it repaired.
Bottom line: if you lease, you pay the monthly payments as if you bought a car but you have no say in anything, because YOU DON’T OWN THE CAR!
You’re looking for the BEST financial deal and you’re considering LEASING. That doesn’t make sense. Leasing is probably the WORSE financial decision a person can make.
I agree with the consensus here, leasing is not good. Buying late summer is usually a good time to buy new since the new model year is approaching and dealers want to rid themselves of last year’s models. The best TYPE of buy is 2-3 year old used cars. Cheapest per mile by a long shot. Buy a 2 year old off-lease car with warranty left for 60% of new with 80% of the use left. Those will save you money all throughout the year!
I agree with the suggestion that you buy a gently used, low mileage car. Let someone else get hit with the depreciation that happens the moment you drive a new car off the dealer’s lot.
If you find such a car at the deal (ie, if you find a gently used Ford for sale at a Ford dealer), look into getting an extended warranty FROM THE DEALER. Third party extended warranties can be problematic (that’s putting it nicely) but if the dealer will let you pay to extend their own warranty that can be a good deal, depending on the circumstances.
I bought a certified pre-owned (ie, used) Mercedes from my local dealer for less than $20K. It came with a one year/10K miles warranty, but I was able to extend it by two more years / 20K miles for just an additional $2K. Given the cost of Mercedes service, this turned out to be a excellent buy. Again, whether or not an extended warranty is a good deal for you depends on the circumstances.
NYC / State is the WORST place to buy a car…Taxes and dealer mark-ups are always maximum. I would wait and buy the car in Texas…By the way, have you ever lived in Texas? Are you familiar with that state? This is going to be a BIG change for a New Yorker…
September is a very good time. Wait until you get to Dallas to avoid paying taxes and registration fees twice. The selection won’t be as good in September as it is now, but there will be good deals on 2014 models. If you spend a lot of time in Dallas now, you might want to take advantage of the good selection.
I agree with the other posters that buying makes better financial sense that leasing.
I agree that September will be a perfectly good time to buy. Even later in the year you can sometimes get even better deals on the previous year’s cars, but selection is less, and the most popular models will be gone or not offering any special deals. For a new car, your best bet may be a car that was recently redesigned. Good deals can often be had on the old model. Also, cars tend to get more reliable during the years they are made. Cars that have been in production for five or more years will have most of their problems resolved. What kind of car are you looking at buying? Or do you not know, not being very familiar with what’s out there?
The best time to buy a car seemed to be March 2013. I got a good offer on a Honda CRV on the internet so naturally I bought a Rav4. I can’t wait to buy another new car in six years. SIX YEARS! I guess it doesn’t matter what time of year it is if you intend to keep it for that long. That should be your last worry.
One big difference you’ll probably notice is that the city will shut down for a tiny bit of snow, they don’t have the snow removal equipment like they do in NYC.
I, too, would wait until I got to my destination before I bought anything. Though, with all the other things going on with getting moved in, it could be frustrating to do.
The main thing would be to not seem like you’re in a hurry to buy, that is when you’ll get the worst deals.
I agree with most of the posters
But I don’t agree that extended warranties are worth it
Countless studies have shown that the repairs almost never even come close to the amount paid for that warranty
Of course, if you buy an unreliable car, such as a Benz, Audi, Range Rover, Jaguar, etc., you will undoubtedly recoup some of that money.
Unless extended warranty pays for an engine or transmission, you will not break even
But even if you were in that situation . . . if the car needed an engine or transmission at low mileage, that’s not a very good sign. It implies that the car isn’t that good, after all
Extended warranty is EXPENSIVE peace of mind