Shopping for Your Vehicle
At this point you should have collected all the relevant facts on the vehicle, the options, and the pricing. Now you're ready to plan and execute your buying strategy.Plan your visit to the dealership for one of the times listed below at the dealership where you'd prefer to do business. Make sure you allocate enough time to permit the salesperson to take you through the entire presentation process. Have him or her present the car and take you for a demo drive. Remember, time is the only thing car salespeople have, and the more of it you consume, the more anxious they are to make sure that the time spent results in a commission.

The Best Times  to Buy a New Car End of the month
Car dealerships and car manufacturers work on a month-to-month basis. Virtually every car dealership is under end-of-the-month pressure to meet sales forecasts. If you've done your homework and are ready to buy, there's probably no better time than the last day of the rnonth

End of the year
Dealers are under pressure to move out the current year's inventory at the end of each year. Many manufacturers "rill offer dealers year-end or clearance incentives to motivate them to offer bigger discounts and move the cars off the lot. While you can make a good deal at this time, it's important to recognize that if you buy a leftover, you should plan to trade for your next new car at the same time of year. Many year-end leftover buyers fail to recognize that 12 months after they've purchased the car, the used-car market regards it as a two-year-old vehicle and the wholesale price will reflect that fact.

If you buy a car at the end of the model year, negotiate a deal that reflects the first year's depreciation. To determine what that depreciation is expected to be, you might want to consult a resource like Automotive Lease Guide Residual Perceutage Guide by calling 1-800-418-8450. For a fee, they will be able to tell you the projected depreciation after one year.

Rainy days
If the weather has been bad, you can assume that business in the dealership will be a little slow. Slow periods make sales managers very nervous because their general manager and/or dealer is probably pressing them to move some cars. After all, the interest on their floor plan doesn't know it's raining.

When car sales are slow
Another time to buy a new car is when business is bad and dealers have a higher than normal inventory on their lots. Generally, dealers like to have a 50-to-70-day supply of cars. This gives them ample choices for their customers without greatly impacting the cost of financing that inventory. But when that supply begins to climb to over an 80-day supply, dealers get very nervous, and they will generally do whatever they have to do to "move the iron"-including giving large discounts. To learn which car companies are having inventory problems, go to your library and ask for the current issue of Automotive News, the industry's weekly newspaper. In the back you'll find inven¬torv and sales data for each make and model.

Targeting the Best Opportuaities for Deals
We've already talked about the realities of supply and demand. If a vehicle is in high demand by buyers and there is limited supply, the chances for making a good deal are reduced. However, if the dealer has a large inventory and if that inventory has been sitting on the lot for several months, you will be in a position to deal. Keep in mind that every day a car, van, or truck sits on a dealer's lot, the bank is collecting another day of interest. One of the key pieces of information you'd like to have prior to negotiation is how long the car has been sitting on the lot. One clue to the answer is to open the driver's side front door and look for the metal manufacturer's label, which will tell you the date that the car came off the assembly line. If you assume that it took about a month to get the car from the factory to the dealer, you will have an approximate idea of how long the car has been in inventory.

Information Resource "Fightiiq Chance "
To help simplify your research you might want to consider something called "Fighting Chance." This is a, consumer information service that provides you with all the invoice data and the dealer and consumer incentives and hold-back percentages and amounts. They also supply you with the unit sales figures, which tell you if the car is in high demand or is a slug eating up lot space and interest money. All this information is important to have prior to shopping. One benefit over the published books that you find on the newsstand is that Fighting Chance provides you with current information. The price of their service is $19.95 plus $3.00 shipping and handling for complete informa¬tion on the car of your choice. Reports on additional vehicles, when ordered at the same time, will cost you $8.00 each. They also offer a fax service. For more information call 1-800-288-1134.