If You Know Their Rules ...
You Can Play Their Games

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 inventory and sales data for each make and model.

Targeting the Best Opportunities for Peals

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 batik 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.