<p>Back in “the day” it was said that buying a car should be done at the end of the month. Supposedly that was when the quotas had to be met and you could get better deals. Does anyone know if that’s true? Maybe it never even was true, but I have always heard that.</p>
<p>We need to buy S2 a car pretty soon and we have time this holiday weekend. Wondering if that would matter? We’re thinking Corolla - though maybe Camry if the price is right.</p>
<p>Appreciate any opinions!</p>
<p>I’m not sure anyone here would admit to being a car salesman. :)</p>
<p>The best time to buy a car is when the new models come out…and they are trying to clear out the previous year’s cars. </p>
<p>Yes, end of the month can potentially be a time when quotas need to be met and there is considerable pressure to move cars off the lot. “Potentially” means that it probably depends on the particular lot, the types of cars they sell, and what their sales figures have been for the rest of the month. Here’s a link to a podcast that focuses on this:
<a href=“http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/513/129-cars”>http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/513/129-cars</a></p>
<p>Nevertheless there is a limit on pricing. I was been kicked out of a dealership by offering a truly “below the cost” price. >:) </p>
<p>I don’t know about July 4th, but once salespeople meet their quota, they get bonuses for more cars sold. My friend got a Honda Civic Monday. The Civic is only 6" shorter than the Accord. They had been shopping, the salesman called them to come look at a car that fit their needs. He gave them a great deal. I don’t know all the differences between Corolla & Camry.</p>
<p>OP-This “urban legend” if you will was actually confirmed to me by a finance manager at Nissan when I bought my Rogue this past weekend. He said that it’s especially true for used cars; a lot of the time they will take an offer on a used car that they wouldn’t at the beginning of the month if they need to meet quota.</p>
<p>artlover, I had a Volkswagen dealership look me in the face and say there was absolutely no way they could give me the price I wanted on a used Tiguan. (It was in the range of fair market; I had researched before I went in.) I told them I wanted to be out the door for under $20k. They said no way. I told them I would find someone who would make me the deal I wanted and walked. Bought my Rogue for–you guessed it–out the door under $20k. Guess who called me the next morning asking if I’d bought a car yet? Yup, good ole’ VW. Joke’s on him. I told them I wanted to buy that day and I really wanted the Tiguan, but I couldn’t afford the price they wanted. I gave them every opportunity.They saw a young girl there with her dad and assumed I was either stupid or loved the car so much I was willing to pay extra. Nope.</p>
<p>I used to run an aftermarket department at Chevy dealership and YES, the dealership does run monthly numbers. The last weekend of the month is when they did the bulk of their advertising to get customers in the door. Dealerships are always in competition with all the other dealerships of the same manufacturer and get better deals from the corporation the higher ranked they are.</p>
<p>There are a lot of deals available at the end of the model year. Just be aware that there are less cars to choose from. (colors/features) I accompanied S1 last week to look at cars. He is sold on one of the Jeeps, but I am sold on the Ford Fusion. Wow - talk about a great look and a lot of features for an extremely low price. </p>
<p>There is truth to that, at the end of the month they are looking to boost sales to make up if the rest of the month has been so so. I would wait until the end of July to do your shopping, for two reasons: 1)The sales quota 2)auto sales tend to be slower in July from what I have heard and 3)you are getting close enough to year end that the dealer may want to get rid of this years models ASAP to make room for the 2015’s. </p>
<p>Biggest piece of advice? Do your research, take a look at cars.com, at Edmunds or the like, to find out what the dealer cost is, what fair prices are. </p>
<p>The Corolla is a nice car, it is simply the more inexpensive car to the Camry and in general, a corolla will be a lot cheaper (it all depends on the equipment on the car, a fully loaded corolla high end model could be more expensive then a lower end Camry). There are a lot of nice cars out there now, you have a lot of choices, Hyundai makes decent cars, Hondas are nice and no longer get the huge premiums they used to, I am not quite as sold on Nissans that they have cleared up some quality issues they had. I also am pretty impressed with the cars Ford is putting out, my informal network of gear heads have said they are putting out a decent product these days…wouldn’t touch GM with a 10 foot pole right now, and I am not so certain that Fiat has gotten Chrystler products to be better. </p>
<p>We spend way more on houses than we do on cars, yet it is very easy to find out the true value of a house and what one should pay for it, based on neighborhood, etc.</p>
<p>Yet, when I buy a car, no matter what kind of “deal” I negotiate, I always fell like I got screwed. MSRP, invoice, price, etc. are all make believe numbers. What they REALLY pay the manufacturer for a car is one of life’s great mysteries.</p>
<p>I won’t buy a car from ANYONE who says they need to “go talk to their manager” about my car deal. Period. I’m sick of that stupid game. </p>
<p>And, can you negotiate at Car Max? That’s what I want to know!</p>
<p>Having just rented a few cars in a row, I can say that all Hyundais are very, very nice, and Nissan Versa drives like a tin can. 
We owned several Corollas over the past 20 years and they were as reliable as cars come. Camry is a bit bigger, roomier, and drives a bit more smoothly. If you are looking at Corollas, take a look at the Matrix version of Corolla - I love the space for stuff the hatchback provides.</p>
<p>We recently bought a Hyundai for the first time, and so far, we are quite impressed. Were looking at 2011’s (returned leases), and the Santa Fe we bought has lots of features other comparable cars didn’t have.</p>
<p>CarMax will not negotiate.</p>
<p>We just purchased a 2014.5 Camry from a Chicago area dealer for $212xx (before tax/title/license) Had a sticker price of $25,790. If you are a current Toyota owner or qualify for college grad or military rebates, there are extra rebates available. There are some very good deals to be had right now. We actually could have even gotten a better deal - we were planning to travel for it, but a family emergency nixed that trip. </p>