When (how many days) do you feel you have "High Leverage" for purchasing a vehicle? Thank you.

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Mike answered 3 months ago

If for a new vehicle: Dealers have a period of time where they pay very subsizied financing on the vehicle on their lots (known as the "floorplanning" period. This is for 90-100 days. Once this period ends, theyhave to pay a lot more to the manufacturer for financing to keep the vehicle on their lot, so have an incentive to get rid of the oldest vehicle on their lot. Just look at when the vehicle arrived on the window sticker to get an idea when the floorplanning period began for the vehicle you are interested in. If a used vehicle: Dealers keep used vehicles on their lots for an average of 90 days or so until they send it to an auction (because they can't tie up their capital forever, and must have turnover to get new vehicles), so if you can check the carfax report for a vehicle on a dealer's lot, and see when it changed titles, that's an indication of when the dealer received it from the previous owner. So the closer you are to 90 days past that date, the more leverage you have, since they'll get bottom dollar for the vehicle at the auction, and have to pay to enter it, clean it up, gas it, pay someoen to drive it there, etc.... (NADA does put out auction numbers each week that dealers subscribe to, so if you can get your hands on that, can get an idea what a dealer will get at auction if they don't sell the car within 90 days of receiving it. Mike Rabkin Fromcartofinish.com