Happy Holidays to Me

All of the gifts have been unwrapped, the food has beeneaten, and your family and friends are slowly heading back to the parts of thecountry they all visited from. But in all of the holiday chaos you may have forgottento treat someone important with a gift this year: yourself. Don’t worry if you’rehaving trouble with your turbocharger or fuel pump. It’s the end of the yearand every car dealership has some great deals to land you behind thewheel of a new car.

Almost every manufacturer is offering financing as low as 0%on new purchases as well as cash back options. Chevy and Ford particularly are offeringup to $5,000 cash back on many of their new models if you buy before the NewYear. If you have your eyes set on a car that’s a little out of your pricerange for purchase, there is probably a leasing option available to get you inthat driver’s seat. Just to name a few, the new 2012 Lexus IS can be yours forlease at $329/month, or you can drive away in a new Nissan Maxima for$279/month. If your new year’s resolution is to go green you might want to takea Prius for a test drive, which are leasing as low as $219/month.

These prices are just deals stated on company websites. Onceyou’re at the dealership there is always wiggle room to get those payments to better fit your price range. If your car’s on its last leg, it’s a greattime to take advantage of these deals. I know many people who have driven offthe lot in a new car at a fraction of its price, especially those 2011 modelsleft behind. And hey, after all the shopping and preparing you’ve done forevery one else in the past few weeks, you deserve it. 

October New Car Sales Numbers Have been Released

Each month of a sales year for cars is as important as the last, while some months are bigger in sales numbers than others they all matter. Car sales numbers do not take into account individual parts like the indash navigation screen or car radio, they are all about whole cars. Car companies use the numbers in the slower seasons to get a hold of the demand for the larger seasons and what customers want as well.

For the month of October there are some very surprising shifts in the total sales numbers.  Volkswagen and Mini both saw close to 40% more sales than they did a year earlier, while Honda stayed just about level. October is a slow down in the automotive world and it’s a time for the dealers to start up their winter ad campaigns.  And start to push SUV and truck sales with the promise of safety with 4wd, even though many SUV’s are sold as RWD set-ups.

The sales numbers for the last 3 months are not really the best way to judge the actual demand for many car makes due to the lack of supply for many Japanese models and parts. The Earthquake and resulting tsunami shut down many plants in Japan where car models are built. None the less the sales numbers that are released this month are measured by percentage change vs the last year. This means that the car companies that are down may still have sold 4 times as many cars as the top companies.