If you are a young person who hasn’t purchased a new car very often you might not know this. I shared this information with my daughter in Atlanta and she got a really good deal on a car.

The best time to buy a car, or so I have been told, is the end of the year. I suppose the dealerships are trying to get rid of inventory for that year and make their sales/profit look good on paper. If you can’t wait that long, then go shopping for a car at the end of any month.

Also, you can check monthly at the dealership and see what kind of specials they have that month. Sometimes, the car you want to purchase has a special deal on the interest rate or a rebate.

Make sure you do your research though. When I recently looked at a used vehicle at a Toyota dealership, they even had a laptop computer that I could look up the Kelly Bluebook price of the car I was interested in purchasing.

I have also heard it is better to sell your used car yourself. If you do trade your car in, make sure you know what your car is worth. Again, use Kelly Bluebook online. Trading in a vehicle sometimes makes you unsure if you really got a good price on the new car.

My husband bought a car and he had two different dealerships fighting over his business. He went to one and got a price for the car he wanted. Then he went to the other and got a price for the same car. It took a while for him to go back and forth trying to get one to undercut the other but in the end, he got the car for the price he wanted to pay. You may not be able to do this if you live in a small town. We have a lot of dealerships nearby.

Another time Calvin bought a car, he didn’t want leather seats. The dealership ended up throwing in a CD player to seal the deal. If the car you want doesn’t have cruise control, you could use that as a bargaining chip, too. If you decide you are willing to pay the price the dealership is charging, then say…I will buy this car today if you put cruise control on it free.

I bought a used car…Camry…and the dealership wasn’t going to fill the tank up before I purchased the car. I told them I wouldn’t buy the car unless it had a full tank. They said they didn’t do that for used cars. I said I am paying $xx.xxx for a car and you can’t fill the tank up. I can’t remember what I paid for the car because it was in 1999 (it was a 97 car) but I did leave with a full tank.

One more thing, I must put in a plug for Toyotas. I have put 200,000 miles on my Camry. I have NEVER had a problem with my air conditioner, transmission or engine problems. The only problem I ever had was a belt broke a couple years ago. I change my oil every 3000 miles (or close to it). My husband had a Toyota that he drove for 300,000 miles and it was still running when he gave it away to a relative.

I am looking into buying a Toyota Sienna van as my next car. I would love to have a new one but I have heard a car loses a lot of its value the first year so I keep thinking I will end up buying one that is at least two years old.