Record Car Deals Expected for Black Friday
Car shoppers can add doorbuster bargains to their list of things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. According to experts at Edmunds, the leading car shopping and information platform, car shoppers will find some of the best deals in years on new vehicles this Black Friday.
“Incentives reached near-record levels in October, so we expect automakers to continue to sweeten savings as the year winds down,” said Jessica Caldwell, director of industry analysis at Edmunds. “With slower sales of 2017 model year vehicles, automakers and dealers are more likely to leverage fully the Black Friday holiday as an opportunity to thin bloated inventories to make room for 2018 models.”
Edmunds research shows that Black Friday is one of the biggest car shopping holidays of the year, accounting for 15 percent of total November car sales. But this also means buyers looking to take advantage of these savings need to be ready to fight the crowds: dealership traffic roughly doubles during these big holiday sales weekends. To help buyers take advantage of the bargains and avoid spending their entire holiday weekend at the dealership, Edmunds created an insider guide on how shoppers can make the most of their time and money this Black Friday:
- Get a head start on research: Maximize your time by gathering as much information as you can beforehand. Look for rebates and incentives in advance to get a good baseline for comparing deals. Call to check inventory and get price quotes — and call competing dealers to ask them to beat the deal you have in hand.
- Schedule an early test drive: If your schedule permits, test-drive vehicles in advance of the holiday weekend. If that’s not possible, schedule a test drive as early as possible on the morning of Black Friday to beat the crowds.
- Sort out your paperwork beforehand: Call the dealership and see what paperwork you can complete online or from home. Before heading into the dealership, make sure you have in hand all your necessary documents, such as your driver’s license, insurance information and loan paperwork.
- Read the fine print: When you’re looking at a deal, make sure you’re talking about out-the-door terms, including interest rates, sales tax and car fees. You can always negotiate the car’s price more aggressively to offset other components of the deal.
“By the time Black Friday rolls around, you should already know what car you can afford, whether you are leasing or buying, and have narrowed your list to about three models at most,” said Matt Jones, car salesman turned Edmunds senior consumer advice editor. “Finally, when you’re at the dealership, make sure you ask your salesperson if you’re getting all of the incentives available on the car. Sometimes they’re not advertised, and if you don’t ask, the salesperson isn’t necessarily obligated to bring them up — which would be a huge miss given the deals we’re expecting to see this holiday season.”
More details on how to shop for a car on Black Friday can be found here: https://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/black-friday-car-shopping-tips.html