When it comes to buying a new car, traditional wisdom says the best time of year is late December when year-end sales and incentives flood the market, and factories as well as dealers are looking to dump inventory.
That tradition changed during the COVID-19 pandemic as the chip shortage for cars’ computer-controlled functions occurred which also led to lower production and plenty of empty dealership lots.
But today, Aurora area dealers by and large say the good times are back as far as late-year car shopping.
Emir Abinion, CEO of the Fox Valley Auto Group in St. Charles which includes Volkswagen, GMC and Buick dealerships, said he is happy about being able to deliver the color and car people want, in most cases, as compared to a few years ago.
“The nice thing is that the dealers now have inventory which we didn’t have before. At our stores, I’m probably at 75% to 80% of what I used to carry before COVID – before the chips shut down and before logistic transportation issues happened,” Abinion said. “It almost seems like right after COVID, we had those two nightmares. The fact things are back by almost 80% is good … including customers getting what they want instead of settling for what dealers had on the lot.”
Abinion also said that low inventory in the past effected both the manufacturers and dealers by saving them some money, despite having lower sales numbers a few years ago.
“Manufactures and the dealers, for the most part, are so used to what’s happened in the last three years of having minimal inventory,” he said. “It does cost the dealers less money in interest in keeping that kind of inventory, and the factory likes that lower inventory allows them to save money on incentives and manufacturing costs. Today, we’re seeing a lot of incentives back on the vehicles which we didn’t see the last three years, and so those are good things from a consumer perspective.”
The benefits now, Abinion insists, include consumers getting the cars they want, and the incentives to drive a lower price on the vehicle.
He said the week after Christmas “is the busiest week of the year.”
“I don’t like it when one of my customers can’t get exactly what they want, but today, I love telling them, yes, we can get that vehicle and the color they want,” he said. “We’ll sell 50% of our vehicle sales for this month in just one week.”
Meanwhile in North Aurora, Doug Gerald, owner of the Gerald Auto Group which includes Ford, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan and other auto brands, said end-of-the-year car sales this year “are a little bit of the old, a little bit of the new.”
“A lot of models, we are doing great deals on and where we’ve got inventory, it’s strong,” Gerald said. “The week after Christmas is going to be the busiest week of the year. That’s our expectation and while there are still a number of models that are low supply and high demand, there are a number of models that we’re going to need to rely on in order to hit our sales numbers. The manufacturers are sending us cars, but some are in short supply and some are not.”
Gerald said dealers “are motivated to sell cars right now for our own sake, to close out our own year, and also for the manufacturers.”
“It’s hard to predict if we’ll have the model or color you want, so the best thing is to go in and see,” he said. “It’s not just month-end close, it’s year-end close, and the finance companies, the manufacturers and the dealers are all doing everything they can to move inventory.”
Jake Pezzuto, sales manager at Hawk Nissan in St. Charles, feels that “right now is probably the best time to purchase a vehicle. One of the best in recent years.”
“I think the buyers coming out of COVID are coming into incredible deals and incentives and we have a handful of leftover 2024s. The reason is because Nissan after Black Friday put thousands of dollars off on brand new vehicles above and beyond any dealer discounts,” Pezzuto said. “They also incentivized interest rates lower than anybody has seen at this point in four to five years. If there is a 2024 left on the lot chances are you’re going to get a rate deal. With Nissan, we’ve got more inventory than we’ve seen in years. It is the polar opposite of the last few years.”
Gerald and others including Jim Martinez, general sales manager who works at Hawk Ford in St. Charles, who has been in the car industry for 30 years, noted that end-of-the-year sales campaigns began earlier this year in order to drive more customers to the dealerships.
“If you buy a car now compared to maybe six months ago means saving about $1,500” off the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, Martinez said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
