Best Day of the Week to Buy a New Car
There are countless variables that determine what price a dealer is willing to sell a car for. They have many things to consider including allocations, how long cars have been on the lot and certain factory to dealer incentives. Based on data that we have at our disposal, it seems that a significant factor in the final price you pay is the day of the week that you buy.
Largest Discounts are on Wednesday
Our friends at TrueCar compiled data and have determined that the biggest discounts off of MSRP occur on Wednesdays. You can see this fact illustrated on the chart below. Maybe Wednesday is called hump day for another reason!
This data was compiled from actual purchase data. You will notice that the average discount on Wednesday is much bigger than the discounts given on the weekend. In general, weekdays tend to have higher discounts than weekends. When compared to other weekdays, Wednesday is still better but it is not quite as dramatic.
Why Does this Happen?
More people are off from work and able to go to dealerships on the weekend. Therefore, the dealers are much busier on Saturday and Sunday. The law of supply and demand kicks in. There are more customers so they don't have to discount as heavily to make deals. If somebody walks out without buying, there is another customer walking in right behind them.
How Much Will You Save?
To put the data into perspective, lets look at an example of a $30,000 car. On average, people save $126 buying this car on Wednesday instead of Sunday. At todays gas prices, this will get you a couple of tanks of gas. It might not seem that significant of a savings but it is important to note that the data is based on averages.
If you read our new car buying guide and become a student of CarBuyingTips.com, you will not be an average shopper. You will be a highly educated consumer. You will learn all of the tips you need to get the best deal possible. Buying on Wednesday will just be another tool in your negotiating toolbox.
Don't Forget Competition
The car buying process is very complex. There are many parts to a good deal and the price is only one of them. Make sure to pay attention to the whole deal. One of the most important strategies to get a good price is to make sure to have dealers compete against each other. In order to do this, you will have to get quotes from multiple dealerships.
It may be difficult for you to visit several car dealers during the week due to work schedules, helping your kids with homework or taking them to activities. You can use the power of the internet to help you. Get a Price Certificate from TrueCar to set your baseline. Then use sites like Edmunds, RydeShopper and Cars.com to get additional price points.
You'll be able to do most of your legwork and negotiating from home so you'll only need time to go to one dealership on a Wednesday.
About The Author: Lyle Romer is a consumer advocate, Founding Contributor and Vice President of CarBuyingTips.com. A 20 years veteran of the auto industry with a high level of expertise, Lyle has been researching all aspects of the automotive sales industry.
Lyle's expertise and research played a vital role during the creation of CarBuyingTips.com in 1999 after years of industry research. He carefully observed every aspect of his own car buying experience as the internet began to take a foothold in the process. He also designed the site to make sure that consumers had easy access to the best consumer advocate education.
Lyle has been an auto industry insider since 1999. He also has worked with other automotive websites to help improve their offerings based upon feedback from CarBuyingTips.com users. He covers important industry events and gathers off the record sources while attending industry conventions.
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