When to buy a car?

[Challo]

There are plenty of what car threads, but I started to think about when to buy a car?

Do cars follow seasonal trends and become more expensive at certain times of the year? i.e. Soft-top in summer, 4x4 in Winter?

Or do prices stay stable no matter what time of the year it is?

[Challo]

No comments at all?

[Efbe]

for cheapness, 4x4s in spring, convertibles in winter. that kind of thing

thing is though people will not try to sell theirs at these times unless they are desperate, meaning you will find less examples around.

[escortcosworth12]

I imagine, that the 4x4 prices probably drop at the end of the winter, same with soft tops at the end of summer, i think the best time to buy a car would be when there would be less chance that those cars wont be needed for their main use? Sorry if it makes no sense, just woke up

[Efbe]

Challo said:

There are plenty of what car threads, but I started to think about when to buy a car?

Do cars follow seasonal trends and become more expensive at certain times of the year? i.e. Soft-top in summer, 4x4 in Winter?

Or do prices stay stable no matter what time of the year it is?

thinking about it, I have been looking to buy a jeep cherokee for over a year now, just never found the right one.

There are some traders who will just keep the price the same the whole year round, it seems to be the smaller traders and private individuals in which you notice the change in value more.

in my situation, I know a jeep cherokee is only worth £1000, no matter what they advertise them for. around new year you could see them up to around the £3000 mark, and slowly they have fallen again. But this year they have fallen less as we have now had 2 years of bad winters in a row. last year I guess people thought it was more a one off.

[Robbo101]

Have been in the market for a 350Z for a couple of weeks now, but prior to that was closely watching any price fluctuations so I could gauge how much Id have to save. Prices are really dropping & whilst even a month ago youi didnt see any cars advertised at much below £7000, on Autotrader there are at least a dozen at below £6000 & some of them seem to be stuck & arent moving.

As for RX8's, news is even worse. Multiple 06 plates on sale for less than £4000 & still dropping. Not mega mileage either (for an RX8), usually around 40-50,000 miles or so.

Thinks it fairly safe to say that anything that A) drinks petrol, B) difficult to Insure & C) is in the higher (£400+) car tax band is one to go for if you do a limited mileage & are old enough to get a realistic premium for.

[kambites]

Elise prices are certainly quite seasonal, and I'd guess it's true of all convertibles and/or "toy" cars. The bottom of the 4x4 market definitely went up last winter, too.

[chris7676]

Apparently it's all been proven to be not true, and so would my experience confirm. Buy whenever you find what you look for.

[Rakoosh]

About 4 years back I bought a convertible (E30 bmw) in spring...

One of my mates tried to convince me not to 'why would you do that - it'll be £500 cheaper at the end of summer'.

BUT I wanted to enjoy it during summer so bought it anyways.

I did check prices before and after summer just to see:

Now note: this is hard to do a like for like on an old car so don't take this as a given -> but I found on average in teh winter similar E30 bmws were on sale for about 10% less ... so it was more like 200 quid difference as opposed to 500...

To be honest that is so marginal - I would rather buy when I wanted it! And also the longer you wait the cheaper the car will be (in general!) but you do have to buy it sometime right??

[300bhp/ton]

Challo said:

There are plenty of what car threads, but I started to think about when to buy a car?

Do cars follow seasonal trends and become more expensive at certain times of the year? i.e. Soft-top in summer, 4x4 in Winter?

Or do prices stay stable no matter what time of the year it is?

I think there are seasonal trends. But more in how easy or quickly you'll sell something rather than outright price variances.

Right now heavy road tax and high fuel prices are having more of an affect on large engined cars than anything seasonal.