Christmas is past, but Americans aren”t yet finished buying new toys.
In Columbus and around the country, the week immediately following Christmas day is the busiest for new car sales.
“We do as many (sales) this week as the other three weeks (of December) combined,” said Chris Keene, manager of Premier Ford.
Several factors contribute to the buying rush from Dec. 26-31. First on the list is the slew of incentives offered by manufacturers hoping to move cars. Second, many would-be customers are off of work for the holidays and free to haggle.
“The reason for the big incentives, especially with GM and Ford, dealers are always battling it out for sales leadership. Every year (car manufacturers) put on a big push to get in those last sales for when they total up the cars sold for the year,” said Clyde Rhea, manager of Carl Hogan Automotive.
Debbie McLaurin and her son Steven were at Carl Hogan Automotive Monday hoping to take advantage of those incentives.
“I just thought with the rebates at the end of the year hopefully we could get a better deal,” she said.
Another reason for the big holiday sales is commercial sales. Businesses are buying to take advantage of tax deductions and accelerated depreciation on their fleet vehicles.
Rhea estimates 25 percent of his business in the last week of the year comes from sales of commercial vehicles.
Unfortunately, not everyone is catching the post-Christmas sales rush.
“This is probably our worst week of the year,” said Chris Jones at Allen Jones Used Cars in Steens. “December is definitely our worst month of the year.”
Jones says sales of used cars generally dips at the end of the year and won”t bounce back until February or March when buyers are anticipating tax refunds.
With bank lending down and budgets trimmed after holiday buying, Jones says customer expectations are hard to meet.
“Everybody wants a dependable car that will last them for $2,000. Those don”t exist,” he said.
Cheap used cars are hard to find because the federal Cash for Clunkers program took many of them out of circulation, according to Sandie Reese, manager of DRM Special Used Cars in Starkville.
Reese said traffic to used lots is increasing, but he doesn”t expect sales to follow until February.
“The week after Christmas people are trying to recoup,” she said.
In addition to lagging sales, Reese says used dealers who handle financing are struggling in multiple ways.
“Payments are always slow coming in this time of year. Generally, December and August are slower collection months,” she said.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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