The end of the year is filled with the warmth of the holidays, but also the panic of automakers trying to make
last-minute sales numbers. What does that mean for car buyers? Big incentives! And not just for cars built by the
Big 3 — now is the time of year that the likes of Toyota, Nissan and other foreign manufacturers are slapping cash on
the hood as well. Dealers have their own reasons for wanting to turn cars in December, namely that the more
vehicles dealers sell in December, the more cars the manufacturer will send them when they need the vehicles in the
spring.
I’ll be interested in January to see how the incentives affected December sales, though, particularly
since October and November sales were low due to pull-ahead from the Employee Pricing discounts that ran throughout the
summer.