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Hey there fella's!

What time of year, between the second week of October until the year end, would you guys advise that I purchase my car, in hope of availing of a good price from the dealer.
Also, since I intend to buy the car off outright (no financing), should I expect any sort of a dealer discount? Can price negotiations be attempted by the customer, once the on-road price is quoted?

Thanks

Dealers Usually give more offers during navratri and Diwali here in Delhi. we usually get more discounts if we buy a financed car as the bank gets business from us. At dealer level there is no difference dealer gets its payments outright irrespective of finance or 100% cash down.

the maximum discount you get is in the pre budget days...else its diwali, monsoon.. the usual. also..these are discounts given by the manufacturers i.e. the car companies...the dealer discounts are separate! if you are buying the car outright..i.e. full downpayment..you carry a lot more weight than a regular buyer. you can outright ask them for a hefty discount else you can walk away and buy the car from some other showroom. do visit more than two showrooms of a same car company..this way you can let them know that there are competitors that can steal away their customers..this adds pressure on them.

From my limited experience and after listening to million other pals, I have come to one conclusion: There are discounts right throughout the year, but named differently. Different combo of discounts....end result is the same. So, if you want to buy a vehicle, ANY time would be the best time!

If you were to purchase the vehicle on loan: the banks like HDFC, SBI do give a discount of about 0.25 to 0.5% during the monsoons. This small discount works out to savings of about 50k over a 5 yr period for a loan of about 4-5L.

OT: Why would anyone want to purchase a vehicle outright with cash? I dont think it is monetary wisdom to do so.

I have found that the best offers are in december when car sales are lowest...cos people hesistate to take cars in december since just one month later it becomes a x+1 year model, read 2007 model!!...

its ought to be diwali. lots of discounts n freebees. just wait for navratras & u will have loads of offers on almost all cars.

I think we must purchase the car when there's no rush...i.e. avoid festival season etc...best time is when the demand is very low...the delaers will give good discounts and also most importantly they will give you all the attention you need....during festival season or peak season,its difficult to inspect the car and also the dealers are very busy in attending so many customers !

Car companies/dealers give discounts throughout the year in different names and thus avoid buying during peak festival period. Buy when demand is low, normally at the end of year.
Why do you want to purchase the car outright - put your money in a bank fixed deposit@ 8%, while you will pay effectively @ 5-5.5%!

The discount would depend upon the car and the model. But across the board, rest assured the max discount you will get will be between the second week of december to 31st december, since that is model year chageover. hence if u r not planning to change your car for at least 5 to 7 years, that is the best time to buy.

(I got a 10K discount excluding the finance disc. on my Indica turbo in early december last year when the car had just been launched a month ago!)- come mid jan, and there was only a 4K discount.

I agree, December is the best time for negotiating a discount.
BTW, If it's a Baleno you're after, go for a baleno VXi instead, it's worth the extra money.

I agree with GTS, that discounts are offered through out the year, irrespective of any season. At any point of time, the company / dealer will try to restrict the outflow in the name of discounts at almost the same level. It is just that they "call" these discounts in different names. And obviously, as Himanshu mentioned, discount depends on the car and the model.

agree: totally agree with you, pal. i know discount and freebies are offered all the time. but the attention & care & the choice is there when the sales are down. so it is best to avoid the festive periods & make the purchase on a lean period..which would be...i need help here

Thanks for all the insight, guys!

BTW, I intend buying the XETA GLG and as some fellow BHP'ians suggested, I'll shop around with other dealerships to get a feel of the discount I could possibly avail of, and also take delivery of the vehicle a little after the second week in December.

Another quick question I had was, if the vehicle had to be serviced at the same dealership that the car was initially purchased at?

The Best time for making a car purchase will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. For example, Hyundai is giving a hell lot of discounts this month because of their million cars celebration.

And the discounts given in each state will also vary. In Kerala, most of the car cos give nice discounts during Onam(which is a state festival). So a lot depends on the geographical locations.

Also try to buy the car at the end of the month, the sales personnel may be struggling to meet their targets.

But I've also heard that dealers are having some quota, when the car cos gives some extra cars at a hefty discount to the dealers as part of their appeasement strategy !!! This happened in the month of April/May and WagonR was available with a discount of about Rs.40,000 in addition to MGA. And this offer lasted only for just 10 days.

Also the best times are Diwali, Christmas, monsoon....

Besides, keep hooked to all the medias so that you'll never ever miss any rebates....

I don't know whether this is true or not. ashutoshb, Please explain further.

I think its the year end.... December...
people try to defer purchase to next year ...
though for a person who plans to keep the car for more than 6-8 years... it shouldn't matter! as the resale after that age is... no different every year.