Timing and buying a clarity

[DBSeattle]

Would love to get the brain trust thoughts on this. Is there a better time of the year or even time of the month to be negotiating for purchase of the clarity?
The 2019 models will presumably come out in December. Is it easier to get a good price now or by waiting till October or November? Does the wait risk the inventory being depleted therefore with no advantage in price.?
In general are the dealers more likely to have incentives at the beginning or end of any month? Thanks as always for the very helpful replies.

 

[ab13]

Salespeople generally get pay based on monthly sales, so end of month is when they try to increase sales. For cars with tax incentives, the end of the year is when sales increase so there will be more people looking to buy a limited inventory at the end of the year. Since apparently the 2019 doesn't come out till next year, only 2018 inventory can be bought this year.

 

[su_A_ve]

And you need to take into account when will Honda stop making 2018s, if they haven't already...

 

[Viking79]

Also realize everyone will rush to buy EVs last 2 months of year to take advantage of tax credits.

 

[Sandroad]

I'd go with Halloween (seriously!)

 

[insightman]

You should decide how far you'd go to buy a Clarity, then expand that area even more and start monitoring the inventory of Claritys in the that enlarged area. That will give you an idea of how they're selling and if the color and trim you desire is available.

Our dealer had 4 for a long time, then at the end of last month they sold all but a base model that has 1000 miles on it that they're listing for $32,920 on their website. I suspect they'd offer an even better deal at the end of the month on this car.

 

[neal adkins]

By accident I went just before the dealer closed on a Sunday night, at the the end of the month. They really worked to make a sell. There was some glitches but I had copies of the deal and they eventually leased me the car. The lease was better because of the incentives got factored in.

 

[su_A_ve]

Careful with ZEV states. These will give you excellent numbers since there's Honda dealer cash available. But if you register the car in a non-ZEV state, the price gets jacked up when doing the paperwork when finance manager notices it. If you live in one, only shop dealers in a ZEV state.

 

[leehinde]

I ended up buying at the end of the day/night as well. Turned out the best advantage was that when I told the finance guy all I wanted was the loan (0.9!) and none of the other things he was about to try and sell me, he didn't try. End of the day, time to go home.