Is there a good time to trade a vehicle? A bad time?
In general you can count on the wholesale auto market being pretty strong from mid- January through May. June tends to be iffy, July and August declining steadily, September iffy, October & November often declining rapidly, December unpredictable (iffy).
So you can count on getting pretty good value for most vehicles in those January to June months when the market is strong and dealers are usually aggressively buying and trading. After that you are looking at a steady month to month decline culminating in the lows of October, November. I don’t think it is unusual for many vehicles to experience as much as 40-50% of their yearly depreciation during the three months of September, October, and November, so you can see that trading during those months can be problematic. Of course if you have a convertible and live where it gets cold, the dead of winter would probably be a particularly bad time to trade it. Sometimes dealers with deep pockets and strong nerves stock up on convertibles in the late fall/early winter and sell them in the spring and make retail kinds of profits selling to dealers. Risky, but can be profitable. Keep in mind that these are generalities and must be balanced against when it’s a good time to buy a vehicle (generally when manufacturers and/or dealers are desperate to sell, and that is less predictable).
Posted by Galves Editor 