Thanksgiving Weekend: A Time For Sales

According to J.D. Power, new automotive retail vehicle transaction prices are averaging about $30,864. That number is a record and indicates the strong northern direction that auto sales prices are headed. November is typically a strong month with Thanksgiving weekend being the 2nd most prolific auto sales weekend of the entire year. Now that the Thanksgiving and heavy shopping Friday have passed, Jeremy Acevedo, an analyst for Edmunds.com points to savvy advertising as the trigger behind a strong sales weekend. “Clever advertising from a handful of automakers planted the seed in shoppers’ minds that rather than standing in Black Friday lines at retail stores to save tens of dollars, they could instead pocket hundreds and even thousands by taking advantage of deals on cars,” Acevedo said. “This message seems to have resonated, particularly for GM’s Buick and GMC brands that offered 20% off sticker prices for all models.” Buick pushed the cash back program during their commercials leading up to black Friday. A report by Edmunds also explained that, “During Thanksgiving weekend, over a third of new vehicles sold were 2014 model year vehicles. During December, only about a quarter of sales will be the outgoing model year, and for January of 2015, 2014s will make up only one in five cars sold.”

With vehicle sales on the uptick for November, that meant more loans. More loans have meant much higher monthly payment that some experts feel are causing problems for consumers. Melinda Zabritski, the Senior Director of Auto Finance at Experian, explained, “Monthly payments are at near or all-time highs.” Those high payments have led some consumers to get opt for lease offers in lieu of taking on an auto loan. Time reported that leases are up 7% from one year ago. How do you think that all of this will impact your store? Have you seen an uptick in customers opting for leases? Are you seeing monthly payments reaching new heights?