When the Moment is Right, Will You Be Ready?

To step forward and buy that used car, we mean. If you want a practically new Maybach (and who doesn’t?), they’re depreciating 60% by the end of the first year. So you can buy that gorgeous $490,000 Maybach 62S, according to Parker’s List (and leftlanenews), for a mere $182,500. BMW 7-Series owners, looking at a 51% drop that first year, will likely be too proud to sell.

Yes, timing is everything. And there’s no time like the present to look not only at German cars—which dropped bigtime last month, though not as much as Toyotas and cars from the Big Three—but all the iron out there, used and new, that isn’t selling. February was always the best month to buy a new car, and it’s still true.

Zero-percent financing is everywhere; incentives, rebates, and discounts are the order of the day. Says U.S.News, “Automakers are no longer just concerned about slumping car sales. They have finally moved into all-out desperation.” Take a look at their article for a listing of recent offers that will amaze you. For instance, buy the ’09 Mazda3 or 6 for 0% APR for 36 months plus $1,000 cash back and no payments for 90 days. It’s Santa Claus in February.

Okay, credit is tight, and you can’t afford to buy. There are also good leasing alternatives, from Volkswagen and Honda in particular. Leasing always makes sense if you don’t have the cash and your credit is okay. It’s also a way to beat the depreciation devil and laugh at Maybach owners.

If you want to find out what’s happening in the real world of used cars, you need to go local. That’s what we did, courtesy of the Web, in this video report from Albany, Georgia.

So folks are coming into dealers with tax returns in hand. That means dealers have to become accountants to avoid getting screwed: “Let’s see, ma’m, your office deduction looks a little bit rich to me.” Well, as they say, any way to move iron. We wish Billy Chambers luck.

Is the auto market tempting you this year? Used or new?

—jgoods

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