How to get the best end of year car deals

When it comes to sniffing-out a cut-price deal, clever new-vehicle buyers are a match for the slickest operators you’ll find stalking the aisles of Coles, Woolworths or Aldi.

And the first weeks of the New Year is peak bargain time for new vehicle buyers with all new vehicles in stock automatically one year older, plus plenty of demonstrator (demo) models on offer.

The latest fad in demos
In recent times, with brands chasing sales volume targets, some New Year demos have become more beguiling for bargain hunters and the fad doesn’t seem to have changed with the demise of local vehicle manufacturing.

Their labels vary: ‘Zero km demos’, ‘Delivery km demos’ and ‘Not-driven demos’ are three we’ve seen.

What we have here is a bunch of new vehicles wholesaled to dealers which have never hit the road and are backed by incentives to register them before the end of the calendar year.

Registrations are the trigger for industry statistician VFACTS to record vehicles as ‘sold’ and thus these dealer demos add to the year’s sales tally for vehicle importers.

And these extra so-called sales, racked-up in the shadow of December 31, might make the difference between the importer finishing the year ranked first second or third overall, or an individual model topping the chart in a market segment.

Mere bragging rights? Maybe. But over the years some careers have either blossomed or stalled based on sales stats. Yep, the car industry is a game of sales numbers and, for individuals reporting to an arduous boss in Europe, North America or Asia, the stakes can be brutal.

When discussing with industry colleagues these virtual brand-new cars sold as demos, the names Toyota, Hyundai and Holden are the ones we hear most often.

For buyers, the bottom line is these are brand-new vehicles – the most popular models -- with minimal kilometers on the odometer (often only driven for loading onto and off the delivery truck) being sold at substantially discounted prices.

What to look for
Don’t ask: “I want a zero-kay demo in gun-metal grey with a white interior”. We’re talking about actual cars registered and sitting in the dealership yard, so the colours and specifications are not negotiable.

It’s pretty much the same story with regular demo models (cars registered by dealers for customers to test drive). However, on big-volume models, you might be able to ‘crunch’ a dealer to order a vehicle to your specifications, let it be used as a demo for say six months and then buy it yourself at the discounted demo model price.

Why the discount? Well, you are effectively buying a ‘used’ vehicle and also the dealer gets an incentive (usually a financial rebate) from the importer on any demo cars on the lot. The thinking is to make it as easy as possible for potential buyers to get some time behind the wheel.

But the demo story doesn’t end there, so read-on bargain hunters…

Salary packages for senior employees of vehicle importers usually include one company vehicle and the opportunity to lease one or more vehicles for family members at very attractive prices (deducted directly before tax).

This pool of vehicles comprises the majority of demo models sold by dealerships with labels along the lines of ‘Executive Driven Demos’.

Generally these vehicles will have covered less than 10,000km, will have been first registered less than six months previously and are maintained by factory technicians.

Dealers buy these vehicles at closed auctions.

You do need to carefully check an individual vehicle’s history as other ex-company cars (for example the vehicles tested by motoring.com and other journalists) are sold at the same auctions and may not be as pristine as, say, the vehicle driven by the finance director’s wife.

For instance, a well-known Melbourne AFL media personality was an ambassador for an importer and received a complimentary company car in which he transported his long-hair golden retriever each day to and from the beach.

Your Hoover would be in for a hammering if you bought one of those ‘Executive Driven Demo’ vehicles.

‘Executive Driven Demos’ is also the term used to cover vehicles driven by the owner of a dealership and their family members.

Regardless of the source, demo vehicles are supported by the balance of the new-car warranty and have normally been maintained in tip-top condition.

2017-plate sales
Of course this isn’t tableware from Royal Doulton here. Plate sales centre on a new vehicle’s build plate which is affixed under the bonnet on the firewall during production and shows the month and year of manufacture.

Now, early in the New Year, new-vehicle buyers have a choice: purchase a car with a 2017 build plate and secure a good deal, or wait until stock with 2018 build plates is available and pay the full price.

Payback comes when you’re ready to sell. At trade-in time the vehicle with a 2017 build plate you buy in early 2018 will be regarded as a 2017 model and thus is effectively one year older than you may think.

The verdict
Australia’s resilient consumer protection laws have dispatched car dealers like Arthur Daley from TV’s The Minder to the pages of history so, at this time of year, you can contemplate buying a demonstrator or 2017-plate vehicle with confidence.

The discounts on offer are hard to overlook – especially given the fact the long warranties now commonplace carry over to these vehicles.

If you’re willing to take some risk, a few weeks or months down the track there may be examples of these vehicle still for sale which may be even cheaper. But it’s a risk as dealers will be keen to unload demos and 2017-plate models ASAP.

So move fast – this is the time to pick-up a bargain set of wheels.