A car clearance sale refers to an end-of-model-year sale conducted by dealers to quickly help sell their remaining current-year inventory of vehicles. These sales are often held as much as 3 months before new vehicles arrive at the dealership. As such sales are subsidized by manufacturers, dealers offer good leases and discounts to buyers to make purchasing their vehicles attractive and affordable. The incentives for buyers come in the form of cash-back rebates, 0% APR loans, special lease deals, and low-interest loans.

Benefits of car clearance sales

Greater discounts and deals on unsold cars
The main task of dealerships and manufacturers during the end of a year or model cycle is to sell as many vehicles to clear out their inventory.

Buyers on a budget make optimal use of such discounts to purchase the cars they have been planning to own for a long time.

Better financing options for buyers
To perfectly set up car clearance sales, dealerships partner with banks and other financing companies and offer attractive financing options to car buyers.

In addition to attractive deals and discounts, buyers are likely to even receive higher trade-in values during year-end clearance sales to encourage a rapid growth in the sales of vehicles.

More room for price negotiation
In normal circumstances, dealerships and manufacturers often do not offer much room for price negotiation. This changes during a end-of-year car clearance sale. Due to the incredible sales pressure on dealerships, they are likely to offer large room for price negotiation in addition to the lucrative deals and discounts already being offered. In this way, buyers may get the vehicle of their choice at even lower prices in the middle of a car clearance sale held for unsold vehicles during festive seasons or the end of the year.

Provision of vehicles with upgraded features and safety equipment
Normally, the best features on vehicles can be found only on their top-end or flagship variants. As those variants are on the pricier end of the spectrum, buyers with limited budget would be unable to buy and own them. During car clearance sales, buyers are likely to find even the most feature-loaded and top-end variants of their favorite vehicles at reduced prices as dealers actively try to sell as many units as possible within a short amount of time. These vehicles are likely to come with the most powerful active and passive safety equipment and the latest entertainment, convenience, and utility features on their vehicles.

In many cases, the top-end variant of vehicle models from the previous year matches the ones from the current year in terms of features and specifications. This means that, by buying such vehicles in unsold car clearance sales or used car clearance sale, car buyers get a vehicle very similar to a brand-new car full of features at a discounted price.

Tips to make the most of car clearance sales

Shop at the end of the month
Car salespeople and dealerships are obligated to sell a certain number of vehicles by the end of the year, month, or quarter. This is why, most car clearance sales are held during such periods. Customers are likely to come across clearance sales at dealerships desperate to sell inventory if they visit them during the 28th or 29th day of any given month. This is why, buyers are recommended to look for such sales during the various end-of periods across the year.

Research dealerships
In many cases, if one is not able to automatically find car clearance sales, they can check online and offline sources to know more about them. Dealerships tend to advertise such sales on their social media pages or the websites of manufacturers or their specific sites. One can even sign up for dealership newsletters or manufacturer emails to constantly be updated about such sales. Research is imperative for buyers to find clearance sales as frequently as possible.

Stay objective
Purchasing a vehicle is an emotional and personal decision for many individuals. For this reason, people are likely to make decisions under stressful, exciting, exhausting, and frustrating mind-frames when purchasing a vehicle. To make the best purchase decisions, people need to be clear-headed and take decisions in an objective and unbiased manner.

Doing so helps people to make the most of car clearance sales, whether that is for brand-new vehicles or used vehicles.

Pit dealerships against one another
A particularly useful ploy to find car clearance sales and make the most of them is to communicate with multiple dealerships simultaneously and leverage the information and offers given by one to get the best deals out of the other. Buyers can get a lucrative quote from a dealership during a clearance sale before letting another dealership know about it. This leverage will help them get the best deal for the vehicle of their choice during the sale.