Buying Advice Seasonality - Best time to buy?

[jeepcoma]

Say a prospective purchaser was not in a hurry and had a full year's cycle to make a decision. When is generally the "best" time to buy? I realize best can mean different things to different people, so perhaps it's better to ask, what are the different pros and cons and offers that are typically available throughout a year?

For instance, I see right now that during the spring/early summer, everyone is offering great financing options, 0% interest deals (usually at a higher total price compared to cash), 60-72-84 months, some savings on packaged implements, etc. So, it's a great time to buy if you don't want to put a lot down up front. This could be the best time for a lot of buyers, but I'm sure it comes with a price. There aren't going to be any steals or killer deals during peak buying season.

When is best to buy though, if you are looking for the total cheapest price? Do things slow down at the start of winter or are sales strong due to snowblowers and snow removal (I live in New England)? When is inventory being cleared out (though it seems not every place does this) to make way for new models, and what kind of savings can you get? When are dealers most desperate to make a sale and willing to deal more?

Heck, maybe there isn't really that much of a difference over a year. It seems like tractors could be put to work pretty much all the time so maybe demand is fairly steady and one season is as good as the next. Just looking to educate myself here and be in a position to get the best deal for my circumstances.

 

[MFRED]

I would say at the end of the year. Dealers are usually looking to end the year on a good note & move inventory and there is usually an incentive to do so.

 

[rmorey]

I think that in most cases, the best deal will be available, when the dealer wants to move the inventory. For example, we bought our first tractor on 28 December '03. He hadn't seen a buyer in a month and had this tractor that he had taken down to the local church to dig a septic system. It had about 30 hours on it. He gave us an $1,800 discount for the use and threw in rear remotes, a skidder winch at cost, filled tires and a tooth bar.

 

[MHarryE]

It also depends on the type of market the dealer has. Large farmers come up to the end of the year and find they made a lot more money than they had budgeted for so they purchase new equipment. I think the current law is that a farmer can depreciated up to 1/2 million in the first year and it all comes off the top. Therefore in a good year a large ag dealer will do bang up business at year's end followed by a drought at the beginning of the next year, until actually use comes into play and farmers equipment begins to fail so they started looking for new. Sales will be really dealer market type and location dependent.

 

[DavesTractor]

It is regional. In California, I think the best time is summer and early fall. That is our slower time when it is really hot and dry. Spring is really busy, as is the end of the year due to tax reasons as stated above. I think the manufactures put on pretty good programs in the summer to try to keep things from slowing down. But the best time is whenever a dealer has had a couple of slow months and has inventory coming due on his credit line. That can be a motivating factor, but generally it is hard to discern. Now if you don't care about a particular model (and you will) you can go into a dealer and ask him if he has a killer deal on something. He probably will have one that he has had a while, or got a kickback on, or is coming due or whatever. But the odds of that being the tractor you want are not great.

This year will be a little different, since the EPA Tier IV norms are requiring manufacturers to start rolling out new complex engine models. That will add significant cost. That will be happening now through about a year from now. The reason the date is a little mushy is that certain HP models are affected differently and there is a formula allowing manufacturers to bring in non Tier IV stuff ahead of time and sell it for a certain amount of time after that. It's complex. Let's say in September a dealer has 3 of the 30HP 4x4 units on his lot for $15k. He is wanting to sell them, yet the new 30HP units will be $18k and there are no more Tier III units in the warehouse. I think if anything dealers will hold firm on the Tier III pricing as it will be a bargain, and a less complicated tractor to boot. So that factor will be an issue this year. I think the old stock will become more valuable, not less. The best deals on the current models will be now, before the stocks run low. We are already out of some Tier III models, and when they are gone, they are gone. Yet we have a bunch of some models, so the discounts are on them.

Just some thoughts.