43
Local dealers offer year-end deals
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
It’s that time of year again for auto makers to break out the commercials showing a happy spouse with a brand new bow-topped car in the driveway.
From General Motors to Ford, all auto dealers have some type of year-end deals for consumers in the holiday shopping spirit.
“There is a lot truth to the myth that December is a good month [to buy],” said Eric Lyman, vice president of industry insights for TrueCar.
Reasons behind the heavy advertising for current auto deals include the need to clear some of the inventory and make sales.
Mike Hudock, general manager of Stadium GM Superstore in Salem, will, on occasion, see some people out shopping for a new Christmas vehicle, but most “just know it is a good time to get a deal.”
He has deals on cars, including the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze and sport utility vehicles, including the GMC Terrain.
“There are some tremendous deals,” he said. “We tend to get real busy in between Christmas and New Years.”
A majority of Stadium’s new car sales are leases — about 73 percent.
“Generally, in a GM- employee market, leases are robust,” Hudock said.
Don Brady, general manager of Columbiana Cadillac-Buick-Chevrolet, thinks the dealership’s sales will be up compared with the last three years.
“For right now, we are pacing in that 160 to 170 [range] for new and used sales,” Brady said.
Typically, the dealership sells about 130.
“The 2014 inventory we have scaled down more so than previous years,” Brady said.
This shows the GM’s year-end savings promotions are doing well, he said.
One of Brady’s customers came in and bought his wife a new Cadillac that he will pick up on Christmas Eve.
“I ordered a bow for him to put on it,” Brady said. “I wouldn’t say that happens often, but I always think it’s neat [when it does].”
The dealership also has done some its own advertising this holiday season with five billboards up in the Boardman area.
“The Chevy Cruze is still one of our hottest-selling cars,” Brady said. “The Cadillac ATS coupe and sedan are both doing well.”
Steve Bott, sales manager at Mark Thomas Ford in Cort- land, said the dealership is having the best deals of the year now. Core vehicles there are the Ford Fusion, Focus and Escape.
“[Ford] has jumped on the [deals] bandwagon with everyone else,” Bott said. “The week after Christmas it is absolutely chaos.”
Lyman said in terms of percentage off of the manufacturer’s price December is the best time to buy.
“I think that we have had a really good end of the latter half of the year,” Lyman said. “It would be surprising to see the industry lose the sales momentum that we have had over six months.”