Cold weather may make a car lot the last place you want to spend your time, but if you’ve been thinking about getting a new ride, the coming weeks often bring a perfect car-buying storm for deal hunters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“As the new calendar year approaches, dealerships are trying to meet year-end sales quotas that could reduce fees and taxes on year-end inventory,” according to the experts at TrueCar, an automotive pricing and information website for new- and used-car buyers and dealers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even better for bargain hunters, sales staff are usually vying not only for end-of-month and end-of-quarter sales quotas, they’re also trying to meet year-end sales targets to trigger holiday bonuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plus, with the calendar getting ready to flip, dealers are all the more eager to make room for incoming 2015 models, which started hitting the lots a few months ago, before all those 2014 models start looking like used vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, outgoing models may be in short supply as the year ends, says TrueCar, so your selection may be limited. “But manufacturers quite frequently offer additional sales incentives on lingering models, bringing their prices down even further.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even when sales are strong through November, “dealers push in December to meet or exceed their goals,” according to the experts at Autotrader, who also recommend going late in the day to get a better deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“New-car shoppers can often negotiate strong deals during late hours, provided the salesperson thinks he or she is dealing with a serious buyer. Staying late to close a deal doesn’t change the fact that everyone’s ready to go home, so the dealer may make concessions to speed up the negotiation,” Autotrader says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you’ve decided now is the time to buy, of course the big question becomes what car to get. A great place to start is USAA’s 2014 “Best Value” list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Published in the most recent edition of USAA Magazine, the insurance wizards and number crunchers use a proprietary scoring model to evaluate factors including safety, cost and reliability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, USAA’s “Top 10 for Teens” taps those vehicles that also get top marks in reliability and safety, as well as reasonable insurance costs. With each vehicle on the teen list under $26,000 sticker, it could just as easily be called “Top 10 List for Young, Single Troops.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
USAA’s top picks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The coming weeks often bring a perfect car-buying storm for deal hunters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":13,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"coauthors":[992],"class_list":["post-70749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-off-duty"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"IR3G763A25EFTC6FSRDD24SAIE","arc_canonical_url":"\/off-duty\/2014\/11\/24\/car-bargains-check-out-usaa-s-best-value-list-as-deals-heat-up\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n