How to Time Your Purchase to Maximize Savings

Here's a little secret that might help you save a few hundred dollars on your next car purchase.

Most car manufacturers are publicly traded which means they have to report sales and earnings each year. These companies, along with the analysts that follow them, set yearly targets called sales and earnings estimates. If a company misses these targets, they can see their stock price drop quickly.

If a manufacturer is not on track to hit their target by year-end, they may increase incentives to get some last minute sales. This is one of the reasons why the end of the year is a great time to buy a new car. Both manufacturers and dealers are trying to hit their yearly goals.

But some manufacturers don't follow the calendar year to determine their financials. Most Japanese manufacturers have a fiscal year ending on March 31st. You may see some especially large incentives during the month of March for these brands - and now you know why.

If you're an expert at timing your purchase, you'll want to wait until March for import brands and end of the year for domestic and other brands. Here's a list of manufacturers along with their fiscal year end:

Note: EV-focused companies like Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, and Polestar operate on a calendar year (December 31st fiscal year end). However, since many of these brands sell direct-to-consumer with fixed pricing, fiscal year timing has less impact on the deals you can get.