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For those curious, This American Life did a whole podcast on the end-of-month car sales thing. It was quite fascinating and really does exist. One of the more

For those curious, This American Life did a whole podcast on the end-of-month car sales thing. It was quite fascinating and really does exist. One of the more interesting points in the entire thing came in the first minute where they point out that things like the end-of-month sales impact the entire US economy because it has to do with auto sales, and GM and steel working and etc follow up the chain. Weird to think of it like that.

photojosh 12y ago
Anyone know if this is true for other countries? Specifically Australia? I'm in the market for a new car... and not too fussy about what I get.
- justinlloyd 12y ago
  It used to work wonderfully in the UK each year, around August or September, that the registration letter would change. Telephone a bunch of dealerships (in the days prior to email) and tell them you wanted to buy a very specific make and model and the current year which only has a week or two left before the registration letter increments. I don't know if it still works because I haven't owned a car in the UK in over 20 years. But every car dealership in ever country has sales quotas to meet. You just have to find out when they are.
- gregpilling 12y ago
  It is for any corporation that has quarters to report to wall street. I used to sell capital equipment ($10-50K invoice amounts) for Snapon Tools. The specials that would come down the line two weeks before the end of the quarter would be ridiculous. I once sold a $30,000 machine for $16,000 because I could close it in June (not July) and the buyer was paying cash and would take a demo unit off my truck. I got the sale, buyer got a discount, everyone above me got some bonus, everybody was happy. Then the same thing happened 2 weeks before the end of the third quarter just thirteen weeks later - suddenly almost all the appliance sized machines were half priced to clear inventory and make numbers. I sold 33 A/C machines in 3 days. That should have taken 3 years to move that many units. So whenever you are buying something from a corporation, try to figure out if they are ahead or behind in sales. They can get really desperate to make the numbers. If the product is selling faster than they can make it, all bets are off. That popular stuff stays a full retail. Nobody will discount since production is limiting their sales, not demand. Also, understand flooring costs. Often a dealer of expensive stuff like cars, trucks, motorcycles, RVs etc gets a line of credit from a large bank for "flooring". This is the roughly 1% per month fee the dealer pays to the bank for interest for the line of credit. If that unit has 12 months of flooring charge against it, people can get really good deals. They just want to clear stale inventory and will take a loss to do so.
  - timv 12y ago
    It's worth being aware that this can work both ways. I've worked with sales teams where "I need to hit target this month" was used as a cover story to offer a moderate discount to a buyer without creating (too much of) an expectation that such discounts would available in the future, or suggesting that the company was getting desperate to close. That is, it was a partly-but-not-entirely-true story to justify an exploding offer.
    - gregpilling 12y ago
      Yes, it does make a convenient excuse to discount. Another good one is "It has a tiny scratch on it, we can't sell it for full price".
- _archon_ 12y ago
  This is off topic, but I would like to appeal to your human sense of dignity. There are a number of cars available to the Australian buyer which can't be readily had by consumers in much of the rest of the world. You can buy Lapanese-spec sports cars from Nissan. You can buy 4 wheel drive Mazdas. Most importantly, you can buy a ute. Utes, or car-bodied vehicles with a pickup bed, are extremely practical. You can commute etc. in a low, safe, fun vehicle, yet have significant cargo capacity. This market never took off in the Americas due to our love affair with pickup trucks. Modern utes can be had in incredibly sporty or economical models, too. Most utes can't be legally imported to America, since no crash safety tests etc. have been done. I suppose what I'm driving at is to please consider buying a ute (like a Ford Falcon pickup with a big v8), because there are starving drivers in America.
  - robotresearcher 12y ago
    There is at least one classic American ute: Camaro pickup. Glorious. https://www.google.ca/search?q=camaro+pickup https://www.google.ca/search?q=camaro+pickup
r00fus 12y ago
It'd make a lot more sense to everyone if the 30-day periods were staggered for each employee, and if they could score "assists" for fellow employees (said fellow employee would need to agree, of course). This would probably make the sales process far more sustainable and team-oriented. Of course, companies that haven't set their own quarter ends (my employer's quarter ends on a different day than the calendar quarter) are also subject to a similar larger-scale rush-to-target by Wall Street.
- eru 12y ago
  Or do rolling averages? (Ie like atomic decay.)
- mathattack 12y ago
  The challenge is the mini-deadlines are externally driven. "How much revenue will we report to our VC and/or Wall Street?" Otherwise sales would just be a rolling commission with no end dates.
sireat 12y ago
For some reason this brings back memories of Soviet style end of month production cycles, where the goods made earlier in the month were of better quality than those made by rushing in the last few days of the month.
- philwelch 12y ago
  Or even the old fashioned "never buy a car built on Monday or Friday" thing.

photojosh 12y ago

Anyone know if this is true for other countries? Specifically Australia? I'm in the market for a new car... and not too fussy about what I get.

justinlloyd 12y ago
It used to work wonderfully in the UK each year, around August or September, that the registration letter would change. Telephone a bunch of dealerships (in the days prior to email) and tell them you wanted to buy a very specific make and model and the current year which only has a week or two left before the registration letter increments. I don't know if it still works because I haven't owned a car in the UK in over 20 years. But every car dealership in ever country has sales quotas to meet. You just have to find out when they are.
gregpilling 12y ago
It is for any corporation that has quarters to report to wall street. I used to sell capital equipment ($10-50K invoice amounts) for Snapon Tools. The specials that would come down the line two weeks before the end of the quarter would be ridiculous. I once sold a $30,000 machine for $16,000 because I could close it in June (not July) and the buyer was paying cash and would take a demo unit off my truck. I got the sale, buyer got a discount, everyone above me got some bonus, everybody was happy. Then the same thing happened 2 weeks before the end of the third quarter just thirteen weeks later - suddenly almost all the appliance sized machines were half priced to clear inventory and make numbers. I sold 33 A/C machines in 3 days. That should have taken 3 years to move that many units. So whenever you are buying something from a corporation, try to figure out if they are ahead or behind in sales. They can get really desperate to make the numbers. If the product is selling faster than they can make it, all bets are off. That popular stuff stays a full retail. Nobody will discount since production is limiting their sales, not demand. Also, understand flooring costs. Often a dealer of expensive stuff like cars, trucks, motorcycles, RVs etc gets a line of credit from a large bank for "flooring". This is the roughly 1% per month fee the dealer pays to the bank for interest for the line of credit. If that unit has 12 months of flooring charge against it, people can get really good deals. They just want to clear stale inventory and will take a loss to do so.
- timv 12y ago
  It's worth being aware that this can work both ways. I've worked with sales teams where "I need to hit target this month" was used as a cover story to offer a moderate discount to a buyer without creating (too much of) an expectation that such discounts would available in the future, or suggesting that the company was getting desperate to close. That is, it was a partly-but-not-entirely-true story to justify an exploding offer.
  - gregpilling 12y ago
    Yes, it does make a convenient excuse to discount. Another good one is "It has a tiny scratch on it, we can't sell it for full price".
_archon_ 12y ago
This is off topic, but I would like to appeal to your human sense of dignity. There are a number of cars available to the Australian buyer which can't be readily had by consumers in much of the rest of the world. You can buy Lapanese-spec sports cars from Nissan. You can buy 4 wheel drive Mazdas. Most importantly, you can buy a ute. Utes, or car-bodied vehicles with a pickup bed, are extremely practical. You can commute etc. in a low, safe, fun vehicle, yet have significant cargo capacity. This market never took off in the Americas due to our love affair with pickup trucks. Modern utes can be had in incredibly sporty or economical models, too. Most utes can't be legally imported to America, since no crash safety tests etc. have been done. I suppose what I'm driving at is to please consider buying a ute (like a Ford Falcon pickup with a big v8), because there are starving drivers in America.
- robotresearcher 12y ago
  There is at least one classic American ute: Camaro pickup. Glorious. https://www.google.ca/search?q=camaro+pickup https://www.google.ca/search?q=camaro+pickup

r00fus 12y ago

It'd make a lot more sense to everyone if the 30-day periods were staggered for each employee, and if they could score "assists" for fellow employees (said fellow employee would need to agree, of course). This would probably make the sales process far more sustainable and team-oriented. Of course, companies that haven't set their own quarter ends (my employer's quarter ends on a different day than the calendar quarter) are also subject to a similar larger-scale rush-to-target by Wall Street.

eru 12y ago
Or do rolling averages? (Ie like atomic decay.)
mathattack 12y ago
The challenge is the mini-deadlines are externally driven. "How much revenue will we report to our VC and/or Wall Street?" Otherwise sales would just be a rolling commission with no end dates.

sireat 12y ago

For some reason this brings back memories of Soviet style end of month production cycles, where the goods made earlier in the month were of better quality than those made by rushing in the last few days of the month.

philwelch 12y ago
Or even the old fashioned "never buy a car built on Monday or Friday" thing.