Seeking general advice on buying new and buying at this time of year

Wife wants to trade into a new car yesterday, and I see most manufacturers already have offers to clear their 2013 stock.

As much as she is impatient, is it worth holding out til January (will deals on 2013 stock likely get even sharper in the new year)?

If January normally does see better deals, would there be scope to negotiate a January-type deal now, or are dealers not likely to budge til next year?

Any other advice for buying a new car at this time of year or just in general?

Looking to spend around $20000 plus trade a one-owner 2000 CE Lancer 1.8 auto that has over 330000kms, so figure total budget is about $20018...not a fixed budget, but don't want to spend more than $23000 + trade.

Target is a mid-size 4 or 5 door auto. Haven't been into any yards yet or looked at specs and reviews, but in terms of appearance she likes Mazda 3, Cruze, Lancer, and Elantra. Is there anything else that fits the brief in that price range that we should consider?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

Also looking to buy Hilux Workmate but thought waiting til Jan and buying a 13 plated car would work out better so keen to hear others thoughts.

Jamolad, have you considered the current Toyota Corolla, missus picked up a new one in August and it is a fantastic car =]

IMHO I would buy a Mazda 3 mate, they are a great little car and hold their value well.

Yep, forgot to include Corolla - she likes it in one body type but not others, but can't remember if it was sedan or hatch or what shape she likes.

She says she is the one that has to live with it so she is creating a short-list of what she likes the look of and will put them in her preferred order.

I can then look at specs, features and dynamics etc of the cars in her list.

She will then provide a weighting system for what is most to least important to her out of things like features, power, handling, economy, running costs etc.

Pretty sure she will then ignore all that and buy the Mazda 3 as that is at the top of her list of what looks good to her...but I don't want to go into a Mazda yard as I will start looking at the 6C wagon.

We drove Corolla, Mazda 3, i30 and Kia Rio.

Was out of the Corolla and Mazda 3, either way good buy but the Corolla was our choice!

Although we drove the previous i30, the newer model may be better.

Good luck.

You really cant go wrong with a corolla there basically bullet proof and convenient. Like compared to a focus which is the opposite as its so fiddly inside and totally crap gearbox

Corolla hands down. They are the best for price, reliability, features, safety, service costs, etc.

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Originally Posted by offshore

You really cant go wrong with a corolla there basically bullet proof and convenient. Like compared to a focus which is the opposite as its so fiddly inside and totally crap gearbox

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Originally Posted by jono0309

Corolla hands down. They are the best for price, reliability, features, safety, service costs, etc.

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Yeah agree, she went the Auto, but the manual would be even better IMO. It's a toyota, nuff said =]

Make sure you spring the extra $1000 for the Ascent, gives you alloys, tint, dual DIN stereo, fog lights, chrome styling, leather gear + wheel and get them to throw in reverse camera for you.

Id be interested on the best time to buy. A few dealers has said to me they nees to sell but will the push even harder in january.

corolla are great. but i believe the 'hyundai is the new corolla' now. value for money, reliable, low operating cost just like the 'jap' cars were back in the day....

I know someone who just picked up a 323 auto with tint and extra 3 yrs warranty for $21990. They offered 9.1% finance and she was about to sign with that but found a deal elsewhere for 6.4%. She told them the deal she was getting and they said they could go to 7.0%. So goes to show that thier first offer is not always the best if you need finance. And if you push hard or look elsewhere you can get a better deal.
I have driven it and its a great medium sized car with plenty of room and as a base model has alloys and a fair bit of standard equipment. no sat/nav but you can just use your phone or aftermarket one which are better anyways.

Although wife proudly tells her sister we are not putting it on finance, fact is we are redrawing money from the mortgage so I still see it as finance (just at the mortgage interest rate). Should have got off my arse months ago when manufacturers had finance deals like 0.9% to 2.9%...wonder if some of those deals may come back on 2013 plate stock in the new year?

You still pay the same, they give you SFA interest rates but you don't get as big a discount on the car.

Yeah my GF paid cash and I will be paying cash, so keen to see what deals might be like in early Jan.

I would have thought the best deals would have to be had when the dealers have MY14 plate stock physically sitting right next to MY13 stock. If that happens to be January then look in January but depending on the make/model you're looking for it could be even later. Don't forget the shipping delay for cars built overseas where January delivered cars might have been built back in August or September which kind of negates January as the guaranteed month for deals.