Summer Car-Buying Guide: 3 Tips to Get the Vehicle You Want at the Best Price

Memorial Day weekend is the first major car-buying holiday of the summer season, and you’re bound to see an ad or two encouraging you to shop a hot sale.

But are the "deals" genuinely good deals? While automakers sometimes improve their financing offers for Memorial Day, the reality is that holiday car shopping events are mainly marketing more than anything else.

“Generally, for many dealers, holidays are a promotion rather than a time of great value,” says Pat Ryan, CEO of the car shopping app CoPilot.

That doesn’t mean it’s a bad time to buy a new car, however. There’s actually a case that it’s a pretty good time to shop.

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First of all, the last few days of any month can be favorable for shoppers because dealerships are trying to meet sales goals. Memorial Day has historically been considered a good time to buy for this reason. The next car-buying holiday, Independence Day weekend, doesn’t have that going for it.

“Frankly, instead of buying July 4 weekend, I’d buy June 30,” Ryan says. “There's a lot of dealers who are going to be trying to make their month.”

He especially likes late June given that it's the end of the second quarter, which matters because some automakers have quarterly targets they'll be eager to hit. Here are more strategies to consider if you want to buy a car this summer.

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