Washington area among Top Ten best places to buy a vehicle

Washington area among Top Ten best places to buy a vehicle

WANADA dealer members have always known this of course, but now comes statistical evidence to prove the point; the Washington DC area is indeed one of the best places in the country to buy a vehicle. According to the folks at AOL who run the online companys auto website, car buyers in the Washington metro area can expect to get just about the best deals available anywhere, with an average discount from MSRP of 9.9%. That is just a fraction under the amount available in the top market for discounts in the U.S., Tampa/Orlando.

The study also found that the best states for car shopping were Maryland (with an 8.1 percent discount off MSRP), Virginia (with 7.6 percent) and Florida (with 7.5 percent).

AOL performed the study in cooperation with the car buying site Zag, which offered confirmed vehicle pricing to its members through partnerships with more than 3,400 dealers across the country who are required to provide real-time pricing information to the company.

Zag and AOL sifted through that data to find pricing for 10 sample vehicles, including the 2011 BMW 328i, 2010 Cadillac CTS, 2010 Chevrolet Traverse, 2010 Ford F-150 SuperCrew, 2010 Honda Accord sedan, 2010 Honda Civic sedan, 2010 Hyundai Elantra, 2010 Mazda3, 2010 Nissan Altima, and 2011 Toyota Camry. They then averaged the maximum discounts being offered on the models for its metro-area ranking. For its ranking of states, itåmade a calculation based on average vehicle discounts.

The best metro markets were all areas with lots of dealerships, suggesting that competition between them is a key factor in increasing discounts and lowering prices. These are areas where dealerships are really competing for business and customers are winning, Karim ODriscoll, Zags director of pricing strategy, said.

The study also revealed that typically the best new vehicle prices are found on the outer edges of metro areas, likely because dealerships there are forced to compete aggressively with urban stores that are a relatively short drive away.

Its no secret that discounts tend to be least available in rural areas, simply because the competition is less intense. There may not be many BMW dealers out in the most picturesque parts of a state, ODriscoll said.