I heard 2014 models are appearing or have appeared.
If this is the case how are the prices of 2013 used vehicles affected?
Disregarding style, model, cost, etc, what is the most trouble free or reliable 2013 for numerous short trips around town?
Sale dates of 2014 cars:
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20130430/carnews/130439993
Prev yrs models still on lots are always discounted when newer models come out.
Most reliable 2013 cars:
http://www.autosaur.com/most-reliable-cars/
Yes and yes. 2014s are out, not all models, but more every day. And once a 2014 huts the lot the value of a 2013 goes down.
Reliable? Hyundai Sonata or Elantra both have very good reviews and ratings, and cost less than most competitors in their respective class.
July is when auto manufacturers retool for the new model year. They’ll shut down for 2 weeks or so to do this. So, now is a good time to buy a 13. I’d hold off on a 14 until they have a bit more experience making them.
Even if the '14 model is mostly carryover?
I was at a Subaru dealer about a month ago looking at a used vehicle. They still had new 2012 models on the lot.
Are “model years” a common way to distinguish cars in countries other than the US? It’s a bit of an alien concept here in the UK. Car ages are identified merely by the registration mark, which changes twice a year (in March and September). Even a car that is several months old but not first registered until, say, March 2013 (and hence with a “13” number plate) will have a higher resale value than an identical car registered in December 2012 - or even February 2013 - with a “62” plate.
I don’t think anyone would be able to identify their car as a 2013 model or whatever.
I think one big difference here in the US is that registration numbers aren’t permanent, and don’t follow the car. If anything, they follow the owner. I have put the same tags on a few different cars. If I decided I didn’t like those plates anymore, I could get new ones. Or if the state decides that the particular plate design I’m using has gotten too outdated, they could insist that I use new ones.
When you buy a used car, (in every state I’m aware of, anyway) you’ll be registering it with your own plates. the ones the previous owner had stay in that previous owner’s possession.
Therefore, there’s no permanent connection between a car and its registration number, and certainly nothing that indicates age. Here in Ohio, I see very old plates on very new cars, and brand new plates on really old vehicles. So, that’s why the car’s actual model year is a useful way of distinguishing it. Besides, manufacturers distinguish by model years in very meaningful ways. It only makes sense to use that as a discriminator.
But to answer your main question, I don’t know how it works in other countries. I have always assumed that most EU countries have the permanent registration model that corresponds to the year of first sale, like the UK. But I have nothign to base that on. And I can’t speak at all for the rest of the world.
Alien in Spain as well. At most, people will talk about redesigns. Ibizas have been around since 1984 but they are now in their “fourth generation” (each generation gets different nicknames).
My brother and I used to have the same model of car, made two years apart but bought three years apart (mine was a “demo”). Any time I needed to know which year any of them was I had to look at the registration card (the plates don’t indicate it in any way).
Not only plate age, but many/most/all(?) US states have you renew your registration yearly, and in my experience you then affix a sticker to your plate to show that the registration is current, showing the month/year that this registration will expire. Thus there will be a year displayed but it has nothing to do with the car’s age - and had better be a date in the future.
So like in Nava’s case, if you forgot the year of the car you’d instead check the title, the year on the owner’s manual, the VIN (vehicle identification number), your car insurance card, etc.
Obviously, in the UK deducing the age of a car from the plate is perfectly intuitive. AB13 CDE is 2013, AB05 CDE is 2005, and AB61 CDE is 2011. Or it could be 2012.
Go to cars.com, put 2014 in as the model year and search new cars. Boom, you’ll have your list of what’s out. When I was car shopping in January the redesigned 2014 Mazda6 was just hitting the dealers’ lots. I think that was the only one out at the time. There were still plenty of 2012 around for most of the models I was testing (not just Mazdas). If you look at the incentives page on Edmunds you’ll see that the incentives for the older model year will start getting better once the 2014s hit.
Not in Minnesota - in MN, plates stay with the car. I just sold my Mazda; the new owner transferred the title and registration to her name and she got whatever was left on the reg until she needs to renew it (in March I think). She’s got the same plates that I had on it, and will have until they change the numbering again (MN does that every 5 years, no idea why).
Of course this can’t be generalized to all states. As mentioned above, Minnesota plates stay with the car and South Dakota just changed over to plates with owner within the last few years.
I think most or all of Europe goes with ‘plates stay with the car’.
It is possible, in the uk at any rate, to transfer your plates for a fee, and there is a big market in the plates that look like a name or whatever. An old comedian owns COM 1 C for example. The DVLA filter out rude combinations of new plates and auction off the rest. To get a number plate made up, for a trailer for example, we have to prove ownership of the car. This is supposed to make it harder for criminals.
In the UK, unlike the rest of Europe, trailers and semi-trailers do not have their own plate. The driver attaches the plate from the towing vehicle to whatever trailer he hooks up to.
Dealers have to clear the old to make way for the new. Prices for 2013 models tend to drop, but not always. Sale incentives vary. With the scarcity of 2013 models, the various features and combos you may desire will dry up. What you save on a year-end model purchase you may lose on specific features not being available. YMMV.
Define short trips. How many? Daily? Weekly? City driving? Stop and go driving? Highway driving? What are you carrying? Driver only? Two people? Shopping? Kids and/or pets? Hills? Flat terrain? Narrow roads? Tight parking?
Only you can answer those questions and other opinions may not apply to your specifics.
How do you plan to buy? Cash? Financed? With trade in? All affect the actual price and the games played arriving at that price.
When do you plan to buy? Best time is last 3-5 days of a month (you missed it for July). Best time to buy is end of December for dealer tax purposes and winter is slow for dealers. Or buy now. YMMV.
Buying a new model, or tried and true model? New models have issues. Rule of thumb is buy beginning third model year so manufacturers get the kinks out the first two model years.
Good luck!
What if it’s a 1912 Whizbang?
In addition to new cars, there’s an inventory switch on trade-ins sitting on dealer lots. Around here, the rule-of-thumb is 3 years for trade-ins on a new car lot. Dealers hold cars less than 3 years old and hope to sell them. Older cars get sent to auctions and such. So any 2011s still sitting on the lot are “sell or they will ship out” status now.
Yeah, I’ve come across >1 year old new cars on lots. E.g., one was a very basic model. It didn’t even have AC. It hadn’t been kept clean or anything so it looked terrible. And the price wasn’t lowered enough to attract anyone’s attention. The financing system between makers and dealers is bizarre and can lead to not-so-new cars getting stranded.
Even if it is leftover 2013, you would get new car financing rates which often (depending on your credit) can be ridiculously low. Sometimes the low finance rates are in lieu of dealer cash or other incentives. Best deals are “usually” had from really big dealers with lots of a certain model in their inventory at the end of the month. It helps to have more than one of these Mega-Dealers within easy shopping distance.
The owner’s manual doesn’t list the year; in fact, it isn’t even exact-model-specific. And since the cops have the database of who’s got compulsory insurance and who doesn’t, it’s not required to carry insurance papers either (it’s still a good idea if you’re traveling abroad, as cops abroad don’t have your insurance info). The VIN, I assume can be checked against Trafico’s databases, but AFAIK doesn’t directly list the year, and in this case will not work if you happen to be abroad.
You need to look at the car’s “green card” (which happens to be, in fact, green). It will list among other things where and when was the car made (note that “when” doesn’t necessarily match the US concept of “year model”; some 2014 cars are already being made in 2013).