Busier December than usual for car dealers

It used to be car salesmen would be playing cards on the showroom floor as the year came to a close, but things are different now.

Automobile Dealers are flooding the airwaves with ads for their year-end and holiday sales, and it looks like that ad blitz could be paying off.

Listen:
[audio: 091223tmcars.mp3]

It used to be car salesmen would be playing cards on the showroom floor as the year came to a close, but things are different now. Jack McCartney is Sales Manager at Lexus of Cherry Hill. He says people are borrowing their red bows to recreate their commercial.

McCartney: For some reason, people bought into it, and they took, just through a smart advertising campaign, and took what used to be the slowest month in the car business and turned it into the biggest month of the year.

McCartney says he has more than a dozen cars at his dealership that will be given as presents this year. The head of the Automobile Dealers Association of Philadelphia Kevin Mazzacola says high end car dealers aren’t the only ones doing big business this month, and with a federal sales tax credit expiring at the end of the year, many dealers are busy.

Mazzacola: You see from Ford, from Toyota, from General Motors from Nissan, across the board utilizing marketing and deals for consumers to unload or get those vehicles off the dealers lots prior to December 31st.

One manufacturer is actually spoofing another’s holiday ads. Mazzacola says that is the sincerest form of flattery, and also is showing the commercials are working and taking away market share from the competition.