HOT CAKES DON'T SELL THIS WELL BUYERS FLOCKING TO CAR DEALERS.Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer The car market has shifted into high gear as buyers race to take advantage of good deals and temporarily lower license fees. Shoppers have flooded local dealers' lots and showrooms to try to complete transactions before the vehicle license fee returns to its original level Wednesday, tripling motorists' registration costs. The break on fees - combined with the end of the model year, low interest rates and manufacturer rebates - is expected to keep dealers extremely busy today. ``We get some people who are very concerned about the tax. Why pay more if you don't have to?'' said Jose Penaloza, sales floor manager for Hamer Toyota. ``And we're trying to blow out the '03s as the '04s come in. The new models will be coming in November, so with the special rebates and the incentives, it's perfect.'' Glen Jones, a Burbank resident who had been driving a 1996 Chevrolet Tahoe The Chevrolet Tahoe (and similar GMC Yukon) is a full-size SUV from General Motors. Chevrolet and GMC sold two different-sized SUVs under their Blazer/Jimmy model names through the early 1990s. This situation changed when GMC rebadged the full-size Jimmy as the Yukon in 1992. , liked his sport utility vehicle just fine, but Monday he decided to trade it in. He'd been paying $600 to register it and didn't relish the $1,800 payment he'd have faced for renewal in January. Though he'd only escape the fee increase temporarily, he figured the $1,200 difference would be better spent toward a new ride. ``It's the one main reason I'm here,'' he said, pricing Ford F150s at Sunshine Ford in North Hollywood. ``You cringe cringe intr.v. cringed, cring·ing, cring·es 1. To shrink back, as in fear; cower. 2. To behave in a servile way; fawn. n. An act or instance of cringing. when you hear about it. I don't even want to go check the mail, in case there's something about registration in there.'' Shoppers like him found a plethora plethora /pleth·o·ra/ (pleth´ah-rah) 1. an excess of blood. 2. by extension, a red florid complexion.pletho´ric pleth·o·ra n. 1. of good deals over the weekend, as well as the lower fee. To entice shoppers to choose Ford, the automaker slapped a $3,000 rebate rebate, partial refund of the total price paid for goods or services. In the United States, rebates were historically given by railroads to favored shippers as a return on transportation charges. on a truck or offered zero-percent financing. General Motors and others have followed suit, continuing a two-year price war that has kept auto sales Auto Sales The major producers of domestic automobiles report sales monthly. These numbers are seasonally adjusted by the U.S. Department of Commerce and are available to the public one to five business days after the end of each month. strong in a challenged economy. ``The domestic manufacturers have been having incredible rebates, and the import manufacturers are offering greater incentives than normal,'' said Jim Lynch Jim Lynch redirects here. For the Survivor contestant of the same name, see: James Robert Lynch (born August 28, 1945 in Lima, Ohio U.S.) was an American football linebacker who spent his entire eleven-year professional career (1967-1977) with the AFL and NFL , president of the Rydell Automotive Group that has six General Motors dealerships in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. . ``That's an ongoing saga, where you always have to outdo yourself.'' One of his chief competitors, Galpin Ford in North Hills, has six pages of rebates and financing deals that have kept the sales force busy. Though Galpin already sells more than 1,000 vehicles a month, general sales manager sales manager n → gerente m/f de ventas sales manager n → directeur commercial sales manager sale n → Shea Shafer figures car sales increased by as much as 40 percent over the weekend. ``There's never been a better time to buy,'' Shafer said. ``It's a buyer's market A Buyer's Market is the second novel in Anthony Powell's twelve-novel series, A Dance to the Music of Time. Published in 1952, it continues the story of narrator Nick Jenkins with his introduction into society after boarding school and university. . With all the rebates, you can buy the car for less than we did.'' To avoid the fee increase this year, a buyer must close the deal and take possession of the vehicle no later than today. While Galpin and other dealers have been busy, they may find things cooling considerably on Wednesday. But while he figures that salespeople sales·peo·ple pl.n. Persons who are employed to sell merchandise in a store or in a designated territory. will be none too busy Wednesday, automotive consultant George Peterson thinks that even better deals might materialize soon. ``California's an extremely important market to all the manufacturers and suppliers from there,'' said Peterson, president of the Tustin-based AutoPacific Inc. ``Often, Californians will benefit from extraordinary incentives other people don't get. You'd expect that if sales are flat in the beginning of October, we'll see more incentives by the end of the month.'' Brent Hopkins, (818) 713-3738 brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Beating the deadline to avoid a tripling of registration fees, Glen Jones of Burbank, left, trades in his Chevy Tahoe on a new car at Sunrise Ford, where worker Jimmy Thompson helps. Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer |
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