Why now is the best time to buy a new car
New cars are at their most affordable in 38 years, but sales have hit a pot hole.
"A car is the ultimate discretionary purchase, so if you've got low confidence about the future, economically the first thing you do is you don't buy a new car," Motoring editor John Cadogan said.
Overall, this year car sales are down two per cent.
Business sales figures are even worse, with companies not investing in new fleet cars.
But some big name brands are hurting the most.
Honda is down 25 per cent, Suzuki is down 21 per cent, Nissan is down 17 per cent and Mitsubishi is down 10 per cent.
The figures are forcing dealers to come up with new sales gimmicks to jump start sales.
"Every manufacturer is trying to ‘blip’ on your radar, so they do all kinds of kooky things,” Cadogan said.
Kia is offering an Australian first - a seven-year capped servicing warranty.
“The manufacturer’s responsibility is to get people into the showroom and our seven-year warranty is certainly doing that,” Kia's Damien Meredith said.
Ford will give you $200 cash to test drive one of their cars even if you end up buying one from a competitor, while at Hyundai you can buy a specified model and receive a $2000 Eftpos gift card.
Car companies are also now throwing in thousands of dollars in extras in special edition models to get people through the door.
While car sales have been bleak in 2014, there's evidence these gimmicks are working with the latest sales figures slightly up.
