With Auto Demand Up, Did you Buy a New Car This Year?

Detroit is not taking summer vacation.

The big three American automakers (Ford, General Motors and Chrysler) usually shut down for about two weeks over the summer to do maintenance and change out machinery but not this year.

“The Detroit automakers are largely forgoing the traditional two-week summer break at their factories and speeding up production to meet buyers' growing demand for new cars and trucks,” reported AOL Auto.

So are local dealerships also feeling the pull of new buyers in the market?

"People are definitely coming back into the buying cycle," said Wayne Rampone Jr., vice president of Ramp Ford in Port Jefferson Station.

He can tell where people are at economically by the age of their trade ins. He say the average age rose from five or six years to almost 10 years.

"Four years ago we were right smack in the middle of the bad economy," he said. 
That made people hold off a little longer when buying a new car but the market is turning round and the reasons vary.

Over Atlantic Volkswagen in West Islip, General Manager Donald Awe said his customers are coming back to the car-buying market as their lease termination dates approach.

Rampone said that some people are just excited about new products and others are weighing the cost of repairs to their old cars versus buying a new one.

"It's a mix of a few things," he said.

Did you buy a new car this year? How long did you wait before you bought a new one?