Tuesday Most Popular Day to Buy a Car
Vehicle data expert Cartell.ie reports today that Tuesday is the most popular day of the week to buy or sell a used car. The result is based on analysis of daily transaction figures for used vehicles over the past 5 years. In terms of yearly breakdown consistently the most popular day of the year to buy a vehicle is the 1st or 2nd Tuesday in February. This is understandable considering that most new vehicles are sold in the first 3 months of the year due to the Irish registration system, which, until January 2013, encouraged people to buy their car early in the new year to get the most from their new plate. The result of people buying new vehicles in the first part of the year is that a lot tend to trade in their older used vehicles. These vehicles are then resold in the early part of the year.
| Month of Sale | Numbers of Cars | Month of Sale | Numbers of Cars |
| January 2012 | 79322 | October 2012 | 74987 |
| February 2012 | 87627 | November 2012 | 69891 |
| March 2012 | 83876 | December 2012 | 48691 |
Why Tuesday?
The reason for the popularity of Tuesday is probably because people use Monday to catch up and plan their week and possibly to recover from the weekend. It may also be attributable to the requirement to visit the bank (perhaps on Monday) before completing the purchase (on Tuesday).
At the other end of the scale Saturdays are the worst days for vehicle transactions confirming the view in the trade that while large numbers of people view vehicles on Saturdays very few sales are actually concluded on that day. One reason may be the industry standard to transfer funds for purchases or by bank draft instead of by cheque – most high street banks are not open on a Saturday.
Aside from Tuesday the only other day of the week to appear close to the top of sales charts is Wednesday – particularly the 1st Wednesday in May.
Another result from the stats is that Tuesdays immediately after bank holidays are not particularly popular with figures resembling those for an average Monday.
Jeff Aherne, Director of Cartell.ie says: “The 1st Tuesday in February is the most popular day to buy or sell a car in Ireland and February generally is the busiest month. Furthermore if you take the top 10 days of the year for vehicle sales 9 of the top 10 are Tuesdays. The top 2 are the 1st and 2nd Tuesday in February.”
