$1,500 - $2,000 off on select new vehicles vehicles!

Is Presidents Day a Good Time to Buy a Car?

Feb 13, 2016

Why is Presidents Day known as a great time to buy a car? The Presidents Day Sales Event has been an automotive industry staple for years, but there is no clear consensus on exactly how and why this started.

Locally, the Presidents Day tradition dates back to 1917, when Alvan T. Fuller (later governor of Massachusetts) promoted a Presidents Day “open house” event at his Cadillac and Packard dealership on Commonwealth Avenue. The most notable advantage of having a sales event on Presidents Day is that many people have the day off from work and are able to visit the dealership and go for test drives.

Despite early efforts by dealers like Fuller, Presidents Day car sales events did not take off on a national basis until the 1970’s. It is worth noting that prior to 1971 Presidents Day was always celebrated on George Washington’s actual birthday (February 22^nd), regardless of the day of the week. In 1971, the Presidents Day holiday was moved to the third Monday in February, ensuring that it would always create a three-day weekend.

This newly formed three-day weekend happens to fall at a convenient time for both dealers and prospective customers. Dealers and manufactures alike are starting to enter “spring cleaning” mode to make room for new models, so they offer discounts and rebates to help move aging product. Customers have recovered from the holiday expenses incurred back in December, and many of them have received tax refund checks. Tax refund checks make excellent down payments, and can be combined with rebates from the manufacturer to help lock in low monthly payments.

As you can see, there is no one reason why Presidents Day has become so big in the automotive industry; rather, it is a combination of factors that help to make it a great time to buy a car.