Want a new car at a low price? Here’s how to get the best deal

Find slow sellers, research discounts and buy at month’s end.

Now is the time to practically steal a new sedan from your car dealer.

For more than a year, car sales have been tanking because Americans have gone nuts over SUVs and trucks. Automakers are offering big discounts to move the sedans languishing in car lots.

Finding the best bargain boils down to this: Figure out which cars aren’t selling, research discounts and buy at the end of the month.

Be wary of offers that seem too good to be true, like $69-a-month payments. Earl Stewart, a Toyota dealer in Florida, advises people to ignore dealer advertising. The low-price deals often are on strippeddown models and can include hefty down payments.

But armed with the right information, you might get more than 20% off a car’s sticker price.

Find slow sellers

For more than a year, many compact, midsize and large cars, gas-electric hybrids and many lower-level luxury cars haven’t sold well. So dealers have big supplies. Because they’re paying interest on the cars, they’re eager to sell. So figure out what size car you want, then look for automakers’ monthly sales press releases online and find models with big year-over-year declines. Don’t be too picky about color or equipment.

Look online

Many websites, including automakers’ sites as well as kbb.com, truecar.com and Edmunds.com, list publicly available discounts called incentives.

Say you decide on a midsize car. Sales of the Nissan Altima were off nearly 15% in January, so incentives are likely. There often are combinations of 0% financing and cash back.

Visit dealers

During the first two weeks of the month, go to a few dealers. Confirm the incentives you found online — then ask for more. Often automakers add deals by region, or they offer rebates if you own a competitor’s model or have one of their models. There also are discounts for AAA members, recent college graduates and members of the military.

Don’t mention a trade-in yet, says Michelle Krebs, an analyst for Autotrader.com. Work that into the deal later. Don’t agree to buy.

Go back later

You’ll get an even better price by waiting until the last few days of a month or quarter. First, dealers offer salespeople bonuses for meeting monthly sales goals. If they are close to the bonus, they’ll be more willing to deal.

Also, dealers get what are called stair-step incentives from automakers for hitting sales goals. It’s big money, so dealers close to their targets are more willing to bargain.

Bigger dealers can get higher payments from automakers and sometimes can offer better prices than smaller ones.

The bottom line: If you go through all these steps and if you’re a tough negotiator, you can get a well-equipped car for less than the price of a stripped-down SUV.