Buddy is looking to lease a new car and negotiated a deal yesterday. The car is part of a dealer swap and they won’t have it until Tuesday, Jan 2nd. He has not signed any documents as he wants to see the car in person before he signs anything.
He’s afraid, however, that the deal will change once they get into the new year. Dealer told him that the deal will stand and in fact, even if he signs on Tuesday, Jan 2nd, they will still credit it as a 2023 4th Q sale (also talking about how the programs are through Jan 2nd and would count for 2023 sales data).
Not really a big deal, but I was generally curious if there is a grace period where finalized sales can be counted for a previous period. Seems odd.
It is very common for there to be a day or two grace period for the year end (and every month end) depending on exactly how the calendar days fall.
And it’s not even really a “grace period” but just the banks setting up their sales month (and year) such that December and 2023 ends on Jan. 2 or Jan 3 or whenever.
It’s actually dependent on the OEM/manufacturer, and not unusual. Can be due to accounting practices, the “sales” calendar (i.e. the National Retail Foundation has the 4-5-4 calendar), or any other multitude of reasons.
Sales month and calendar month aren’t the same. I’m not sure the exact algorithm they use, but it seems to be something like the sales month ends on the last day of the calendar month unless the last day of the calendar month falls on Friday-Sunday or a holiday, in which case the last day of the sales month is pushed out until the first day that is not Friday-Sunday or a holiday.
Lease programs follow the sales month. No risk that the program will change but depending on the scruples of the dealer they could sell the car out from under him if someone else signs on the car first.
