5 Top Tips to Implement a Post-Pandemic Vehicle Replacement Strategy
It's all about timing.
By planning ahead and acquiring new vehicles based on a purchase and resale calendar, you can save thousands of dollars annually.
1. IDEAL TIME TO ORDER VEHICLES
You can save the most by placing your orders early in the model year - allowing you to take deliveries sooner and benefit from introductory pricing. Due to the pandemic, the new model year was delayed.
Since the new models were just released, September and October are the best months to order new vehicles this year.
2. Plan & Stagger
By ordering early, you mitigate the risk of transportation and production delays that are common later in the model year. Due to factory shut-downs during the pandemic, manufacturers have been working at maximum capacity.
By ordering early, you increase your chances that your vehicles will be in the first production cycle.
3. Know the Industry
A lot of outside factors can affect the timeline of delivery. Make sure you have a trusted partner with a dedicated account management team that will monitor and update you on vehicle lead times to help plan your vehicle replacement cycles.
4. Common End-of-the-year delays
Inclement weather and holiday schedules can cause delays during the busiest delivery months of the year. Waiting to order at the end of the year can be risky due to delays, as well as, supplier constraints and end-of-year cutoffs.
5. Optimal Resale Window
In order to reduce Total Cost of Ownership, it's important to consider the best time of the year to sell your existing vehicles. With the current resales market, you'll want to consider an ideal replacement schedule based on the vehicle market's trends and cycles.
Currently, many companies are experiencing gains on their resale values, make sure you talk to your Enterprise representative to understand the process and that you're buying and selling at the right time and optimizing your fleet investment.
