Leftovers.
The food in your refrigerator that wasn鈥檛 eaten on the first go-around.
Or for our purposes, vehicles that weren鈥檛 sold before the new model year hit the dealership. For example, 2015 model-year cars and trucks that were still on dealer lots when the 2016 models arrived.
In both cases, you may have questions about shelf life: How long can that food sit in the refrigerator, or car on the lot, before you have second thoughts about consuming it?
While we can鈥檛 answer the question about food leftovers, we can give a go at the car question.
鈥淢ost cars become leftover models between July and October, and you will usually still find them on dealer lots until January or February 鈥� sometimes longer, sometimes less, depending on the popularity of the vehicle,鈥� suggests the website Real Car Tips.
And buying a leftover should save you some money, according to Consumer Reports, but that also means it鈥檚 a year old the minute you drive it off the dealer鈥檚 lot, especially if you鈥檙e buying a 2015 now.
鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 much matter if you keep your cars a long time, but you鈥檒l lose a bundle on depreciation if you trade every couple of years,鈥� said CR. 鈥淎nd your leftover car is likely to depreciate even faster if it鈥檚 been replaced with a redesigned model for the new model year.鈥�
While models, colors and options may be more limited, a quick survey of third-party and dealer websites shows that you still can find plenty of new 2015 models 鈥� as well as used and low-mileage vehicles.
For example, a search of the Cars.com website for new Ford F-150 pickups found almost 1,700 vehicles, ranging from $25,382 to $67,320, still available within 30 miles a specific ZIP code in a major U.S. city, and about 500 of those were available within 10 miles of the sample ZIP code. The website of a local Ford dealership showed 78 of the pickups ranging from $25,382 to $52,223.
As with any vehicle, how good a deal you get depends on how motivated a dealer is to get it off his lot.
Generally, though, 鈥渢he longer a new car sits on a lot, the more motivated the dealer will be to sell it,鈥� said Real Car Tips in an article How to figure out how long a car has been sitting on a dealer鈥檚 lot.
And, unlike leftover food in the refrigerator, vehicles don鈥檛 usually spoil on the dealer鈥檚 lot.
