When is the best time to buy?
I would think some good deals would be around February March when the tax money dries up and there are more trade in's and end of leases.
Also how long is a car on the lot before they get antsy?
When you say cash do you meant outside loan?
Where in car sales or something else?
Around here it's late winter, which is why I really started looking harder in January/early February. Used car dealers hit the auctions harder to build inventory in anticipation of people receiving tax refunds and they're often more willing to make a deal just to make sure they clear a good part of that inventory. I bought that first used one around that time and before I even took it for a test drive, the lead guy said I'll take a $1,000 off. That put me on lemon alert but it was a damn good deal.
The lot I bought the one from was packed to the gills around then. I drive by it every day on the way to work and they don't have near that many cars now.
Smaller "mom and pop" lots(My earlier purchase) have more of a need to deal because they generally have smaller profit margins than larger regional chains and more of a need to clear inventory. There are plenty of those larger dealers around here.
Cash as in, money in the bank, write a check and buy it outright. No loans for me if I can help it.
Sales is sales, the price levels and product may vary but the game is basically the same. The best way to combat a salesperson is to educate yourself about the product you're in the market for. Almost any salesperson hates to hear that you know what you want and you're not interested in shopping around for something that could be more expensive and maybe not worth it.
Not necessarily vehicle related but advertising is usually one of the biggest scams out there. They design ads to pull you into the store, even if they have minimal inventory of the product at a "can't beat" price, then steer you towards something more expensive. I was a department manager at a JCPenney's years ago and their advertising was as misleading as it gets.
Pay attention to some of those car listing sites and check to see if they list how long it's been on the lot. If it's been there more than a couple, few months and the price seems reasonable, it's probably been test driven and passed on a few times. When I was looking last winter, I was locked in on a blue Chevy Trailblazer, low miles, decent price. The thing *looked* cherry overall but it's 4WD switch was quirky as hell and when I looked underneath, the chassis had *major* rust. There were spots where the frame was rusted through. Not enough people think to check out the undercarriage but if the engine is the heart of the vehicle, the frame is what carries it from here to there. You have to really watch that in cooler, wet states up north like around this area. Lots of snow and salt in the winter and so on.
I could ramble on but I need to drag my sorry ass to bed. :-)