Local Car Sales Skyrocket

SANTA BARBARA – After years of sluggish sales, the new car market is taking off. Local car dealers say monthly sales have doubled and tripled over last year.Mike Caldwell with Toyota of Santa Barbara says “we are getting back to what we saw five or six years ago in terms of volume and activity.”Despite what appears to be high demand, manufacturers are offering all kinds of incentives including deep discounts and cash back.Robin Tidd with Graham Chevrolet says “the incentives are really strong out there for the buyer.”Local car dealers also tell KEY News they’ve recently seen customers get interest rates between 0% and 1.9%.Mike Caldwell says the internet has taken most of the price haggling out of the car buying process. “We’ve always sort of trained people in this business to look toward the end of the month and nowadays with the internet and information and transparency of information you can get a great deal anytime of the month if you do your homework.”