Do People Really Give Cars as Christmas Gifts?

Here it is Thanksgiving week and we're already two weeks into the Christmas sales hoopla.  The endless "holiday sales" commercials on TV include several from automotive companies, many featuring an image similar to the one at right:  a car with a giant ribbon.  That got me to wondering...do people really give cars as Christmas gifts?  Yes, they do.

In 2010, CNW Marketing Research estimated that 56,884 new and used vehicles were bought by people as Christmas gifts.  It sounds like a lot, but gift-giving actually amounted to less than 2% of the more than 900,000 cars, new and used, that were sold during the holidays last year.  Also, the car as gift numbers for 2010 are less than half what they were in 2005, when more than 130,000 vehicles were given as gifts.  That, of course, pre-dates the recession.

According the editors of automotive marketing firm TrueCar.com, the commercials with cars wrapped in ribbons are intended more to keep consumers minds on the auto industry during a time of year when shoppers are thinking of buying everything but a car.  Giving a car as a gift rarely happens, they say.

Then again, the end of the calendar year is seen by many as the time of year to get the best deal.  TrueCar.com forecast in 2010 that dealers, trying to make sales quotas, would offer new cars at about 6.85% below MSRP in late December.

Who are the people who give a car as a gift?  According to USA Today, they are grownups with a lot of money...between the ages of 30 and 60 and making more than $100,000 a year.

Links:
USA Today article
Article from Consumersearch.com