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'Black Friday' Will Be Great Time To Buy A Car

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- From door-buster deals to bargains that can't be missed, retailers are throwing every discount they can think of to get shoppers in the door.

Now car dealers are getting in the act. Black Friday has traditionally been a day for huge discounts on things like clothes and electronics, but you may want to add cars to the shopping list.

In fact, one car website calls Black Friday the best day of the year to buy. You don't have to look far to find discounts at the mall, but there might also be some unadvertised ones at the car dealership too.

Wayne Johnson thinks he found his new car at Walser Toyota. He wants a new Prius.

"Ha!  I came from shopping and now I'm shopping for a car," said Johnson.

He's exactly the customer dealers want to lure, enticed by Black Friday deals.

"Yeah, we're trying something a little bit different," he said.

Doug Sprinthall with the Walser dealership said they will offer zero percent financing on used cars, something that's usually never done.

Several other dealerships are also running promotions for the Thanksgiving weekend, one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year. But those are mostly on new cars.

"People are at the malls, that sort of stuff. So we're trying to attract some attention and just syphon off a little bit of that business for ourselves," said Sprinthall.

A CBS car columnist recently wrote about Black Friday Auto Sales. He quoted the automotive web-site "True Car," which said it's the best day of the year to buy a car. Discounts stand at 20 percent or more as dealers want to hit month-end goals and manufacturers want to sell their remaining 2011 inventory.

"TrueCar" found a 22 percent discount on a Chevy pickup after a $4,500 rebate. It also found a Chrysler Sedan with a 16 percent discount. So if you're in the market for a car, the presence of another price reduction makes a difference, the columnist said.

Johnson found the car he wants just as long as the deal was good enough to go with it.

"I'm looking forward to a new one," he said.

If you miss out this weekend, don't worry. Experts said there will be car deals around through mid-December.

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