By JOSH JACQUOT, Edmunds

If you’re in the market for a new vehicle, the remaining weeks of December could very well be a great time to buy. Several recurring industry trends converge at year-end, creating favorable conditions that can help you save money. The auto experts at Edmunds have come up with three key reasons why December often delivers the opportunity for better deals — and what to know to ensure you get the best one.

Year-end sales quotas and dealership incentives

Manufacturers and dealers operate under annual targets, and December is when they make their most concerted effort to meet them. According to Edmunds transaction data, December has historically delivered the highest average discounts off the manufacturer’s suggested retail price for both new and used cars. The pandemic somewhat upended that, sending new car prices skyrocketing year-round as demand exceeded supply, but that blip has largely stabilized since 2022.

Typically, as the calendar year draws to a close, automakers and their dealer networks shift into high gear, deploying cash-back incentives, financing specials and price cuts to help them meet sales goals and finish the year strong. As a car shopper, you can take advantage of this year-end push. By choosing to buy a vehicle in December, you are more likely to encounter a dealership willing to make a deal, even if it’s less profitable.

It can get even sweeter for you if you can wait until the final week of the month. Edmunds data shows that the last few days of December — when dealerships are truly up against the wall of both monthly and annual deadlines — tend to produce the deepest discounts of the year. Think of it as the auto industry’s version of a clearance countdown when every sale counts a little extra.

Outgoing model year inventory and clearance deals

As new-model-year vehicles begin to arrive, many dealerships find themselves with previous model-year vehicles still on the lot. These outgoing models become ripe for discounts because they’re taking up space and declining in value. In a handful of states, dealerships are also required to pay a tax on the value of their inventory on the lot as of January 1. This is a massive hidden motivator that drives desperation on December 31, specifically for vehicles that have been on the lot for 90 days or more.

Edmunds highlights that vehicles from the outgoing model year or those undergoing minimal changes often get steeper incentives. While new models are launched year-round these days, December is when current-year models still on the lot are targeted by sales managers as “must-move” inventory. Currently, that means 2025 vehicles will receive the largest discounts.

Accordingly, you can also maximize your savings if you can be flexible on features, trim or color, so the deals on carry-over models can be substantial. If the vehicle you want hasn’t changed dramatically from year to year, you may be able to purchase a car that’s essentially the same as a new model at a lower price.

More financing leverage in December

Beyond price reductions, December offers an advantageous backdrop for better financing terms on new vehicles. Edmunds’ research shows that automakers and their financing arms often bundle lower interest rates, longer promotional terms or enhanced lease offers at year-end in tandem with their clearance efforts. For example, an automaker might offer special 0% financing on certain vehicles for well-qualified buyers. Getting 0% financing, or even 2%, is a big savings over the standard financing rate of 6%-7% currently.

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Dealers eager to clear out their new vehicle inventory before the end of the year may be open to negotiation on specific vehicles — especially those that have been on the lot for a while. You can check the days on the lot when you browse Edmunds inventory.

For shoppers who have done their homework — secured preapproval, identified the trims they’re willing to consider, and are ready to sign — this timing can offer both a lower purchase price and a lower cost of borrowing. Buyers can gain even more leverage by being strategic: a dealer may have several examples of the same model, some of which have been in inventory for an extended period. Each day a car sits unsold costs the dealership more. That creates extra motivation to discount older inventory or specific vehicles.

In short, it’s not just about when you buy, but which specific car you target. The right combination of timing, financing and flexibility can make December deals even more rewarding.

Edmunds says

December packs together three powerful forces for buyers seeking the best deals: dealer urgency to hit quotas, clearance of outgoing-model stock and enhanced financing leverage. Make sure to get an early start on the shopping so that you have a better selection and don’t feel pressured to make a hasty decision.

This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds. Josh Jacquot is a contributor at Edmunds.

VIRGINIA — A Duluth hunter has been charged with illegally taking a moose, which he told officers he mistook for a deer.

The Duluth man faces a gross misdemeanor charge after allegedly shooting the animal on Nov. 8, the opening day of the firearms deer season, just north of Cotton.

Minnesota has not had a moose season since 2012, as the once-thriving population began a rapid decline about 20 years ago.

The incident was reported to the Department of Natural Resources shortly after 9 a.m., according to a criminal complaint. Conservation officers Shane Zavodnik and Jake Peterson responded and met the man and his hunting party at their camp in the Melrude area.

The man allegedly said he was in his stand when he saw what he believed to be deer antlers and shot the animal. He fired again, causing it to fall.

Officers learned he had sent a message to another member of his group, stating: “I f—ed up and shot a moose.”

The hunter said his stand faces east and that the trees and glare from the sun made it difficult to see, but he thought he was shooting at a six-point white-tailed deer. The moose was found approximately 110 yards away from the stand.

Both officers reported that the man’s eyes were “bloodshot and watery” and that he smelled of alcohol. He allegedly acknowledged drinking beer the previous night, and a preliminary breath test showed a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.10, which is higher than the legal limit for driving.

The officers seized the man’s rifle, and the moose was turned over to the 1854 Treaty Authority, which manages off-reservation tribal hunting rights in Northeastern Minnesota.

State law sets restitution for the illegal taking of a moose at $1,000. The charge itself carries a fine of up to $3,000; jail time is not typically imposed for hunting violations, and the man does not appear to have any criminal history.

He was issued a summons to appear in State District Court in Virginia on Feb. 20.

A DNR estimate this year placed the state’s moose population at 4,040 — a figure that has remained relatively stable for the past decade, but a far cry from the 8,840 estimated in 2006.

The figure plummeted to just 2,760 in 2013, which prompted the DNR and area tribes to suspend the hunt. The three Ojibwe bands in the treaty area resumed a limited harvest in 2016.

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Across much of the industrial world, trust in government is low and declining. Why is this happening and why, exactly, does it matter?

An unusually thorough new study looks at these questions and finds answers that are somewhat unexpected and, in one way, more disturbing than you might have guessed.

The fact of diminished trust is hardly a revelation, least of all in countries such as the U.S., where anti-establishment populists have turned politics upside down and elite expertise has become not just distrusted but disdained.

Last year a survey found that fewer than one in six Americans expect Washington to do the right thing “nearly always” (1%) or “most of the time” (15%).

At the turn of the century, such measures for the U.S. were more than twice as high. Across the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, many other countries (including the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, New Zealand and Chile) have also seen trust decline. But in others (such as Finland, Ireland, Portugal, and Mexico) trust has increased. Levels of trust, as opposed to rates of change, also vary a lot. These widely differing patterns make it possible to examine causes.

On the face of it, the collapse of trust seems like a phenomenon of social psychology — a perspective that tends to highlight a confluence of cultural and technological factors. Social media, disinformation and misinformation, echo chambers, epistemic bubbles and whatnot are often taken to be responsible.

This view is mistaken, according to a study by Michael Boskin, Alexander Kleiner and Ian Whiton, all of Stanford University. Their paper adds to a body of research that says straightforward economic factors are what count.

Looking at 34 countries between 2007 and 2023, they find that per-capita gross domestic product, debt, social spending, unemployment, and inflation all have pronounced effects on trust in government. In their analysis, the interactions and trade-offs among these measures largely explain the outcome, leaving non-economic factors to play “only a supporting role.”

Overall, an increase in per capita GDP (in real, after-tax terms) of $1,000 corresponded to a rise in trust of 0.2 percentage points. The effect of higher social spending was even more pronounced: An increase of $1,000 per capita is associated with a 1.4 percentage-point increase in trust.

Higher inflation and higher unemployment both reduce trust, as you’d expect; each increase of a percentage point reduces trust in government by 1.6 and 1.0 percentage points, respectively. Half a century ago, the economist Arthur Okun coined the “misery index,” the sum of the rates of inflation and unemployment. Evidently, misery means distrust, and inflation is especially likely to induce it.

More important are the trade-offs connecting these various measures. Other things being equal, trust rises when social spending goes up. If higher spending coincides with a period of high unemployment and spare economic capacity, it’s likely to cut joblessness without pushing inflation up.

The net effect, thanks to lower unemployment, would then be an even bigger improvement in trust. But if the spending coincides with full employment and no spare capacity, it will likely drive up inflation – most likely by enough to yield a net reduction in trust. The authors surmise that this is what happened in many countries, especially the U.S., once the recovery from the pandemic was well under way.

One way to summarize the finding is to say that sound macroeconomic management — not the same as “big government” or “small government” — promotes trust, and that the main test of sound macroeconomic policy is low unemployment and (especially) low inflation. But there’s another more unsettling implication: Declining trust will be self-reinforcing if, as seems likely, it makes sound macroeconomic policy more difficult.

A vicious circle of macro mismanagement and declining trust is plausible. Inflation expectations are anchored by the credibility of policymakers’ commitment to keep prices under control. If that credibility erodes, achieving low inflation gets harder.

And this risk isn’t confined to the decisions made by central banks. Fiscal policy is equally implicated. Rising debt arouses distrust in its own right; at a certain point, it also calls into question the government’s preference for low inflation (because higher inflation would reduce the debt in real terms). Higher inflation means less trust; less trust makes higher inflation more likely. Trust in government requires good government; good government requires trust in government.

The good news in this study is that restoring trust might be more straightforward than cultural revolution and/or technological stasis. Plain old sound economic management — with particular stress on keeping inflation tamed — might suffice. The bad news for countries like the U.S., which have seen trust in government fall so precipitously, is that sound economic management is now a lot more difficult than before.

Clive Crook is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and member of the editorial board covering economics. Previously, he was deputy editor of the Economist and chief Washington commentator for the Financial Times.

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St. Paul medical device companies Minnetronix Medical and Intricon recently merged to form a new contract design and manufacturing organization — and it’s growing.

The newly-formed Forj Medical will soon open a 53,000-square-foot facility in Costa Rica that will feature manufacturing lines for automated and manual assemblies of components and finished medical devices, according to a company news release.

Intricon, an expert in components, microelectronics and precision molding, was founded in St. Paul in 1977 and has facilities in Arden Hills and Vadnais Heights. Minnetronix, known for manufacturing advanced medical technology, was founded in 1996 and has its facilities on Energy Park Drive in St. Paul. The existing facilities, which were not impacted by the merger, now operate under Forj Medical, a spokesperson for the company said.

“Costa Rica is a key pillar in our global network,” said Jeremy Maniak, CEO of Forj Medical and former Minnetronix CEO, in the release. “By combining deep expertise in system and component design with advanced automation and assembly, we help our original equipment manufacturing customers solve complex challenges, scale production with confidence, and bring innovative technologies to patients faster.”

Located in the Evolution Free Zone in Tacares de Grecia, the manufacturing facility will be the first in Costa Rica dedicated to custom electromagnetic sensors, biosensor devices and microelectronic medical devices built on a globally integrated supply chain, Maniak said in the release.

The Costa Rica facility will also include a large clean room for producing devices such as thoseused for surgical navigation, diabetes, drug delivery, cardiovascular and advanced optics applications.

The company is currently hiring for critical leadership positions with additional openings expected in the coming months.

About the merger

Headquartered in the St. Paul area, Forj Medical officially launched in October with the merging of two St. Paul companies.

“Two leaders in medical device innovation have come together to create something extraordinary for customers,” said Mauricio Arellano,  executive chair of Forj Medical, in October. “With a shared commitment to quality and innovation, Forj Medical is well positioned to support our customers and accelerate breakthroughs in patient care.”

Forj Medical operates across six facilities in the United States, Indonesia, Singapore and Costa Rica.

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