Black Friday new-car deals hit lots early

Computers and TVs and – cars? Oh my!

Black Friday discounts hit the hardest on customer savings for big-ticket purchases, and a new vehicle is possibly the biggest. For some manufacturers those savings are coming early.

TrueCar has highlighted today several manufacturers who have made the push early in the month to get metal moving, including new-vehicle offerings from GM, Ford and FCA.

According to TrueCar, GM is currently running a month-long Black Friday promotion for the Buick, Chevrolet and GMC brands, offering savings as high as 20 percent off of MSRP. Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram are also all running Black Friday promotions this month, advertising no-interest financing for up to 75 months. Ford is also in the savings game this month, highlighting its “Friend & Neighbors” promotion, which offers employee pricing to customers.

“Black Friday programs in the auto industry are notably robust this year,” said Eric Lyman, TrueCar’s vice president of industry insights. “Similar to last November, automakers are getting an early start on Black Friday-themed advertising to keep consumers headed to dealer showrooms.”

The Ford Taurus tops TrueCar’s list of new vehicles with the best savings for the month, which the company says can be purchased with discounts as high as 19 percent off of MSRP for the 2015 SE models. Certain 2015 Ram 1500 models can be had for as much as 18 percent off MSRP while Chevrolet is also getting in on the game by offering customer cash on Malibu sedans, averaging $2,535 this month.

“Although there are exceptions, we continue to see large discounting on passenger cars,” said Stacey Doyle, TrueCar’s senior industry analyst. “With market share for the total segment down by three points this year, it’s not surprising automakers are turning to incentives to move more metal.”

Here are a few models highlighted by TrueCar for interesting discounts in the month of November, with market averages based on the national average of recent vehicle transactions, including destination and delivery charges after incentives that are subject to change. These figures also do not include any other state, federal, or any other sort of charges allowed by law.