WHEN CAN YOU GET A DEAL ON A CAR AGAIN?

Low inventories mean it’s hard to haggle on price, but you can still negotiate on financing.

- RIVAN STINSON

Matt Degen is an editor at Kelley Blue Book, a website that helps consumers research and purchase used and new vehicles.

Global supply-chain problems have reduced the inventory of new vehicles, resulting in long waits to buy a car. When will things get back to normal? None of us has a crystal ball, but our analysts think that toward the end of the year some of these supply constraints will have eased. And we’re already seeing that, as inventory levels are rising very, very slowly. It’s baby steps toward some normalcy, though it may be a new normal. Because automakers have been selling cars even with leaner inventory, I think a lot of them are realizing that they don’t need to make as many cars.