The Number: Dec. 10

Thousand Oaks is the No. 12 most affordable city in California to buy a used vehicle this fall, according to a study by Autolist.com, a website for car sellers. Autolist calculates that the average vehicle in the Conejo Valley city is priced $954 less than the state average. The vehicle with the greatest savings in Thousand Oaks is the Mini Cooper, followed by three models of sports utilities: Ford Edge, BMW X5 and Toyota Rav4. Chase Disher, a market analytics and product manager at Autolist in San Francisco, believes there is an opportunity for buyers to take advantage of geographic differences in car prices when shopping for their dream car. Although affluence doesn’t seem to correlate with used car affordability, Disher said that a concentration of dealerships – such as Thousand Oaks Auto Mall – impacts prices. “We often see that top-ranked cities tend to be more urban areas that have a higher dealer density, which encourages competition between dealerships to provide reasonable, affordable prices for their used car inventory,” he said in an email to the Business Journal. Disher also noted that now is a good point in the car calendar for buyers. “The holiday season is generally a great time to buy a new car and a good time to buy a used car. All dealerships — large and small, new and used — are looking to pump up their sales numbers as the year winds down,” he said. “Many auto makers have year-end sales on new cars, which means more trade-ins of used cars that dealers will be looking to unload. Demand for vehicles is also generally lower during the holidays, since most consumers are focused on buying presents, not vehicles.” The most affordable city in California was Aliso Viejo, with prices about $1,504 below the state averages. – Joel Russell