What car deals will you be searching for on Boxing Day?

Tyre-kicking  - if you’re a car nut, you almost certainly love giving used cars the once-over and indulging those ‘what if’ fantasies.

Sometimes, you might actually be setting out to buy something inspired by Autocar. Of course, we tyre-kickers have been able to pursue our interest without going anywhere near a car dealer for a good 15 years now, courtesy of the internet.

Trawling used car ads has to be a major activity/time-waster for millions of us and websites like Pistonheads certainly know our habits.

Boxing Day is a fine moment to tap into a tyre-kicker’s loose-endishness it seems, with Auto Trader boss Trevor Mather reckoning that large numbers of us take to our iPads, mobiles and desktops for a bit of festive automotive diversion, quite often with serious intent.

Mather also reckons that the typical used car buyer devotes 18 hours to the process of buying their next car, no less than 11 of them spent online. And 40 per cent of those 11 hours are spent on websites such as Pistonheads and Auto Trader.

The rest of their online time is split among media sites like Autocar and What Car?, car manufacturers’ sites and dealer websites.

Mather says that iPad searchings typically last 80 minutes, whereas desktop sessions last half an hour. And half the desktop searchers also use mobile sites.

Sellers might think that this time of year isn't traditionally the best time to sell a car. The classifieds data suggests the opposite might be true. So what bargains will you be on the hunt for this Christmas? Has a new project caught your eye? Let me know in the comments below.