I haven't bought a new car in 10 years. What are the best ways to get a good deal....buy thru Cosco? Cardirect.com? fax what you want to dealers and have them e-mail deal? I really don't know but don't have time to play cat and mouse for hours then get fleeced. What would you consider a good deal? What to watch out for?
OT: Buying a new car
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I've bought three in the last five years or so, and each time I did the same thing. Did all the research on the exact vehicle I wanted, including the trim level and the options so that I knew the invoice price of that precise vehicle. Also had a good idea of which dealer fees were legit and which were negotiable and what others were paying for my exact vehicle in my area. Then I wrote it up in a letter and faxed it to a bunch of dealers with a deadline to respond and an assurance that I was buying based off of that. Each time I got what I thought was a fair price and a good price for me. It's not a foolproof system and perhaps others have better advice, but this worked well for me.
If you work for a company with good benefits, they might have some kind of fleet pricing deal. I have had 2 employers that were in in the Ford X-Plan. It is a no haggle pricing plan that is like $50 over the Ford emoloyee price. There is no cheaper way to get a new Ford than the X-Plan.
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"For nearly 20 years, Remar Sutton's best-selling guide, in six editions, has been the definitive work on buying or leasing a car or truck. Now completely rewritten,</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Don't Get Taken Every Time[/i]<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">takes you inside the world of the auto business and exposes all the ways dealers try to trick buyers out of their money. From shopping and negotiating to financing, this book exposes scams and gives you step-by-step negotiating techniques for getting the best possible deal. Become a savvy shopper, on the Web or at the dealership! Sharing the techniques that have made him "Public Enemy #1 of the car dealers" (The Washington Post), Remar Sutton shows you how to beat the dealers and turn the Web into a powerful tool against them-and save thousands of dollars in the process!"</span><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">
</span></div><div><table width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td><span class="darkmedium" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: rgb(0, 51, 102); ">Who's Remar and how does he know all this?</span>_________________________________________________</td></tr><tr><td>
</span></div><div><table width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td><span class="darkmedium" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: rgb(0, 51, 102); ">Who's Remar and how does he know all this?</span>_________________________________________________</td></tr><tr><td>
<p class="smalltext" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; ">Remar Sutton is president and co-founder with Ralph Nader of the non-profitConsumer Task Force for Automotive Issues. The Task Force currently collects and disseminates information on auto fraud activities, including Internet activities, for many state attorneys general, dozens of significant national consumer groups, and eight well-known plaintiff law firms. The Task Force also administers"The Reality Checklist for Vehicle Leasing,"a project of twenty-three attorneys general and hundreds of consumer groups. Sutton serves without compensation as Task Force president.</p><p class="smalltext" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; ">Sutton's knowledge in the automotive area comes from his own experiences as a former automobile dealer, from an on-going eighteen-year investigation of dealership tactics and operational procedures (at times using undercover employees at dealerships), from his friends in the automobile business, from other experts he deals with, from his work with the attorneys general, and from the thousands of consumers who have written or talked with him over the years about their own dealership experiences</p><p class="smalltext" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; ">Twenty-Twenty, Sixty Minutes, Ted Koppel's Nightline, ABC Primetime, Good Morning America, TODAY, CBS Morning News, Newsweek, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, PBS television's News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and People magazine have all used Sutton as either a consultant, on-air authority, author, or subject. Sutton is a pro bono consultant to Ralph Nader and his affiliated groups and to Clarence Ditlow, president of the Center for Auto Safety and his affiliated groups. He is or has been a consultant to the attorneys general of New York, New Jersey, Florida, Illinois, West Virginia, Hawaii and Missouri.</p><p class="smalltext" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; ">Remar Sutton has lectured on auto fraud at The Practicing Law Institute, and for various state attorneys general offices, for The National Consumer Law Center, The Consumer Federation of America, and the National Association of Attorneys General. He has been an expert witness concerning automotive issues in many of the major class action lawsuits in America.</p></td></tr></tbody></table></div>
If they want show it to you, walk out the door. If they will, offer $100 above invoice on a new car, and $500 above on a used car. If they don't take it, walk out the door. With the dealer holdback, $100 over is fair. Call your bank and get their new car rates before you walk into the dealer, and use that as ammo. Not many people know this, but dealers mark up interest rates for profit. Also, there is nealry 100% markup in an extended warranty, so negotiate that if you choose to take it. Don't ever, ever, ever use any online negotiating site to buy a car. They are too expensive. If you can use the x plan through Ford, do it, as they are lower than invoice. And Costco?? Really??
If your company has an "employee pricing plan/X-plan", DO NOT let the car salesman know this until you are ready to buy (at the end of the finagling process). More times than not, they will not let you useexistingrebates. I know 2 people that bought almost identical trucks fromthesame dealership, one marched in and told the sales man "I'm on the employee pricing program", the other did not. One ended up with 1% over dealer cost, the other ended up with 1% over dealer cost minus $6K in rebates.
I read it before buying my first new car in 1990, and have followed it religiously ever since. The research has gotten easier with the Internet, but it still walks you through the deal. I still kind of laugh when people say things like "ask to see the dealer invoice", since the invoice tells you very little about how much the dealer actually paid for the vehicle.
I'm still not very good at pricing my own vehicle that I'm trading/selling, but otherwise I've gotten good deals over the years.
I'm still not very good at pricing my own vehicle that I'm trading/selling, but otherwise I've gotten good deals over the years.
If you are looking at a Nissan, and have a friend that works at the plant.. tell him. He can get you the employee price. Also, as a previous poster said.. do not say you have that in hand before you negotiate anything.
Never take the first offer on your trade, if you are trading. Dealers will try to hold back as much as possible. Get the most you can for your trade, then say, oh yeah, I also have this discount.
Never take the first offer on your trade, if you are trading. Dealers will try to hold back as much as possible. Get the most you can for your trade, then say, oh yeah, I also have this discount.
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I used Consumer Reports new car buying guide and paid for the premium service to get the CR best price. They'll tell you exactly what a dealer has in a car, down to the penny if you get all the options right. From there you can decide how much over that cost you are willing to pay. On both of mine I paid about $500 over what they had in it. I felt like that was fair and so did the dealers.<div>
</div><div>BTW, not sure what you are looking at, but I love both of mine. A 2010 Tundra and a 2012 Outback. Both are great vehicles. I would purchase the exact same thing if I did it over again.</div>
</div><div>BTW, not sure what you are looking at, but I love both of mine. A 2010 Tundra and a 2012 Outback. Both are great vehicles. I would purchase the exact same thing if I did it over again.</div>
because of the dealer holdback and any incentive programs that are going on at the time (not all incentive programs are ever advertised). You need to research the actual dealer cost on the Internet and go from there. Also, as someone else mentioned, remember that you can get your financing anywhere you want to. You don't have to take what the dealer is offering. But do check to see if there are any special financing deals. A few months ago, I wound up buying a new Nissan for less than my target price of $500 over actual dealer cost (and less than dealer invoice) because Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp had a $750 dealer incentive going that the dealer passed on to me. I bought the car, financed at Nissan, then paid off the loan a month later.
If you qualify for USAA insurance, they also have a good buying service that is free. I actually wound up using the USAA buying service to do all my research but they were going to send me to Memphis to buy the car. So I just used that info to get the same price from a Jackson dealer.
I'm about to start leasing because I'm finding out that my wife LOVES to drive something different every 2 years. Anyway, here's my strategy:
I use one of the online quote services (usually the one through Edmunds). Doing this, the dealers know I'm informed and know that I'm getting other quotes. First, I negotiate the car price and then I negotiate the trade-in. Usually all the dealers that I'm talking to will match the current best price. I do this until it appears I've hit the lowest figure. Then, on to the trade-in...same method of making them compete and beat current best offer.
As for financing, I go through a credit-union and get a rate around 4%...that is IF the dealer doesn't have a special rate (I got 0% last time through dealer).
I've had GREAT success with this simple and lazy method.
I use one of the online quote services (usually the one through Edmunds). Doing this, the dealers know I'm informed and know that I'm getting other quotes. First, I negotiate the car price and then I negotiate the trade-in. Usually all the dealers that I'm talking to will match the current best price. I do this until it appears I've hit the lowest figure. Then, on to the trade-in...same method of making them compete and beat current best offer.
As for financing, I go through a credit-union and get a rate around 4%...that is IF the dealer doesn't have a special rate (I got 0% last time through dealer).
I've had GREAT success with this simple and lazy method.
I have bought two over the past few years and have ended up getting both from Tuscaloosa Toyota. Several people have mentioned that they are simple to deal with and will easily negotiate to the best price you will find anywhere around. That was my experience.
I shopped damn near every Toyota Dealership in MS and a couple in LA when I was buying mine and not one single dealership in MS would get within $3000 of the Tuscaloosa dealership.
I simply called them and told them what I was looking for, then told them that I was shopping LA, MS, and AL for the best deal. The guy would take my info, find the exact truck or sport utility I was looking for and call me back with the price they could give it to me for. They would fax me the sheet on the vehicle and then give me a price. Both times, that price was $2500 once, then $3000 on the second better than the lowest price I could get here, even after factoring in tax and title.
I would then take that sheet with the price and exact car print out to the local dealerships and ask them to locate the car and beat that price. Not one time did were they able to do it. The responses I got locally were that they either didn't believe they were selling it to me for that amount or that they could not understand how they could sell it to me for that amount.
One dealer even tried to tell me that once I had to buy gas for the car I was driving over there to pick it up and the gas for the new car that the deal did not look so good. I laughed at him because one tank of gas is all it would cost me because I had already negotiated a full tank of gas in the new car.
They were simple to deal with. Drove over there with my wife and signed the paperwork and drove right back. Was probably at the dealership less than an hour.
I have nothing to do with the dealership or anything in car sales, just wanted to pass that along because it has saved my family a good bit of money.
I shopped damn near every Toyota Dealership in MS and a couple in LA when I was buying mine and not one single dealership in MS would get within $3000 of the Tuscaloosa dealership.
I simply called them and told them what I was looking for, then told them that I was shopping LA, MS, and AL for the best deal. The guy would take my info, find the exact truck or sport utility I was looking for and call me back with the price they could give it to me for. They would fax me the sheet on the vehicle and then give me a price. Both times, that price was $2500 once, then $3000 on the second better than the lowest price I could get here, even after factoring in tax and title.
I would then take that sheet with the price and exact car print out to the local dealerships and ask them to locate the car and beat that price. Not one time did were they able to do it. The responses I got locally were that they either didn't believe they were selling it to me for that amount or that they could not understand how they could sell it to me for that amount.
One dealer even tried to tell me that once I had to buy gas for the car I was driving over there to pick it up and the gas for the new car that the deal did not look so good. I laughed at him because one tank of gas is all it would cost me because I had already negotiated a full tank of gas in the new car.
They were simple to deal with. Drove over there with my wife and signed the paperwork and drove right back. Was probably at the dealership less than an hour.
I have nothing to do with the dealership or anything in car sales, just wanted to pass that along because it has saved my family a good bit of money.
1. Figured out exactly what I wanted (accord)
2. Called preferred dealer to get a start point (Columbus)
3. Called aroun the state letting the next dealer beat the previous ones offer.
4. When everyone started matching vs beating - went back to first dealer I wanted to deal with and let them beat or match the lowest offer. I called around Jackson , Memphis, Hattiesburg, jasper Alabama.
Very pleased w the purchase price.
This strategy worked for me and I was pleased in the end
2. Called preferred dealer to get a start point (Columbus)
3. Called aroun the state letting the next dealer beat the previous ones offer.
4. When everyone started matching vs beating - went back to first dealer I wanted to deal with and let them beat or match the lowest offer. I called around Jackson , Memphis, Hattiesburg, jasper Alabama.
Very pleased w the purchase price.
This strategy worked for me and I was pleased in the end
1. Month end
2. Quarter end
3. Year end
The dealers get a bonus - usually $1k per car at month end if the meet new car sales.
Being close to not hitting the bonus lets them be more aggressive w pricing. They may take a loss on your sale if it
Means making that $1k per car bonus on all cars sold that month
Logic amplified for quarterly and yr end timing
2. Quarter end
3. Year end
The dealers get a bonus - usually $1k per car at month end if the meet new car sales.
Being close to not hitting the bonus lets them be more aggressive w pricing. They may take a loss on your sale if it
Means making that $1k per car bonus on all cars sold that month
Logic amplified for quarterly and yr end timing
Determine what you want, do your research and then get two different dealers to bid against each other, works every time.
A true dealer invoice shows the actual cost plus dealer holdback and advertising allowance. Being a sales manager at a car dealership for six years, I can assure you there is no cheaper way to purchase than seeing the actual cost. If a salesman shows you a fake invoice, it will be very obvious and illegal. Or just go buy books and online services to pay more. Keep it simple. As previously mentioned, buying the very last day of the month may make the decision to accept $100 over easier for the manager.