tips for buying car from dealer

[ajaxxx]

any suggestion when buying a brand new car from the dealer?
one of the best things in life is purchasing a new car but the process itself is another story. any advise to avoid being taken?
_________________
New Orleans Hornets superstar point guard Chris Paul is reportedly headed to the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster trade.

[Laker_Town]

CRAP....get ready for a LONG day! Ive neve bought a car in a dealership, but have been through it with my Mom, Wife, and some friends. It is hell. Dont go alone. AND dont get fooled to get some stupid ass alarm system or the damn floor mats, that will run you a cuple hundreds more...FOR FLOOR MATS?


Remember one thing that is VERY IMPORTANT.


YOURE TAKING BUSINESS TO THEM..if they dont reason with you, take your business elsewhere. Oh, and if possible, go to a place(like cerritos auto square) where theres plenty of competition. THey KNOW you can easily walk out and go elsewhere.


Good Luck. And Im serious about the Long day. First you have to decide the car, the price, 2 door, 4door, manual, stick, color, sun roof, moon roof, fully loaded, alloy rims, payments, 5 yrs, oh but they offer 6 yrs and the payments drop....(dont do it), theyll offer the lease option, down payment, INSURANCE(dont forget), optional alarm, interest rates, co signer(if needed).............


Youd be surprised how many people go in thinking they already know what they want..and end up getting something completely different.


GOOD LUCK. let us know how it goes.

Oh..I forgot, go look around first and leave the checkbook and cards at home first..If you decide then, go back and buy.

[Socks]

It's a new day in negotiating with the internet. Do plenty of research before you go to make a purchase. By that I mean, do some walk throughs on the lot and test-driving where you know you're not gonna buy. Decide what you want. Then go home and do your pricing research. Edmunds.com, Cars.com, etc. are a good resource for getting a handle on pricing in your local area.

Visit several dealers that sell the car you want and play them off each other. When I bought my last car I ended up visiting several different locations, spoke with lots of sales guys and walked away from them all. One of them had offered me the lowest price and I knew I was pretty comfortable with it. But I ended up calling back each of the other ones and telling them over the phone that I had a deal for X price and they needed to do what they could to beat it because I was buying a car by the next day. I ended up going buying from my original guy, but not until after he had knocked close to another $600 off the price because I got deals I told him I would take instead - even if it wasn't the exact car I wanted. Like I said, it's a game you play, you just gotta know from your internet research that you're not getting ripped off, and then push for as much savings as you can. Playing these guys off each other works very well.

The best resource I found to educate me and give me confidence going into the shopping experience was:

http://www.carbuyingtips.com/carintro.html

It's a messy, hard to read web site, but go through each of the chapters and you see at the bottom of the link I included and you should feel pretty good about going into the car buying process.

[brutella]

Don't forget edmunds.com...

[jamas33]

I make mine simple. I research on the net the car I want. Their invoice price and MSRP then I arrive at the price I would pay for the car. I dont pay attention to what can you afford monthly.. if you do this we get you lower rates.. etc.. etc.. I just tell them the price I want to pay.. if your bank can lend you the money at a great rate.. go there.. or take a second out on the house (as a home improvement loan - can be written off on your taxes) use that money to buy the car. Two years ago I bought my mom a Mercedes ML500 (2002) I told them the price I was gonna pay out the door. The salesman said nothing he can do about the sales tax.. I said.. then I'm talking to the wrong person... he brought the sales manager and he said the same thing.. to which I replied then obviously I'm at the wrong dealership. So after haggling with them for 2.5 hours, All they are trying to do is weaken your resolve. I told them. listen.. give me the keys to my mom's trade in and we are gone... we were out the door.. the salesman, sales manager, general manager came running for us.. and I told them.. ok.. here is the deal.. My moms 2000 ML 430 I want 17 G from I will bring back 15 grand in cash and we want the 2002 ML 500. That is the original deal.. so these (bleep) decided.. that it was a good deal.. knowing that after they gave the trade in the new car treatment they would sell that car for 23-25 grand. So they gave in.. to which I said.. NO DEAL.. you jerks kept us here for almost 3 hours.. and then you agree on the original deal? wtf... So the GM asked me what would it take to do this deal.. I said.. well.. If you throw in the Mercedes ML Step Bar . Which he said.. thats a 2 grand option and I said. NOPE it cost you guys about 650 dollars for it.. 50 bucks in labor.. and think about the money you will make on her old car. He looked at me incredously and we got the everything we wanted plus the chrome mercedes step bar. Moral of the Story. Know the price you gonna pay.. Know the car you want.. and DONT GIVE IN. The power of walking away is the best power of all.
_________________
Want Some Pancakes?

[ajaxxx]

thanks you guys have been very helpful.
_________________
New Orleans Hornets superstar point guard Chris Paul is reportedly headed to the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster trade.

[tlim]

Quick advice:
1) Call around and ask for the fleet manager. Get him to give you a good quote. That's all you are looking for. Haggle only on the phone, and be prepared to go in that day. They have a lot less power over you if you are only on the phone.
2) Have all the dough necessary to buy the car that day, without the dealer's financing.
3) Having said that, many times, they will give you a good deal on a car loan because the finance guy wants/needs to get some money from you. Whatever they can get from you, they will try. So you've got the trump card with the other financing already in the back of your pocket. In my case, it was a pre-approved check from Citibank.

Also, I personally don't do trade ins. It complicates the sale a bit too much, and then all the nasty haggling occurs. I'll sell my car, or donate it to a charity before I do a trade in, I think. It's just not worth the hassle for me, unless I just want to dump the bugger for near nothing.

[LA NATIVE]

I went on a Tuesday morning during a rain storm in Newport. I was the only customer there most of the morning and the whole time said I had an appointment in Rosemead for a ridiculous price I pulled off the net.

I know I got a good deal because no one kissed my ass on the way out and even the Mexican guy (I'm Mexican) they last tried on me, after the manger, financer, owner, and random guy, said "God doesn't like greedy people". Weirdest experience of my life but I got great financing with Ok credit and now pay 100 less a month than what I was paying on my trade in which was older and needed moderate body work.

BTW- The super super hot finance girl did get me to purchase the extended warranty without much of a fight, that was only weakness.
_________________
When they ask me about Shaq, I say, 'I love Shaq, but [screw] Miami.' It is what it is. I'm a Laker and I bleed purple and gold and if you ain't down with the Lakers, f--- you, straight up.-Snoop Dogg

[brutella]

[LarryCoon]

Here's some general advice, some of which echoes what others have said:

-- Know four things: 1) The dealer invoice price for the car you want; 2) The holdback (a percentage the dealer gets off the invoice price of the car); 3) Any dealer incentives; 4) The amount of profit you want to give the dealer. Let's say on the car you want, MSRP is $25K, invoice is $20K, holdback is 2%, and there's a $500 dealer incentive. This means the car actually costs the dealer $18,900. If you want to give him 3.5% profit, then you're shooting for $19,561. Look at sites like edmunds.com for invoice, holdback and incentives.

-- There are services like autobytel.com (if they're still around) that make fleet arrangements and get you good deals without the hassle. When I bought my Infiniti I was shooting for a 4% profit. I went through autobytel.com, they hooked me up with a dealership, and the first price they quoted me represented a 3.5% profit. Needless to say, I ended up with the car right away (but I also talked them into some accessories at cost).

-- Do not go car shopping on the weekend. They get lots of traffic, and if you don't look like a hot lead, they'll blow you off for the next guy walking on the lot. Go later in the evening on a weeknight, especially now that it's dark early.

-- Try to go at the end of the month. Car salesmen are under lots of pressure to move X cars or turn X profit per month. If you go right at the end of the month, they might be more desperate.

-- Time is money to the salesman. The more time you can get him to commit to you, the more he NEEDS to sell you the car. Get him to spend hours with you. This is great on weeknights, because if you time it right, you not only tie up the last few hours of his normal workday, you also keep him after he's supposed to go home.

-- Do NOT go when you've got somewhere else to be that night. Plan to stay there 'til Midnight if you have to. Of course, it's okay to SAY that you have a date, or dinner, or whatever, so the salesman thinks you'll want to close it up by a certain time.

-- If you're trying to get a specific payment, they'll just jack up the price & interest rate, and increase the term of the loan to get it to work. If you pay attention to the price, then they'll play with the payment. The point is, there are lots of variables, and whichever one you care about they'll make look good, and they'll manipulate the other ones. So here's what you do: First arrange with your bank/credit union for a pre-approved loan (not just pre-qualified). Work with the dealership like you're letting THEM finance the car. Pay attention to the price of the car, and let them fool around with the interest rate. When you get the price you want, sign the deal with them, using their financing. Then, within three days, finish up your bank loan, get a cashier's check, and pay off the dealership. You now have the car at the price you want, with the better loan through your bank.

-- If at all possible, sell your current car yourself without trading it in. You'll nearly always make more that way. If you are going to trade it in, make them two separate negotiations. Arrange everything with your new car first, THEN talk about your trade-in ('cause if you can't agree on a suitable deal for your new car, you certainly aren't going to sell your old one to them). Insist on doing it that way, even though they won't want to. (Hey, you're the guy with the money. Insist.) If you do it this way, you'll already have the deal you want on the new car, so they can't play the deals against each other (lost profit on one can be made up on the other). And if you don't get the deal you want on your trade-in, threaten to walk on the new car (which they've already worked so hard to close).

-- Needless to say, if you're going to do a trade-in, go to kbb.com and know EXACTLY what the wholesale value of your car is. They'll try to give you a bunch of stories about those figures being unreliable. Of course they're reliable -- they're based on actual sale prices.

-- When you go to the dealership, the first thing they'll want to do is separate you from your driver's license. This is so they can run a quick credit check, but more importantly, if they have your license, you can't just walk away. The other bad news is that a lot of recent credit inquiries (like you'd get by going from dealer to dealer) can cost you a few FICO points. Here's what you do instead -- Xerox your license. On the Xerox copy, you write in big letters: "CREDIT CHECK NOT AUTHORIZED." If they run your credit after that, it'll be a big fine for them. And all they have of yours is a Xerox -- they don't have your license, so you're free to walk whenever.

-- They like to "go talk to the manager" and let you stew in the cubicle for a while (they're probably just having a snack while you're waiting). Don't sit there. Head back out to the lot and look around -- I like watching and seeing the look on their face when they've spent three hours with you, they come back to the cubicle, and you're not there. Be out in the lot, on the cell phone with other dealers, and let them hear you talking to them. Go talk to the other salesmen on the lot: "I'm talking to this guy Dave, but he's kinda being a dick, so I'm thinking of changing to a new guy. Or maybe going down the street."

-- Lastly, they know all the things to say to trip you up. Be ready for them. Take nothing at face value -- they're trying to separate you from as much of your money as possible. They're not your friend, they're a leech. Be ready for it, and don't let them sucker you in.

[Mike@LG]

^Excellent advice from all of the above.

One more thing.

When both parties have agreed to the price of the car, pay through a loan from the credit union.

There are usually far lower interest rates on a monthly basis.

You don't want to deal with the finance department from the dealership. You want to deal with the bank who's willing to help you make the purchase.

Oh, and get LoJack. Notify your insurance company that you're going to get that and they'll usually provide a discount off your insurance rate. Even 10%, and the lojack eventually pays itself off over the life of the car.
_________________
Resident Car Nut.

https://lakersdraft.substack.com/

I am not an economic advisor nor do I advise economic strategies or plans.

[ajaxxx]

thanks you guys are the best.
_________________
New Orleans Hornets superstar point guard Chris Paul is reportedly headed to the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster trade.