How To Buy A New Car

[Geico266]

What tricks do you use to get the best deal?

What I have done in the past is look at dealer invoice, then go from there...down. I have paid invoice plus $500 once, but that was when I was dumb. Never have paid MSRP.

Any other tricks or strategies you guys and gals use to get the best deal you can? I'm looking at a 2014 Toyota Highlander for the wifey.

How do you find out the dealer holdback or other factory to dealer incentives? Volume discounts? etc.?

 

[Bill]

What tricks do you use to get the best deal?

Got married!

Seriously, my FIL retired from Ford, so we buy FoMoCo products on the A-plan, which is real employee pricing.

I've now owned four Fords, I've been quite pleased with all of them. (We don't buy cars very often, we run them until mx costs exceed hull value :wink2: )

 

[flyingron]

There are tons of sites (and printed books) that can give you the actual dealer price for the base car and the popular options (made easier because most are grouped into "packages" these days). Armed with that, you know what a fair price to you is. State what you're willing to pay and be willing to walk out the door if they hardball you. Around here (metro area) there are tons of dealers.

I've only had one place not deal with me...and apparently they had misgivings as they called up about six hours later to make another offer, but I'd already moved to the next dealer and purchased the car.

 

[DaleB]

I take my wife along. She's just merciless with car salesmen. I also remind myself to keep several things in mind:

• No matter how much I like the vehicle we're looking at, there were thousands made just like it... I can buy one just like it any time, from any dealer.
• It will be a whole lot cheaper in a couple of years.
• I owe the dealer nothing, and will likely never deal with them again unless and until I decide to repeat the process. If I think I'll have to deal with them on warranty issues, why am I buying the car?

And the number one thing to always, always remember:


I don't need this vehicle. In fact, why am I even buying it? I don't want to take on a car payment, and I don't want to write a check that big. Screw this, let's go home.

 

[N747JB]

First I am not good an negotiating when I buy things, I know that sounds odd, but I don't like the haggling back and forth.
I would make sure that is what you want, contact a couple dealerships, most folks do it via Internet these days, have them price out the one you want with a "drive out" price, including all fees and taxes. I bet you will find most of the time the pricing is within 1-2% between dealerships. I would pick the dealership where you will get the service done, if they are higher, most will match a legitimate quote from another dealer.
If you are financing, with really good credit, you should be able to get 1.75-2.25% for 60 months. We sell only factory extended service contracts, I think I would avoid the "off brands" they aren't always welcome at other dealerships.

What tricks do you use to get the best deal?

What I have done in the past is look at dealer invoice, then go from there...down. I have paid invoice plus $500 once, but that was when I was dumb. Never have paid MSRP.

Any other tricks or strategies you guys and gals use to get the best deal you can? I'm looking at a 2014 Toyota Highlander for the wifey.

 

[Geico266]

I take my wife along. She's just merciless with car salesmen.

This is NOT going to come out right, but can I borrow your wife?








I hope Dale is a bad shot!

 

[DaleB]

This is NOT going to come out right, but can I borrow your wife?








I hope Dale is a bad shot!

She loves doing it, I'm sure she'd be happy to help you out. And I'm an excellent marksman, have been since childhood.

 

[MyassisDragon]

Different manufacturer, but I would check if they have some kind of affiliate program. We purchased a new jeep and found out the the "Tread lightly" non profit organization was able to offer Chrysler affiliate pricing for their members.

So my wife joined tread lightly for $50/yr and received some documentation she took down to the dealer and ordered her new jeep. The sales guy said it was basically employee pricing and there was no negotiating. Regardless it was about $6k off the sticker price and way below what the "invoice price" was when he showed it to us. He was surprised and also had never heard of this, but it was legit and saved us some $$.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

A *new* car? At a dealer?

People do that?

I let someone else take the depreciation, buy lightly used, and use the money I save to fly airplanes. If I made more money, I'd still do the same thing, I'd just fly even nicer airplanes.

 

[Geico266]

She loves doing it, I'm sure she'd be happy to help you out. And I'm an excellent marksman, have been since childhood.

I'm taking notes, and buying body armor.

 

[frfly172]

A *new* car? At a dealer?

People do that?

I let someone else take the depreciation, buy lightly used, and use the money I save to fly airplanes. If I made more money, I'd still do the same thing, I'd just fly even nicer airplanes.

+1 let someone else work the little bugs out.

 

[Jimmy cooper]

Go the last day of the month. This is when the sales manager is trying to earn his keep by posting as many sales as possible. You must be polite but firm. Keep saying " that's still a little high but thanks for your time. I think I'll look around some more. " they know that if you leave you probably won't be back so they will be attentive. Early in the month, they are less inclined to bother with you. They get good kickbacks from the manuf. at the end of the year. If you settle near msrp you are known as " a Labrador".

 

[Geico266]

A *new* car? At a dealer?

People do that?

I let someone else take the depreciation, buy lightly used, and use the money I save to fly airplanes. If I made more money, I'd still do the same thing, I'd just fly even nicer airplanes.

+1 let someone else work the little bugs out.

Okay, confession time.

I made the mistake of letting my wife drive my truck. It has a heated steering wheel. Now she has to have one, or she gets my truck.

 

[Henning]

What tricks do you use to get the best deal?

What I have done in the past is look at dealer invoice, then go from there...down. I have paid invoice plus $500 once, but that was when I was dumb. Never have paid MSRP.

Any other tricks or strategies you guys and gals use to get the best deal you can? I'm looking at a 2014 Toyota Highlander for the wifey.

How do you find out the dealer holdback or other factory to dealer incentives? Volume discounts? etc.?

Depends on how picky you are. The best way to get the best deal is to walk the lot and look at the stickers, you want to find one that was delivered to that dealer, and you want to find one that was delivered more than 90 days ago. They will let that one go at a loss to get out from under it.

 

[murphey]

Got married!

Seriously, my FIL retired from Ford, so we buy FoMoCo products on the A-plan, which is real employee pricing.

I've now owned four Fords, I've been quite pleased with all of them. (We don't buy cars very often, we run them until mx costs exceed hull value :wink2: )

Similar....for 20 years Dad was fleet manager for one of the largest Ford dealers in the SW. His clients were Hertz/Budget, US West (trucks), etc. His work week consisted of lunch every day with one of his clients, and Mom wrote up the orders. He retired in the early 90s and fleet doesn't work that way anymore, unfortunately. I keep a car until major fixes aren't worth spending the money. Been running about 10-12 years between cars.

So when I need a car, I find the local fleet mgr and chat.

I tried the Costco buyer plan, but walked out when the staff kept screwing me around. Got the last car in 2007, probably won't need another one for a while.

Do homework on pricing, if you're not paying cash then walk in with your own financing. I did mine thru the credit union.

The sales staff are NOT your friends, you'll never see them again, you cannot offend them.

 

[docmirror]

I just bought two Toyota Prius C last summer. They were for my kids college graduation. Like most cheap bas... savvy consumers, I did my homework. Then, like Dale I took my wife along to buy. It took 5 days to finally buy the first one. We found the car with the options we wanted and she tore the sales guy a new cavity. I got the educators discount rate(state school empl fleet price), and we used that as a baseline. She was able to get under the fleet price by just hammering the sales guys for days.

We did have to drive 70 miles to another dealer to do the pickup but we needed to go over that way for another reason so it didn't cost much out of pocket. She also looked at every line item on the invoice and shaved everything. The first shot out of the dealer had $650 for 'dealer prep'. It took about 5 minutes to find the dealer is being paid by the mfg for a prep fee on all new cars they take. So - that one went in the bin. Next was the delivery fee. We went to the other dealer and picked it up so that one went in the bin. Tax, title fee and registration. She checked all of those and got the title fee(new cars must be titled by the state via the dealer in TX) cut in half.

It was amazing to watch. The second one went a bit faster cause we already had the answers to all of the questions. Oh, here's the best tip I can offer. Don't finance the car! Toyota was offering 'zero interest financing for 60 months'. After we got the price where we wanted it with no trade, we said they should get out the financing paperwork so we could finance the car for 60 months with 20% down for zero interest. Well, that change instantly. No way were they going to finance the car at zero. We finally got them to agree to a finance charge of zero(I checked with the NPV calc I brought in) but they had to get a credit and finance origination fee of $885. No thanks, that doesn't amortize to zero.

Pay cash, no trade, and haggle like it was your last dollar. I think we did ok.

 

[Bill]

Been running about 10-12 years between cars.

Wife's car is now 8 years old, my truck is now 13. Both run like champs and still look decent, we'll keep running them.

 

[Jimmy cooper]

They will match or beat the credit union in most cases as they did with us. Usually normal people react to being insulted or talked down to. This is also the case in your dealing with the sales person or the sales manager. If you get a bad case of smart ass they will gladly let you walk. On to the next.

 

[EdFred]

I write a check for what I'm willing to pay, and hand it to them. If they say no, I tear the check up and walk out.

 

[Jimmy cooper]

I write a check for what I'm willing to pay, and hand it to them. If they say no, I tear the check up and walk out.

Unless they like what you wrote, they are not impressed. See you later. " dogs bark, but the caravan moves on".

 

[JoseCuervo]

Knew a manager of a Toyota dealership and he told me the cars sold under the Costco plan were the ones that left the dealership for the lowest price. No other plans, negotiation, discounts were better.

YMMV.

 

[dweyant]

A few things.

1 - Always deal with the fleet manager, of sales manager. Don't deal with a salesman.

2 - Buy at the end of the month, or (better) quarter. sales/fleet manager will frequently due a deal just to get a favored employee over a commission hump.

3 - Most important. No exactly what you want, and what options you want before you start.

4 - Know what the vehicle is worth. Use websites to find invoice, and try for less than that.

The last truck I bought (F-250 Diesel Superduty). I e-mailed/called probably fifteen dealerships with an offer of $1000 under invoice. Most ignored me, several called/e-mailed saying I was insane. Two called me back and said ok, if you buy now. I happily gave the first one a $500 refundable deposit and they ordered my truck.

-Dan

 

[EdFred]

Unless they like what you wrote, they are not impressed. See you later. " dogs bark, but the caravan moves on".

Is there anything you aren't a self proclaimed expert on? I left out a metric crap ton of details leading up to that. But since you're the expert you already knew that.

 

[SCCutler]

Dan's approach is a good one for new cars.

--

I buy lease-return cars, use an exceptionally good broker who buys at the manufacturers' auctions, charges a flat $500.00 over auction price. He does everything, sorts through the cars, eliminates many for reasons I likely would have missed, performs a very thorough inspection and takes the car to the dealer for all warranty and service work prior to delivery, will sell an extended warranty (only if asked for one), will handle financing (only if asked), delivers the car to us shined-up and pretty.

Usually several thousand below what the cars are selling for in the open market, for a whole lot less certainty, and a whole lot more work.

I've bought two cars this way, been very pleased.

I was put in touch with this guy by another PoA-er who, now, just calls up the guy, tells him "I'm ready for a car," and takes delivery when the right car is found. Too good a deal, and literally no work.

---

As for "who pays sticker," good friend of mine just took delivery of his new Corvette - beautiful car, white with an orange stripe (like a '69 Z28 Camaro). He ordered the car, paid sticker (had to hunt for a dealer that would take the order). About 7 weeks, order to delivery, and they offered him $13,500.00 to not take the car. He declined, because (1) he wanted the car, and (2) he knew he could get around $25,000.00 over in the open market.

 

[Jimmy cooper]

Is there anything you aren't a self proclaimed expert on? I left out a metric crap ton of details leading up to that. But since you're the expert you already knew that.

You should have included it. I sold cars while attending college at a large dealership. I am very familiar with how it works and familiar with how we handled big shots and those that knew the "unknown soldiers mother" .

 

[Henning]

I haven't seen a good price at auction since the advent of "Buy here, Pay Here" lots.

 

[docmirror]

A few things.

1 - Always deal with the fleet manager, of sales manager. Don't deal with a salesman.

2 - Buy at the end of the month, or (better) quarter. sales/fleet manager will frequently due a deal just to get a favored employee over a commission hump.

3 - Most important. No exactly what you want, and what options you want before you start.

4 - Know what the vehicle is worth. Use websites to find invoice, and try for less than that.

-Dan

Good list, but if I may disagree with the first one. The fleet guy can possibly work a better deal but he has to move lots of tin. I tried that approach the first time with the state empl discount and went right to the fleet guy but he blew me off with a 'take it or leave it' kind of attitude.

We did buy a 2013 model in Aug and the 2014 models were going to be unloaded in a few weeks. It was also the end of their quarter, and they were ready to sell some cars. The sales guy had us looking at Scion, and other stuff but we knew exactly what we wanted going in. All in all, a good set of rules to work from.

 

[Maxmosbey]

I've tried to use the invoice price to deal and it has never worked well for me. It seemed to me that they didn't care what I thought the invoice was. I had one salesman tell me that he didn't know where I got it, but that wasn't what it was. OK, that is just my experience with invoice.

I've had the best luck by settling on the vehicle that I want, then finding two dealers with the same one. Make sure it is the one you want, and that they are comparable. It isn't too hard to find two dealers, and they all have the same cars. Then I play them against each other. I basically tell them that I have my eye on the same vehicle at two dealers, and I set a deadline. I tell them that I'm buying one on Thursday say. Then I go back and forth. On Thursday I go to the dealer that is the highest, dealer A, and I tell them that I'm buying today, and that I want their bottom price, because I'm going over to dealer B to see if they can beat it. One or the other will give up. I'm a man of my word as well, if I say I'm buying on Thursday, I drive out in a new car on Thursday. No game playing beyond pitting one against the other. That has worked well for my Chevy Silverado and my Ford Escape. This doesn't work if you don't know exactly what you want or your two vehicles are not the same. I get them to print out the window sticker so that I can take that back and forth with me, because they always want to argue that their car has more than the other, so I want to take that out of the equation.

 

[SCCutler]

I haven't seen a good price at auction since the advent of "Buy here, Pay Here" lots.

The guy I buy from is buying in the dealer-only auctions - this is where the majority of the dealers' used car inventory comes from these days.

Nothing like the auctions to the public, where (as you note) bidding fever makes most cars sell for silly money.

 

[35B33]

I may have missed it but the EAA/Ford plan is pretty good though not as good as employee would get.

COSTCO and credit unions can cut through a lot of the smoke, my CU pricing shows hold backs.

Best results can come from a car specific forum. I bought a Corvette after learning about the 4-5 dealers across the country who listed their prices on the forum. The Vette was bought in TN with a temp plate and a signature promising to take it out of state. Flew in Friday night, did the deal Saturday AM, and drove back to Texas Saturday afternoon.

Tried to do a Prius that way but the lowest price was a southern CA dealer but I couldn't get a temporary plate. That meant shipping or paying CA sales tax and getting a CA plate.

Always better to start with online dialogues, usually with the fleet managers, before walking into the showroom. Bought the Prius through a fleet manager who beat the COSTCO price. Obviously you need to know options and packages, again this where an online forum can help you get a feel for availability and pricing.

 

[JoseCuervo]

The guy I buy from is buying in the dealer-only auctions - this is where the majority of the dealers' used car inventory comes from these days.

Nothing like the auctions to the public, where (as you note) bidding fever makes most cars sell for silly money.

You might be missing his point.

The "Buy here, Pay here" lots have changed the wholesale auction business that dealers use to purchase cars. The biggest volume used car dealers I know are actually on the money laundering / financing business more than the car selling business.

I can buy at one of the local Dealer's auctions, and will stop in from time to time. I really don't see much for bargains. The markets are efficient when you have lots of used car dealers needing inventory to deploy the $500k his investors just dropped on him.

 

[jbarrass]

I've done a reverse auction for my last couple. I've sent an email to the sales managers at all the dealerships close enough I'd be willing to drive to with details about what I want [i.e. RX350 with Nav, dark color] my name and phone number stating I'd be buying a car Saturday. On my last one I sent 13 emails. Got 4 emailed quotes, 2 calls with a quote, and 3 calls pestering me to "come in right now and they'd make me a deal" and 4 no responses. I had the Costco price and the USAA price and most were within $500 of each other. One of the written quotes was $1,800 less than the rest so I drove 90 minutes and bought it. It was a bit of a hassle for a few days dealing with the salespeople that now had my cell phone but as soon as I told them I had closed they moved on....

 

[docmirror]

I might do that with a burner phone and a fake name, but no effing way with my real name and phone #.

 

[momalley]

I might do that with a burner phone and a fake name, but no effing way with my real name and phone #.

Use Google Voice for something like that

 

[Henning]

The guy I buy from is buying in the dealer-only auctions - this is where the majority of the dealers' used car inventory comes from these days.

Nothing like the auctions to the public, where (as you note) bidding fever makes most cars sell for silly money.

Those are the auctions I'm talking about, Mannheim runs most of them these days. The Buy here Pay here guys run the bids up to stupid money because they will still make money because they sell&repo the same car several times keeping the down payment as well as charging astronomical interest. Exporters make the auctions around here doubly bad to try to buy at.

 

[ggroves]

Step 1 - Test drive one locally.

Step 2 - Use Cars.com. Punch in your filters, and search in a 250-500 mile radius. Some dealers are VERY competitive. Sort prices from Low to High and review each listing to see if you are getting the options you want.

Step 3 - Email your narrowed list and ask for the best deal. Good dealers will get back to you within hours.

Step 4 - Take the best deal back to your local dealer and see if they can meet/beat. If not, deal remotely.

I bought my Touareg TDI this way. $7K off of MSRP. Didn't drive it until I drove it off the lot, and didn't verbally talk to the salesrep until I handed him a check. I will never deal in person again.

 

[pilot_dude]

I haven't seen a good price at auction since the advent of "Buy here, Pay Here" lots.

That hasn't been my experience at all. I have a dealer license and the prices are cyclical. You have to know when to buy and when to wait. It's been that way for decades.

 

[garyb]

What tricks do you use to get the best deal?

What I have done in the past is look at dealer invoice, then go from there...down. I have paid invoice plus $500 once, but that was when I was dumb. Never have paid MSRP.

Any other tricks or strategies you guys and gals use to get the best deal you can? I'm looking at a 2014 Toyota Highlander for the wifey.

How do you find out the dealer holdback or other factory to dealer incentives? Volume discounts? etc.?

Funny you should ask. My wife found a book, What Car Dealers Don't Want You To Know. Read it cover to cover. Outlined everything you need to know, how much the holdbacks are, what to say, what not to say, who to contact for info, etc. DO NOT follow the advice from Consumer Reports. I knew the invoice price and every price increase that year. I ended up hiring a service for (I think) $150 who contacted every dealer from DC to Virginia Beach (I was living in Virginia at the time). Got a quote right at invoice. Then I went to the local dealers and waved it in their faces. On a whim, we went to Richmond to visit friends and stopped in at a dealership there and got the old "What's it going to take?' I said price. I've got dealers willing to give me one at invoice and the guy in my hometown was willing to go $300 over invoice, but his car had been sitting on the lot for 9 mos and was less than the current invoice price. He gave me an offer of $1 under invoice, brought the car around, I hopped in and saw the odometer at 232. I asked why, seeing as how I knew they had just bought the car 2 months previous. He jumped up, looked at the VIN, said "I'll be right back." Drove the car away, came back with an identical one. My wife got in and it had 4 miles on it.

Fast forward a few years. It was time for another one. I found the guy who gave me the reports the last time around. He told me dealerships are completely different now as too many people know what the invoice prices are now. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to sell TVs or BlueRays if every customer knew exactly how much you paid for it? Dealers are compensated by the manufactures according to CSI surveys and units sold etc. so no one knows if or how much they are going to get and therefore how much they're going to wheel and deal, and it changes throughout the year i.e. one who couldn't deal at the beginning of the year may be willing at the end of the year and vice-verse. If they are in a position to get a big payout if they sell one more unit, then they are more willing to deal. (By the way, the best time to buy is the last week of each quarter.) So armed with all the info, I faxed letters to every dealership from Seattle to Missoula and Canada to Boise, and a guy in Spokane offered me $1,000 under invoice!

If I can find the guys name who I got the info from and if you want the letter I used, I will surely pass it on. Happy car hunting!

 

[FormerHangie]

A *new* car? At a dealer?

People do that?

I let someone else take the depreciation, buy lightly used, and use the money I save to fly airplanes. If I made more money, I'd still do the same thing, I'd just fly even nicer airplanes.

Depends on what you're trying to accomplish. I'd recommend buying an inexpensive new car and keeping it for 8-10 years. After that, the cost of repairs and maintenance gets high enough to where you're not saving all that much money. I've had my car for 12 years and I've found that for the last couple of years I've only saved $500 or so per year over having traded it. It's not worth that little money to be driving around in an old car.

 

[docmirror]

I bought two new cars cause my kids deserved them. They collectively saved me about $220k in tuition by getting scholarships. A new car with its known depr was fine with me. They plan on keeping them for at least 10 years, and we may need to repl some of the traction battery cells before then, but that's work I can do at home.

The NPV break even for a new Prius driven 18k miles per year comes in at 7.2 years factoring in fuel savings and lower mx over a 4YO VW Golf which is what they were driving. I did my diligence and figured all this stuff out. Plus, they get to drive a new car for a while at least. I sold both Golfs myself.