How I save $$ when buying a new car

[Fern]

i realize some of you would prefer to buy a used vehicle, but my system would still work with used car dealers too.

I have little time or patience to visit multiple car dealerships and listen to the spiel from salespeople who try to keep you from walking out the door without a purchase agreement.

So here's what I do, for minimum fuss and you still get the best deal.

1. Visit ONE dealership and test drive the cars til you figure out what mode you want with which add-ons. Get the best price you can from dealer. Of course, you should have researched in advance on a website like edmunds.com what the base price of the new car is so you know what kind of markup you're dealing with.

2. Prepare a brief memo which you will fax or email to as many area dealrships as you want. It should say something like this:

I am i the market for a 2006 Toyota Prius with air conditioning and whatever other features you want. Please provide me with your very best price. Provide your name, address and contact info.

i've done this before and it seemed to work well. If you're lucky enough not to have to finance vehicles, but can pay cash, then be sure NOT to let the dealership know that until AFTER you've reached a deal on the purchase price. Dealerships make a lot of $$ on financing terms, so if they learn you aren't going to need to finance, they might try to compensate for that by hiking up the price on the car.

I also saved $500 when i was torn between buying a honda or a toyota. I decided to call Honda Motor Co., NOT a dealer, to ask a question about the car. I truly can't remember what the question was, but i felt like i trusted the car company more than the dealers. When i explained that i was torn between which car to buy, it was totally unexpected when the person i was speaking with at Honda said look, if you decide to buy a honda, we'll throw in a $500 rebate. I went with HOnda, and i did get the rebate.

[Optsol]

Awesome info -- particularly about contacting the car company directly -- Thanks!

[enabler]

Especially when buying used, don't bring up a trade until after you've settled on a final purchase price. The dealer will hate this and may try to make you feel uncomfortable for not bringing it up before, but that's because they have one less number to play around with. Worst case scenario is that they won't come down any lower, but even huge dealerships need your sale more than you need their vehicle - your options for other fish in the sea are huge. Don't forget this!

Know what your trade is worth and what you're comfortable letting it go for. I find a nice combo between Kelly Blue Book, Edmunds, and N.A.D.A. works well, along with whatever your local ads might tell you. Many dealers want to inspect your trade without you present, whether you're test driving or sitting in some salesperson's office. Then they'll describe all kinds of flaws they noticed, or quote wholesale values inferior to the car's true worth.

[Russell]

I used carsdirect.com (for new cars) since they almost always have the lowest prices anywhere. With the carsdirect.com quote (instant and free) I contacted several local dealerships to see if they can beat the price. Only one did and that's where I bought our last car.

carsdirect.com now have used cars too but I don't know how that works, it seems almost like a classifieds service.

[Javan]

I did a similar thing when I bought my 2005 Subaru Forester except I called and emailed the various dealers throughout my state and a neighboring state. The best deal was $50 less than the dealer 20 miles from me. So I went local. I hate car shopping.

[wouql]

Here's a question about carsdirect (or similiar sites) for those of you who used it:

I have been approved for a loan from a local bank. I'm a student and I got a great deal: half a percent below prime, plus deferred payments until I graduate and start my job.

So I have absolutely no desire to finance through the dealer or carsdirect. Is that an issue buying through them? Can I tell my representative, "I have financing already taken care of" and that's fine? Or do they require you to fill out an application or something?

[Russell]

I ended up buying from a local dealership (which is what carsdirect does too except they become the middle man because they can negotiate a better rate than an avg buyer).

However, I don't see an issue with your own financing as long as your bank can work with CarsDirect. A quick call to both the bank and CarsDirect should clear it up.

[Snoopy2645]

Heres the way I save I buy cars from my brother he has a carlot he gets cars very cheap he only has them 2 or 3 days before they sale so he dont know how good they are but I am really good at looking at a car & knowing if its good or bad. But we did buy dh's truck new from a dealership we got a better deal on it buy driving 2 hrs away too a really big dealer than just a small dealer. But we dealt over the phone with them & one other dealer & played them both to get the best deal.

[Fern]

Originally Posted by Javan

I did a similar thing when I bought my 2005 Subaru Forester except I called and emailed the various dealers throughout my state and a neighboring state. The best deal was $50 less than the dealer 20 miles from me. So I went local. I hate car shopping.

I'm surprised the difference between dealers was so small. As i recall, when i did the same thing, the difference between area car dealers was in the hundreds of dollars.

[abowers]

We looked at the 2006 Ford Focus, Honda Civic, and Toyota Corolla in October. The Honda and Ford dealerships were straightforward with us, the Toyota guy tried to avoid telling us his asking price and just kept lowering his "monthly payment" for us. So that was an immediate turnoff, in addition to preferring how the other 2 cars handled.

We decided to go for the Ford Focus and after lots of online research, and visiting a second Ford Dealership to compare quotes, we went with the first Ford Dealer (same price actually, within $100, but we had been in touch with the guy at Dealer #1 a lot and he had located the car with the options we wanted at another dealer).

Anyway, my Sig. Other did tons of research online on how to come up with our asking price (in relation to the invoice price). We also researched interest rates at banks and online in comparison to the Ford rate-- but, we qualified for the 3.9% rate through Ford which was much better than any bank. We ended up agreeing on exactly the invoice price, And we got a $500 recent college grad rebate, and a $500 Financing through Ford Rebate on top of that. So we were pretty pleased.

[Ima saver]

I think that cars should have a set price and there should be no haggling! I hate doing that. I did like getting a $1700 rebate with our GM card/ Corvettes are the only cars on the road that I like the looks of, so there is not much debate there.

[sweeps]

Originally Posted by Ima saver

I think that cars should have a set price and there should be no haggling!

No way. If you leave it to the dealer to set the price, you're headed for a rip-off. I never even considered a Saturn for exactly this reason.

[Ima saver]

Well when you buy a corvette, there is not much haggling. The first year we ordered one, it never even came in. So when we saw one in stock the following year, we just took it.

[sweeps]

Yeah, I wasn't able to haggle much either when I bought my first Rolls Royce.

[Ima saver]

Never even been in one of those!! When I bought my first corvette, it was $13,000. I have not lost any money on it cause I still have it.

[abowers]

My parents bought a Saturn Vue two summers ago, and they liked that there was no haggling over the price, because they didn't want to deal with that.

[sweeps]

Originally Posted by abowers

My parents bought a Saturn Vue two summers ago, and they liked that there was no haggling over the price, because they didn't want to deal with that.

That's okay, but they likely paid for the privilege. Personally I would rather play hardball and knock a thousand or two off the selling price.

[Ima saver]

We did not haggle over the price when we bought the vette, but they did give us a real good trade in price on our 7 year old car.

[abowers]

Yeah, my boyfriend did the hardball thing in buying our car in October-- I think he knocked about $1300 off what the dealer originally wanted, which brought it down to the invoice price, then we got another $1000 off in rebates.

[shelbylovesmelby]

Originally Posted by wouql

Here's a question about carsdirect (or similiar sites) for those of you who used it:

I have been approved for a loan from a local bank. I'm a student and I got a great deal: half a percent below prime, plus deferred payments until I graduate and start my job.

So I have absolutely no desire to finance through the dealer or carsdirect. Is that an issue buying through them? Can I tell my representative, "I have financing already taken care of" and that's fine? Or do they require you to fill out an application or something?

Typically if you are pre-approved and you find the car you are looking for just make the deal, contact you lender & have them issue the check & loan docs. You may have to do a lil bit thru finance but nothing more than the final contract paperwork & adding your leinholders secured party # to your title.

I've never heard of carsdirect but the above is basically how it works when you work exclusivly thru the dealership.

hth