Tips on Buying a Car

[01Y87]

My question is about the order of how you go about buying a new car and getting the "numbers" so you know what you can afford in payments. Do you ask the dealer to give you a price and breakdown, and then make your counteroffer? Or do you walk in up front with your own offer? There's like 3 different cars I'm considering but I don't know their prices of 2 of them. One dealer gave me the breakdown - that's fine I think, I see that he based it all on full MSRP so now I can make him an offer. But the others didn't. Should I ask them for a price, or just make my own offer based on looking up prices online?

bruce

[ConElite]

Where you begin to Haggle with them is with the monthly payments. They are/should give you a breakdown of how much the car is. Financing/tax/and licence and then give you what your payment will be. That's where you start give them a hard time. Say they claim that the lowest they can go is something like $350 a month, You claim to not be able to go over $300. Then what they do is lower the sticker price to match what u want to be at for the monthly payment. Keep in mind that the dealer is always going to make money off you no matter what. I worked at a Chevy Dealer for 4 years and We bought a number of cars there and hooked up friends with real good deals. Our 2004 Tahoe was sticker prices at $42K b/c it was fully loaded with entertainment system (DVD). We were able to walk out the door with tax/licence and fees for $36K. Marked down, Hell yeah. We got it for $500 over whole sale. So it is a game. Don't be scared to walk away if something just does not seem right. I know that some guys can sell a ketchup Popsicle to a woman with white gloves (as the saying goes). Just don't feel pressured and get suckered into something you don't want.

[01Y87]

Well my big fear is that I'll sell my car and then the dealers aren't going to want to give me a good payment on a new one so I'll be stuck basically because I will have given up my current car. If I'd trade my car in, then I could just walk out if the deal isn't what I want.

I'm going to try and sell my car myself if I do this. I may get stuck anyway, between the time my car is sold and the time I have the keys to the new one because I don't know if they can get the exact one I want or if I'd have to order it.

I thought I remember once way back someone told me that you should haggle and set a price first, then do the payment haggling. Because if you just say you want a certain payment then they might not give you the absolute best price on the car. vehicle price and financing are 2 seperate things, right?

[sneitzel]

Don't be scared to walk away if something just does not seem right.

This is a huge key. As much as it might hurt you can not fall in love with a particular vehicle. Be ready to walk out the door if it seems like the salesperson isn't "playing fair".

Also, when you trade in your car and buy a new/different one those two things are part of the same deal. Your trade in and what ever money they are giving you for it should show up as a deduction on the contract for the new vehicle.
So, you don't have to sell them your car if you can not come to an agreement on the price/payments of the new one.

One last thing, If you can, go to your credit union or bank etc. and see if you can get pre-approved for a vehicle loan. They can let you know how much car you can buy for $X a month and what interest rate you'll be paying. They can then say you are pre-approved for up to $25000 (for example) meaning you already have financing set up. You then tell the salesperson you already have financing arranged and do not need them to find it for you. That will take one more of their tools away in the negotiating process. You can then focus on how much they're giving you for your trade and how much they are discounting the new vehicle.

They may try to throw in other virtually useless "extras" to make you think youre getting a better deal. Things like Free oil changes for a year, free car washes for a year, free fabric protection etc are all examples of things that cost almost nothing but sound like they are a great deal. Don't fall for them.

[ConElite]

One point thats good is look up the car your going to trade in on "Kelly Blue Book" and see how much its worth. 95% of dealers use that as their primary tool to estimate how much the trade in is worth. Private party sales is a lot higher than trade-in value.

P.S. if your going to buy a new car, Extended warrenty is recommended. You have no idea how many cars thats would come in for service after the 4 years standard warrenty. We would have to charge people for Fuel pumps and Ignition problems b/c it was to late. (I used to be a Tech for Chevy)

[01Y87]

oh tell me about it! $1000 for a fuel pump on the Camaro! However, if I had bought a 5/50 extended warranty I still would have been screwed because it happened at 64k & 4 yrs. I'd probably have to do a 75k warranty to be safe.

[01Y87]

I'd like to sell mine privately and get more than trading it. What's an average time to sell a car? 4-6 weeks I think? Assuming I do sell it and then go shopping for a new one, they might not have what I want without ordering it so I'd have to be car-less until it comes in. Has anyone here had this experience? Of course its worse if you buy used, because there is no ordering and you just have to go with what's available at the moment. But you can't pick out a new one and have them hold it for a long period (like a month), can you?

What I'm thinking is just order a new '08 and so I know there will be a gap of 8 weeks or so, then I'd use that time to sell my car and if it doesn't sell then trade it. Would this work?

If you place an order for a new car using yours as a trade, you dont have to give it to the dealer until the new one is ready for delivery, do you?