Advice for buying new car, Truecar, etc.

[JohnnyCockfight]

Has anyone here used Truecar valuations to help negotiating the price of a new car? Have any tips otherwise?

Also, has anyone here worked in the industry, and if so, do you have any advice?

Thanks!

 

[Deety]

I sold Hondas and BMWs for a summer.

Thoroughly research the real price ahead of time, including finding out what incentives the dealership is getting for the sale. Add $200, and make that your take-it-or-leave-it price.

Walk in right before closing, at the end of the month if you can swing it. People will want to go home and get one more sale on the monthly books, so unless they're losing money (beyond the bonus they'll get for selling higher quantities), you'll get your price.

ALWAYS be willing to walk out. I had a friend a few years back who so obviously wanted the car that the salesperson actually managed to convince him he would have to pay a premium above sticker to get it, so I offered to take over the negotiation. Saved him thousands, and on the final visit I overheard the salesperson say, "Damn it, he brought her again."

 

[Taosman]

And never put up with disrespect. You don't like how your being treated....walk.
Usually if you get to the second sales person your getting to the bone of the deal. (I sold cars, also.) :tongue2:
Your best deal is usually on a car in stock.
Be aware that some salesmen will "misplace" you trade in keys for a bit if they think they can get away with it to buy more time.
Any rainy day is a great day to buy a car.
Day after Christmas is great. (I've done this twice)
Day after any major holiday is usually great.
Left over model year cars(2010) are great deals if your not too picky.

Don't put up with any crap from sales people. Walk.

 

[MightbeaBuck]

You can find out what the dealer paid for the car online. For American cars, subtract $200 from the invoice, for all others add $100. That should be the most you will pay.

Walk in right before closing, at the end of the month if you can swing it.

I would add, test drive the car you are interested in several days before you actually buy. Go in to buy during a day when you may be the only customer. During a near blizzard if possible. If you are the only customer and they need sales, they will have to sell to you.

If it turns out that there are several other customers, here's something fun to do. At some point in the middle of negotiations, even if things are going well: yell, "Why won't you let me buy a car?" The manager will scurry over to see what he can do to make you happy.

Edmunds.com has some good advice - several dozen pages worth - on buying cars & negotiating.

 

[Deety]

You can find out what the dealer paid for the car online. For American cars, subtract $200 from the invoice, for all others add $100. That should be the most you will pay.

I would add, test drive the car you are interested in several days before you actually buy. Go in to buy during a day when you may be the only customer. During a near blizzard if possible. If you are the only customer and they need sales, they will have to sell to you.

Yup. Even if you use my method, you still need to go in and test drive the car ahead of time, and get a picture of the sticker in order to know exactly what options to research.

If it turns out that there are several other customers, here's something fun to do. At some point in the middle of negotiations, even if things are going well: yell, "Why won't you let me buy a car?" The manager will scurry over to see what he can do to make you happy.

Nice.

 

[Gatorubet]

And this here one's got second row bucket seats.....that'll be extra!

 

[DaytonBuck]

My friends dad developed what I think is a good strategy for buying. Not sure how this would work on a higher end car but he wanted to get a Explorer. He found what the invoice price was and came up with what he was willing to pay for the car. He faxed every Ford dealership in the Miami Valley with his price, non-negotiable, and told them if they wanted to make a sale give him a call. He was consistently able to get or beat his price.

 

[buxfan4life]

Be willing to shop dealerships also. Never buy a car the first trip there. "Give me your WRITTEN estimate and let me sleep on it". Do the same thing at another dealer or two. Once you are ready to buy, and know which dealer you want to go with, you have the other estimates to negotiate with, as well as the old "Well, so and so promised me 6 free oil changes/detailings if I went with him".

Last car I bought (drive a company car now) was in 2002, and I got a great price (well under invoice because it was an '02 and I bought in Sept) and 2 years full maintenance with washes (this was before the maintenance programs came out) in the deal.

 

[Mac]

This was a great thread...I'm looking into buying myself a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited (the 4dr), hopefully here soon.

 

[Crump's brother]

Kindly tell the salesperson to shut up while you're driving. I like to listen for rattles or any noises I would consider out of the ordinary.

Also, go in armed with information. When I bought my wife's Corolla, I knew more about the car than the salesman did. As soon as he knew that, I didn't have to listen to him basically reciting the brochure to me. I hate that.

 

[BrutuStrength]

I'd also recommend Edmunds.com for doing your research. I'm curious, do you know what make and model (with options) that you want?

Do you have a trade-in. If so, what is the year, make, and model. Trade-ins can work against your negotiations sometimes. Having also sold cars for a summer, I can tell you to never buy the line from a dealer that "since I'm selling you a car at invoice, I have to buy your trade-in at invoice prices. That's complete BS, and it's how they hope to get more money by buying low from you and selling high.

It's important to know what the fair value of your vehicle is. A great way to find that out is to see how much a Carmax dealer will you give you for your car. It's my understanding that they usually pay a very fair price for cars, often higher than you'll get from traditional dealers. You can also check out the Kelly Blue Book site (kbb.com) for an approximate value.

I've also read where a number of shoppers have been successful with the email technique that Dayton mentioned.

 

[MightbeaBuck]

I like to listen for rattles or any noises I would consider out of the ordinary.

This would probably apply more to used cars than new.

 

[Deety]

I'd also recommend Edmunds.com for doing your research. I'm curious, do you know what make and model (with options) that you want?

Do you have a trade-in. If so, what is the year, make, and model. Trade-ins can work against your negotiations sometimes. Having also sold cars for a summer, I can tell you to never buy the line from a dealer that "since I'm selling you a car at invoice, I have to buy your trade-in at invoice prices. That's complete BS, and it's how they hope to get more money by buying low from you and selling high.

It's important to know what the fair value of your vehicle is. A great way to find that out is to see how much a Carmax dealer will you give you for your car. It's my understanding that they usually pay a very fair price for cars, often higher than you'll get from traditional dealers. You can also check out the Kelly Blue Book site (kbb.com) for an approximate value.

I've also read where a number of shoppers have been successful with the email technique that Dayton mentioned.

Yes, always negotiate the trade-in separately, preferably only stating that you have a trade-in after the price of the car has been negotiated.

My dealership trained people to walk around the car and touch every little scratch and dent so people would feel like their cars were worth less. Don't assess the car with the salesperson; send them out to do it by themselves.

 

[sharkonwheels]

I worked in the bizz a few years.

Biggest advice I can give, is first off NEVER EVER EVER tell them up-front whether you're buying or leasing, ESPECIALLY if leasing.

ALWAYS choose a SPECIFIC vehicle, and negotiate a price FIRST.
As mentioned, research. go to edmunds.com and research the vehicle, including MSRP and invoice prices, then check the incentives and rebates also on Edmunds.com. Never overlook ANYTHING: manufacture to dealer incentives (also referred to as dealer cash), manufacturer-to-buyer (the hawked rebates) and always remember dealers also get more: qty returns on volume, holdback, ad pools, etc...

and NEVER pay more than a couple hundred as a dealer fee.
I myself don't mind paying $100-200 as a dealer fee if I've totally nailed them on the car price, but never more than that.

There's a ton of information on the InterWebz - use it to your advantage.
You can usually scan through a dealer's inventory online, choose 1,2, maybe 3 cars, and research the invoice and MSRP on it.
This way, if 1 is sold, you have 2 backup plans.

You can go in with those 2-3 cars, know what the invoice is, and make an offer.
This way they KNOW you're not wasting time.

Don't buy into theur good guy-bad guy crap, like the salesman saying he's on your side, and he's going to try to get you a number... gimme a check so he sees your serious...

Just flat-out say here's the number I want, can you do it yes or no. If I wasn't serious, I wouldn't BE here.
If you're going to have the dealer finance, that's another bargaining chip you can use, as they make $ of a point or two added to what the bank actually gave.

Any question, feel free to ask. I'm sure there's even more folks that were in the biz.
and yeah, end of month/quarter/year is the BEST time to buy, as they have goals to reach.

 

[JohnnyCockfight]

Thanks to everyone for all the great advice. I had done a ton of homework - truecar.com is a wonderful resource for those who don't already know about it - I was trading numbers back and forth regarding dealer cost and holdback, invoice, etc. The sales manager was left without any bullshit comebacks and wanted to know where I got my info, and I told him that I had a friend who worked for AAA corporate (a partner of truecar). I also studied the Edmunds townhall forums to see prices people were actually paying, and used a couple cross-country dealers on the east coast that I knew were selling at good prices (told the local dealers I was willing to travel to buy).

This was a car I negotiated for my wife, a 2011 Volvo XC60, Black exterior and black leather interior with a lighter stitching - beautiful. Volvo is currently running a 5 year, 60,000 regularly scheduled maintenance package (incl. oil changes), and 2.9% financing for up to 72 months. I'm pretty sure this is their top selling car. I was able to get it for about $1,320 under invoice and got 10% more for trade-in on my wife's car (that she's for 11 years, since our sophomore year at Ohio State) than I could at the other dealers that I visited. They were right to believe me that I was willing to walk away - I had a dealer about 3 hours away that was willing to build our model to spec in Sweden and sell it to me for just under invoice. The car we ended up with was so new that it still had plastic on the hood and over most of the parts of the interior - it was clear that no other customer had seen it.

Whenever the dealer would look at me like I was being asking for too much, I would remind him in a nice way that he told me that they were the #1 Volvo dealer in sales nationally and would not be undersold. When I priced out the 2010 models this past spring when visiting my parents in the Cincinnati area, they were several thousand dollars higher. Needless to say, we are really happy with the turn of events. Didn't expect to buy it so soon, but the right price happened.

Finally, it also helped that I was basically the only customer on the lot for several hours this morning. If truecar's data is correct, this is the only deal both locally and regionally in the "great price" or "good price" range for this model car, and ours was in the "great price" range.

This is what she looked like before being cleaned up: