Date Posted: Mar/17/2006 12:43 AM
Great post!
I would recommend emailing tons of dealership within about 100 miles of you. I bought 3 camrys, and they were all from diff dealerships, because I would look for the lowest price I could get. I think I probably emailed 50 dealerships, and would keep emailing them the offers I was getting and asking them to beat them. Most of the time they would use the line, "Well if you can get that price, tell me where to get it, cause I would like to buy one too". Or the line, "Make sure they are adding all the fees, because I don't believe that price". Sad part is, they were all legit. I would avoid going into the dealership until you have the deal made online.. Then when you have teh quote with ALL fees added to it (make him invoice you), then go into the dealership with a PRINT out of the invoice, and do it. If they change anything, tell them u are walking and stick with it. They will usually back down and accept what they said. I always ask for free oil changes or something over email, and say that another dealership is offering me it, usually if its a great deal they are going to turn it down, but its worth a shot.
Anyway, if you have any questions, feel free to PM me. I have done this multiple times for my family!
Good luck!
lousygolfer said:
Yes, you can usually get good deals on last year's models, but those will usually sell out by January of the new year, sometimes mid-fall even.
Try shopping on the last day or two of the month. Car dealers want to clear their inventory then for at least two reasons: (a) their sales incentives (both the dealership's and the individual salesperson's commissions and bonuses) are usually based on their monthly figures; and (b) the dealership has to pay for insurance for the entire month on a car even if it is sold on the morning of the 1st day of the month, so they want to avoid that charge.
You can try getting the new car price list from www.consumerreports.com which tells you the dealer's actual invoice and will let you know what dealer incentives are available that month, so you can see the dealer's real cost, not just their claimed "invoice price." However, the first report costs $12 and subsequent ones are $10 (although they have unlimited access for something like $39/mo.) Consumerreports.com also has some bargaining and shopping tips on their website.
Get the best price on a particular car you want from Dealer A, then take that price to Dealer B or C and get them to beat it. Then go back to Dealer A with the new lower price and get the dealers to enter into a bidding war for your dollars.
Always act levelheaded and never get really excited about any given car - you don't want to appear desparate or the salesperson won't bargain much. Be prepared to walk away from any deal and if you don't like what the salesperson is trying to spew in his/her sales pitch, don't be afraid to tell him/her to cut the crap. Tell the salesperson "My bottom line on this car is $XXXX dollars out the door with tax, title and everything. If you want to sell me this vehicle, you have two minutes to agree to that price or I'm headed to your competitor's dealership."
If you're a woman, a minority or an elderly person, be on the lookout, because you probably will be stereotyped into a demographic of suckers and weak-willed persons who can be pushed and pulled into paying a lot for a car. A former client (a real dirtbag) was a car salesman and he used to tell me they would push non-white, non-male and non-elderly clients a whole lot harder into buying all sorts of useless crap and add-ons like undercoating, rustproofing, dealer prep charges, etc.... This guy told me the most commission he ever made was not on one of the $100k Porche turbos he sold, but on a Nissan Stanza he sold to an old black woman he managed to convince buy something like $8000 in extra crap beyond the base price of the car.
Tell the salesperson you're not interested in a trade-in when they first ask. It makes sense to keep things simple so that you don't have multiple unknown variables involved in the overall net price. Once you get the very lowest price you think is available, at that point discuss trade-in price (you can say you changed your mind or are just curious what they would offer). Note, though, that you usually can get a whole lot more money if you sell the car yourself. When my wife purchased her new Jetta, the dealer offered her only $1000 trade-in on her Toyota Camry, so we put an ad in the classifieds and sold it the next weekend for $3500.
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