Car Buying Hints

[Pilot-lite]

I love the Internet, You can find just about anything on it.

I have found it to be very useful when buying cars. My last three cars were purchased with the help of the Internet.

The best research site is Edmunds.com. I use it to check the reviews of vehicles, their maintenance history, how other buyers rated the car, an most importantly how much others are paying for the vehicle in my area. Edmunds will tell you what the car cost the dealer with options, and what the retail price is for the car with those options.

Armed with that information I march down to my local dealer and usually offer just below the average price others are paying. Then I give them 3 conditions.

1. The salesman can walk away for approval one time. hen he comes back he either comes back with papers for me to sign or his sales manager.

2. The sales manager can give me one counter offer.

3. The salesman is not to try to sell anything additional, no options, no maintenance contract, nothing. If I anted it I would have asked for it.

I have walked out of a few dealers when they failed to meet my conditions.

The questions I usually get asked are:

1. Don't you think the dealer should make a reasonable profit? My answer: Nope, I don't care if the dealer makes a dime on the deal. SNMP- Simply not my problem. There are so many hidden manufacture incentives and kick backs (Edmunds will advise you on some of them) that even if you are shown the dealer invoice you really can't be sure the true cost to the dealer.

2. Do you really think this is a fair deal? I would not have made it if I didn't think it was fair. (This is an important one, make a fair offer. If you low ball an offer on a very popular car you have now way of making a deal 3%-5% above dealer cost is fair. If the car is not in high demand you can get away with a lower offer) You can also get a better deal if you wait until the end of the month or end of their quarter. No dealer wants to pay the inventory tax for the car sitting on the lot. Plus, they have a quota to meet.

The best one was when I went to buy the pilot. It was an EX-L with NAV and wood trim. The dealer had a tag on the car that showed the sticker price of the car plus dealer prep. However the price was $1,500 lower than the original sticker price. Obviously an error, but again SNMP. I started to deal from the amount on the tag. Gave the salesman his one chance, he came back with his manager. The manager pointed out that the tag was an error. I explain the tag is the same type used on all of the other cars in the lot and that would be my starting point. The manager asked if I would take advantage is a human error? My response: Hell yes! If that is the price on the car then that is where we will start our negotiations. Well needless to say, he got a little pissy and said, no deal. So we left, went to another dealer down the road and bought my new pilot. The deal was completed is 20 min, another 40 min for the paperwork and we were out the door.


Anyway...That's my 2 cents

Happy shopping!

[guitarman]

Nice write-up.

I've used several different methods to purchase my vehicles, but the common denominator is being ready, and appearing ready, to purchase the vehicle when the right deal is struck. If you appear to be "just shopping," you'll never get the best deal. I do my "just shopping" when I'm still in the research mode and I do it at dealerships I have no intentions of buying from. Then, when I'm ready to buy, I go to the dealership I want to do business with. The last car I bought, I went in at 7:30 pm on the last day of the month and said, "I'm ready to purchase a car tonight!" That got their attention and got me, I feel, a good price on the vehicle.

And I totally agree with you that being prepared with lots of information, including what you can find on this site as well as Edmunds and others, will pay off.

[Pilot-lite]

Agreed, just like a Boy Scout; Be Prepared. I did the same thing as you with my last two cars. I went at 8PM on the last day of the month. I found the car I wanted and told the salesman I was ready to deal.

Show them you are ready, and you know your stuff and you will get a better deal. The salesman's job is to wear you down so you will take the deal that is best for them. If they know up front you are not going to play that game then they wont even try, if they do, walk out. I did that a few cars back and before we got to the car the salesman came running out to get us to make the deal.

This was actually funny, we were dealing with the sales manager before we walked out and had him so flustered by our tactics that he screwed up and gave us a better deal then we asked for. We actually took the deal into negative territory for the dealer.

It was great fun.

[krygny]

A long but incredibly informative series. Required reading for anybody shopping for a new car.

http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying...2/article.html

[SimonS2k]

Just bought an '04 EXL-Navi for $100.00 over invoice. I guess they are trying to clear their lot for the '05's.

The internet is our best friend and a dealer's worst nightmare. If you come prepared to the dealership, you really have some fun.

Power Honda in Valencia, CA has about 15-20 Pilots on their lot and I'm pretty sure they need to move them.

Good luck everyone!

-Simon

[Pilot-lite]

Don't you just love the "Deer in the headlights" look when you whip out the Internet printout?

Does anyone else have any tips when dealing with the dealer? I will be doing this for the first time in a couple of days and could use all the help I can get. This site has been very helpful in every aspect of the Pilot life and I will appreciate all the assistance I can get!

[jthelman]

It's a variant of good cop/bad cop:

When you buy a car, bring a spouse/relative. Tell them their job is to be the "let's go" guy. Your job is play like you want the car (not too much but very interested).

The job of the "let's go guy" is to to seem very unimpressed with the car, and even more skeptical of the price. The most important part of their job is to get up and push you to leave the dealer.

When you start negotiating, wait for the right moment, then cue the other person to start pushing to leave.

Usually sales weasels try a bit harder to please at this point.

--v2---

Another variant that works almost as well can be done with a cell phone. I recently had a problem negotiating a trade value, and pulled this one.

I turned my cell phone up real loud and called me wife. The phone was loud so that the salesweasel could hear that I really was talking to someone.

Once my wife answered, we had two different conversations going on. My end went something like:

What the other dealer offered for the trade-in?

$6500?

Check if I wrote it down on paper.

(by now my wife is confused )
No, we have a deal on the Pilot, he matched the other price, but I needed to know what to do with the trade.

We'll take $6000?

OK, yes, no less than $6000.


I did my best to sound as p-whipped as possible on the phone. My wife gave me an ultimatum of $6000 that I could move off of.

I got the sales weasel to come up $1500 to meet my *$5500* original goal going in.


John

[jthelman]

To help with your negotiation skills, try this one.

There's always one dealer who is an absolute jerk, and prides themselves on screwing people for every last penny. There's a local Honda dealer that pissed me off so much years ago that I use them this way everytime I buy a new Honda.

I like to go to this dealer, pretend I am interested in buying, and start a price negotiation. My goals:

1) See how far I can push the sales guy. I can get an idea of what the market for the car is, I can compare this number edmunds/carpoint/ etc....

2) Waste his time. Sometimes I'll wait to have them draw up paperwork before I leave

3) Learn how to deal with car salesmen.

If all goes well, you get what you needed, and have a real world number to go to other dealers with. In most cases I have a cozy feeling knowing I wasted some salepserson's time at that dealer.

Yeah, it's petty, but does serve a purpose.

John