New Car Purchase - How to Negotiate?

[Anonymous]

Good recent article from LA Times. They recommend using true car, at least to get ballpark of what might be a good deal -- that is, to help make sure if you leave something on the table it's hundreds, not thousands. Then some negotiating tips. We just bought; didn't follow this exactly but more or less, and I am feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-how-to-buy-a-car-20140713-story.html#page=1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Consumer Reports has really good advice.

I also heard that piece on This American Life. It was pretty impressive how hard they worked to meet their quota at the end of the month.

I went to a dealer on Dec. 31 a few years back to get a broken headlight fixed, and unexpectedly walked out with a new car. They were crazy desperate to do the deal that day. (and I get the "friends and family" rate for that brand, so I already had a break on the sticker price without the need to haggle. They gave me above blue book for my old car and a $2,000 rebate.

[Anonymous]

I work in the industry.

Go end of the month. Go January or February ideally.

Get a truecar quote.

If you are a real asshole, tell the dealer you'll use their financing, then when they offer it to you tell them "what if I agree to 5% instead of 3%, will you take another $500 off?"
If the dealer is a sleazy little fucker, they'll say yes. Take the deal, then refi or just pay it off.

Note that once you do this you'll be tipping the bank the deal was shit. If the bank figures it out, they'll go after the dealer for the money they paid them on a "fake" loan. Dealer will be pissed, or won't care depending on who at the dealership finds out.

Agree to the extended warranty and anything else they want to sell you. Almost everything has a 3 day out on it. For each thing ask for $50 or $100. Play your cards right and you can knock $1000 off. Go home and cancel everything you just agreed to.

[Anonymous]

I should note that when you do the above, effectively you've colluded wih the sales team to split their take. If the dealer owner finds out he'll be pissed as fuck, so keep your mouth shut. Important to add: nothing above is illegal for you - it's a violation of the contract the dealers often have - but that's on them, not on you to worry about.

[Anonymous]

Negotiate via email. Last car i bought, I researched the best prices through true car as the starting point. I contacted three dealers and when I was ready to buy, I told them that I was going to purchase a car that day and to come with their best and final price. When the lowest came in, I emailed the other dealers to see if they would beat the price. One did.

I do have to mention that I used my husbands name/email when contacting salesmen. When I emailed under my obviously female name, I was quoted prices thousands of dollars higher.

[Anonymous]

Look online at auto dealers in the region for the make you want. Look up the model on all their sites. This might take you half an hour or an hour. Find the cheapest one and ask your closest dealer to match them. If they refuse, go to the cheaper place. 99% chance they won't refuse. Usually if you look at the biggest dealers you'll see the lowest advertised prices. I was looking for a Camry hybrid and some dealers were advertising 5k under MSRP. It's a lot easier to just point to that and get your closest dealer to match it than haggle for 10hrs for that price or MAYBE a little better.

[Anonymous]

The largest dealers in the area get "volume rates"

When I worked for Toyota - the Long Beach dealership sold so many cars they were able to beat the employee rate significantly. (there was a lease rate they could not touch)

The dealer price that you see is if they purchase 1 car. They clearly purchase a lot more than that.

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind that if you sell to carmax as opposed to trade you are also paying sales tax...that gets netted out on a trade, so huge savings.

What I have done for last 2 cars - find what I want, email 3-4 dealers and ask for their best price, narrow down to final 2 and do best and final. I have gotten about 5% below Truecar each time. And yes, if you finance have your financing in place. Sometimes a dealer can beat it and if so let them have at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Negotiate via email. Last car i bought, I researched the best prices through true car as the starting point. I contacted three dealers and when I was ready to buy, I told them that I was going to purchase a car that day and to come with their best and final price. When the lowest came in, I emailed the other dealers to see if they would beat the price. One did.

I do have to mention that I used my husbands name/email when contacting salesmen. When I emailed under my obviously female name, I was quoted prices thousands of dollars higher.

That is infuriating. I agree completely about doing your negotiations in advance over email. I had three dealerships competing and all I had to do was show the email around. One flat out told me that he didn't understand how the other dealership could offer such a good deal and he called the manager over there to see if there had been a mistake (in this case quoting the 2 wheel drive price instead of the 4 wheel drive I wanted). He had to say that he couldn't match that price and that I should take it.

The whole thing was so much less painful than the last time I bought a car.

[Anonymous]

I received a pretty good price on an Acura MDX that I am trying to get a couple other guys to beat. Problem is that won't give any pricing via e-mail - they claim they can beat but I have to come in to get the pricing. They are afraid I will use their written price to get a better deal with the one quote I already have. Really? This is the game they created and now they don't want to play. Glad I only buy cars every 10 years.

[Anonymous]

Price out your car with Costco to see where dealers stand.
ALso, don't ever accept their offer. ALways counter lower and make them accept yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Negotiate via email. Last car i bought, I researched the best prices through true car as the starting point. I contacted three dealers and when I was ready to buy, I told them that I was going to purchase a car that day and to come with their best and final price. When the lowest came in, I emailed the other dealers to see if they would beat the price. One did.

I do have to mention that I used my husbands name/email when contacting salesmen. When I emailed under my obviously female name, I was quoted prices thousands of dollars higher.

That is infuriating. I agree completely about doing your negotiations in advance over email. I had three dealerships competing and all I had to do was show the email around. One flat out told me that he didn't understand how the other dealership could offer such a good deal and he called the manager over there to see if there had been a mistake (in this case quoting the 2 wheel drive price instead of the 4 wheel drive I wanted). He had to say that he couldn't match that price and that I should take it.

The whole thing was so much less painful than the last time I bought a car.

This should be reported to some government agency.... which one, I don't know... perhaps your state senator;s office could help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in the industry.

Go end of the month. Go January or February ideally.

Get a truecar quote.

If you are a real asshole, tell the dealer you'll use their financing, then when they offer it to you tell them "what if I agree to 5% instead of 3%, will you take another $500 off?"
If the dealer is a sleazy little fucker, they'll say yes. Take the deal, then refi or just pay it off.

Note that once you do this you'll be tipping the bank the deal was shit. If the bank figures it out, they'll go after the dealer for the money they paid them on a "fake" loan. Dealer will be pissed, or won't care depending on who at the dealership finds out.

Agree to the extended warranty and anything else they want to sell you. Almost everything has a 3 day out on it. For each thing ask for $50 or $100. Play your cards right and you can knock $1000 off. Go home and cancel everything you just agreed to.

I like you. I like people who are able to screw people who are trying to screw consumers.