Anyone bought a new car recently?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recently bought a Highlander from Koons using Truecar. It was a better deal than the Costco price in my case. My price appeared to be higher than the website price, but the online price included fewer fees, so the Truecar price was actually lower after accounting for the fine print.

14:23 here. Our truecar price was via consumer reports. Not sure if it makes a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sort of tangential: has any listened to the This American Life story about the car dealership? My takeaway from that episode was that apparently car dealers (or maybe just Chrysler) are desperate to meet their quota at the end of the month so that the manufacturer will give them a bonus, which can be as much as 80k. The people buying cars at the end of the month snagged crazy deals as a result. Has anyone else found this to be true at other dealerships??

This is very true, they have monthly quota's so best time is probably to in there around the 25-26th (go to a few dealers around this time) lightly negotiate, then walk out, they will surely give you call before the month is over. Even better than end of the month is end of a quarter. like end of March, June etc, there are better deals to be had.

We got a great deal by buying at the end of January. We went in with a price of $17.5k wanted on a honda accord, and the salesman flat out refused. However, we haggled for awhile, and then finally had to leave for an appointment. He called us offering the $17.5k price, and we went back and bought it for that.

[Anonymous]

I don't negotiate.

I just do research on the vehicle I want (including options) and how much the invoice/msrp is for that vehicle. I figure out what a fair price is to me. If I'm buying Ford (which I prefer), you can find the X-plan price pretty easy which caps the "document fees" at under $100.

Then I just mass email a bunch of dealerships and say this is exactly what I want, reply with your best out the door price including all taxes and fees. I'm looking to buy in X days.

If someone replies they want to talk in person or on the phone, they are off the list.

If someone replies with a price that doesn't include the taxes/fees, they are off the list.

I then take the dealers who replied with what I asked for and see who has the best deal. (If I'm dealing with a Ford, I compare against X-plan to see if they beat it).

Then I go buy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't negotiate.

I just do research on the vehicle I want (including options) and how much the invoice/msrp is for that vehicle. I figure out what a fair price is to me. If I'm buying Ford (which I prefer), you can find the X-plan price pretty easy which caps the "document fees" at under $100.

Then I just mass email a bunch of dealerships and say this is exactly what I want, reply with your best out the door price including all taxes and fees. I'm looking to buy in X days.

If someone replies they want to talk in person or on the phone, they are off the list.

If someone replies with a price that doesn't include the taxes/fees, they are off the list.

I then take the dealers who replied with what I asked for and see who has the best deal. (If I'm dealing with a Ford, I compare against X-plan to see if they beat it).

Then I go buy.

Do they end up beating the X-plan price wise ?

[Anonymous]

I bought my car from Koons in Silver Spring. Everyone there could not have been nicer. 2 days after leaving the lot, I decided it was not the right car for me. Unlike Va, Md does not have the 3 day right to resind. I called up the sales person and he said to come in. They traded out my first car for another LESS expensive one on the lot. The loan had not funded yet so they cancelled the transaction and we started again.

Since then I've gotten the car serviced at Koons and another dealer. Every time something is broken in the car, Koons says no problem it's under warranty. The same problem is not covered at the other dealership. Couldn't tell you why though.