Car buying advice

[Anonymous]

This will be the first time I buy a car on my own. How much should I expect to negotiate off of the MSRP? Any other advice from those who have BTDT? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Oh honey.

You ask for the out-the-door price from four different dealers.

Remember they have four ways to make profit:

— car price
— trade-in value
— financing
— upselling you things you don’t need like warranties and undercoating.

Might be harder to negotiate anything right now though. Especially for a popular model.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh honey.

You ask for the out-the-door price from four different dealers.

Remember they have four ways to make profit:

— car price
— trade-in value
— financing
— upselling you things you don’t need like warranties and undercoating.

Might be harder to negotiate anything right now though. Especially for a popular model.

Does the "out the door" price include all the taxes and fees?

[Anonymous]

This is a terrible time to buy a car used or new. Inventory is so low. I would not expect much off msrp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh honey.

You ask for the out-the-door price from four different dealers.

Remember they have four ways to make profit:

— car price
— trade-in value
— financing
— upselling you things you don’t need like warranties and undercoating.

Might be harder to negotiate anything right now though. Especially for a popular model.

Does the "out the door" price include all the taxes and fees?

Yes, it should.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh honey.

You ask for the out-the-door price from four different dealers.

Remember they have four ways to make profit:

— car price
— trade-in value
— financing
— upselling you things you don’t need like warranties and undercoating.

Might be harder to negotiate anything right now though. Especially for a popular model.

Does the "out the door" price include all the taxes and fees?

Yes. Those will add roughly $2,000 to the final cost of anything you negotiate otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Go on Truecar.com, find out the typical current sale price and the distribution in your area. Use this to get bids from multiple dealers. Tell them exactly what you want: model, trim level, options, and exterior and interior colors. Tell them to send you their "out the door" price. (This used to not include all the other crap, but most recently when I bought a car, I found out that it actually, truly was "out the door"**).

If you don't want the hassle and security concerns of selling your car private party, stop by carmax on your way to the dealer for a quick and free quote. thank carmax and bring that printed quote to the dealership where you're buying the car, and where you have found your out-the-door price. Ask them what they will give you for trade-in.

At this point, they offered me $400 for my trade. I said that's fine, and thank you for considering it, but CarMax has offered me $2k. They said "whoa." I shrugged, and said "no problem, I'm still buying the new car here."

15 minute later, the manager sent a message to the salesman that he wanted to pay $2k for the trade. So that was that.

**after you've done all the dealing and have bought the car for your out-the-door price minus trade, they STILL may send you to someone else's office who will start a very vague and tedious discussion, the purpose of which you'll have no clue. After 10 minutes of boredom, you'll realize that this chick is trying to sell you an extended warranty. Politely decline and say that you will self-insure. Then you'll be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh honey.

You ask for the out-the-door price from four different dealers.

Remember they have four ways to make profit:

— car price
— trade-in value
— financing
— upselling you things you don’t need like warranties and undercoating.

Might be harder to negotiate anything right now though. Especially for a popular model.

NP. Why the patronizing "oh honey?"

[Anonymous]

Yes. Those will add roughly $2,000 to the final cost of anything you negotiate otherwise.

Watch out. You can think the deal is done. It's not. The sales person who gave you the out-the-door price is no where to be seen. You need to be willing to waste a lot of time to save that extra $2,000 dollars, done at the very last step by the finance office.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all! Great advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a terrible time to buy a car used or new. Inventory is so low. I would not expect much off msrp.

+1 Many popular SUVs are selling well over MSRP at the moment. I have been offered more money to sell my 2019 Honda CR-V than I originally paid two years ago. Also, manufacturers, due to the chip shortage, are only making their top-of-the-line, most expensive models to maximize profits.

If you want to shop around, I suggest e-mail/calling multiple dealers and asking for their best price out the door (tax and processing fees included). Don't just go to a dealer and try to negotiate, or you will be wasting a lot of time (once you are there, dealers wont bargain). Also, you would be surprised how much the processing fees vary between dealerships, but are presented as something of a fixed cost, like a tax. Certain dealers who charge a $2500+ processing fee, while others charge $5-600. Be prepared to travel a ways to get a best price. I just drove with a friend to Ohio to get a popular SUV at list price, since all DMV dealers were marking up the vehicle by $7500+ market adjustment.