First: Shop around for financing -- ask at your bank, your credit union, and the dealer and compare the deals not only in terms of your monthly payment, but also what you will end up paying over the life of the loan.

Second: Once you have picked a car, shop around for the car. Don't feel obligated to buy it at the place you test drove it. I did my own negotiating because I'm comfortable with that, but I've heard great things about Costco and Consumer Reports' car buying services. They compete to get your business so they offer you the best deal they can. And you can always go back to another place and say "this is the best deal I got, can you beat it?".

My BIL did everything over the internet -- initially contacted 5 dealers and just kept going back and back with the lowest price he got until finally he had the absolute lowest for the car he wanted (you have to be specific about options and such in this case).

Anonymous wrote:Negotiate each thing separately.

First, negotiate the price of the car. Assuming you are financing, negotiate the PRICE OF THE CAR, not the monthly payment. Dealers will try to tell you what the monthly payment will be -- don't bite. Negotiate the "out the door" price of the car -- what it costs, taxes, tags, etc. Do your research online beforehand to know what the real cost of the car you want is vs. the MSRP. If you buy knew, understand that tax, freight, and tags will run you nearly $2,000 above whatever price you negotiate.

Don't buy dealer add-ons like undercoating, etc. Don't buy an extended warranty.

As pp said, either pay cash or go in with financing pre-arranged. After you negotiate the price of the car, you can tell them you have this financing in place and let them try to beat it. Again, pay attention to terms (rates, number of payments) instead of monthly payments. Try to get a 36-month payment plan or less.

While you don't have a trade-in, people often do. Again, negotiate that SEPARATELY.

Car dealers are trained to extract profit from you in any of these areas: Price of car, financing, or ripping you off on your trade-in. Understand the value of what you have.

When negotiating, you may have to literally walk out the door at least two or three times.

Good luck.

Key point. Do your research beforehand, figure out what you should pay for the car you want and always be willing to walk out if they won't give you that price. I've had salesmen chase me down as I'm driving away when they can all of a sudden give me my price.

Anonymous wrote:Get quotes from several dealers and tell them about the other quotes. They will essentially negotiate against each other. I have done this twice now, and did it via email. So, I would email five different dealerships, ask for prices, and then tell the other dealers about the deal, and then kept going until nobody would go down further. I just did this last month and knocked off $5500 off the price just doing this via email.

Go at the end of the month. Many dealerships have quotas that they have to meet to get overall bonuses for the team. If you go on the day or two before the last day of the month, you are much more likely to get a deal if they haven't met their quotas yet.

If you have a trade-in (not sure from your post if you might have something even if you didn't buy it), go to Carmax and get a quote for a trade-in. For the car I just bought, I got that quote from Carmax and when I went into the dealer and they offered me almost 30% less. I showed them the Carmax quote and it took about a half an hour of annoying negotiation, but I got the dealership up to within $200 of the Carmax trade, which was worth it to me for the convenience factor.

Do not just go with their first financing offer! They often have deals with the car company financer and those rates are way high. Again, last month, they quoted me a rate of 4.0% for financing a new car, which is insane especially because I have great credit. I actually didn't know about this deal and was just going to walk (for real - I wasn't bluffing) and then it occurred to them that they could check other financing companies. Quite shady, indeed. Anyway, the final % was much, much lower (in the lower 1%) and was compatible with my internet research for car financing rates.

PP again - forgot to say that one time I did the email negotiating thing, I showed up to buy the car and they said they had made a math mistake and could not honor the price and it would be much higher. I told them that was too bad but I was leaving. As I was walking out the door, they miraculously were able to give me the price.

Man, I hate car buying!

Get quotes from several dealers and tell them about the other quotes. They will essentially negotiate against each other. I have done this twice now, and did it via email. So, I would email five different dealerships, ask for prices, and then tell the other dealers about the deal, and then kept going until nobody would go down further. I just did this last month and knocked off $5500 off the price just doing this via email.

Go at the end of the month. Many dealerships have quotas that they have to meet to get overall bonuses for the team. If you go on the day or two before the last day of the month, you are much more likely to get a deal if they haven't met their quotas yet.

If you have a trade-in (not sure from your post if you might have something even if you didn't buy it), go to Carmax and get a quote for a trade-in. For the car I just bought, I got that quote from Carmax and when I went into the dealer and they offered me almost 30% less. I showed them the Carmax quote and it took about a half an hour of annoying negotiation, but I got the dealership up to within $200 of the Carmax trade, which was worth it to me for the convenience factor.

Do not just go with their first financing offer! They often have deals with the car company financer and those rates are way high. Again, last month, they quoted me a rate of 4.0% for financing a new car, which is insane especially because I have great credit. I actually didn't know about this deal and was just going to walk (for real - I wasn't bluffing) and then it occurred to them that they could check other financing companies. Quite shady, indeed. Anyway, the final % was much, much lower (in the lower 1%) and was compatible with my internet research for car financing rates.

Negotiate each thing separately.

First, negotiate the price of the car. Assuming you are financing, negotiate the PRICE OF THE CAR, not the monthly payment. Dealers will try to tell you what the monthly payment will be -- don't bite. Negotiate the "out the door" price of the car -- what it costs, taxes, tags, etc. Do your research online beforehand to know what the real cost of the car you want is vs. the MSRP. If you buy knew, understand that tax, freight, and tags will run you nearly $2,000 above whatever price you negotiate.

Don't buy dealer add-ons like undercoating, etc. Don't buy an extended warranty.

As pp said, either pay cash or go in with financing pre-arranged. After you negotiate the price of the car, you can tell them you have this financing in place and let them try to beat it. Again, pay attention to terms (rates, number of payments) instead of monthly payments. Try to get a 36-month payment plan or less.

While you don't have a trade-in, people often do. Again, negotiate that SEPARATELY.

Car dealers are trained to extract profit from you in any of these areas: Price of car, financing, or ripping you off on your trade-in. Understand the value of what you have.

When negotiating, you may have to literally walk out the door at least two or three times.

Good luck.

If you're buying a new car, the "pay cash" point does not apply. there are tons of extremely favorable financing programs. Heck, you can probably pay no interest for the first few years for some decent cars. In which case, put the minimum down and stick your cash reserve in a very conservative fund or CD until your zero financing period expires.

Anonymous wrote:I'm not so sure that the advice to buy a used car a few years old really applies anymore, at least not for Japanese cars and if you are buying from a dealer. That was definitely good advice prior to 2008 or so, but the used car market has changed a lot in the last few years. As an example, if you price Corollas on Carmax, you'll see that a three-year-old model is only about $3K cheaper than a new one(~14K vs ~17K for an LE), and you then miss out on the first three years of the car's life, which are usually the cheapest and most hassle-free to operate.

I haven't tried Costco, but did try a different buying program I have access to from work. I was not particularly impressed with it, and did a lot better just calling and/or e-mailing the dealerships around the area to get the best price on the model I wanted. The down-side was continuing to get voicemail and e-mail messages from sales people at every dealership for a few weeks after I had bought the car.

+1, especially because there are often 0% interest rate offers for new cars

Anonymous wrote:Soo what's a good car that handles DC snow blizzards?

Subaru Forester or Outback.

Two thumbs up for Costco. I have bought two cars through them and been extremely happy with the price and the service.

Soo what's a good car that handles DC snow blizzards?

Some basic questions: car, suv, or truck; new or used; domestic or foreign; coupe (2-door) or sedan (4-door); price.

Safety is very important to me, so after I've answered these questions, I go to the IIHS and NHTSA sites because they rate safety for the insurance industry and govt. This helps me focus on safe vehicles in my price range. Price is no indication of safety. I looked at a range rover, learned it was not safe, so had to rule it out. Edmunds.com is another good site for overall car buying info.

Last time I bought a vehicle, I wanted a new vehicle and learned using the dealer's internet department was the simplest way to go. I didn't have to physically go to the dealer until it was time to test drive, which saved a lot of time and aggravation.

Once I new pretty much what I wanted, I contacted several dealers via email, told them what I wanted, and got bids. The vehicle I bought isn't exactly what I started wanting, but found it too good a deal to pass up. The dealer I bought from was a high-volume dealer, so it got especially good deals from the manufacturer, which lead to a good deal for me.

Also, to get the vehicle I wanted, my dealer had to trade with another dealer. To get my suv, my dealer had to trade one of its trucks to a dealer a few 100 miles away. I also learned that's not uncommon. My dealer needed my suv and the other dealer needed a truck for one of its customers. The trade didn't cost me anything and took about a day longer to get what I wanted.

Once you learn enough to be confident, know what you want, and what's a reasonable price to pay, do not be intimidated by a car salesperson. If you don't like or trust a salesperson, either ask the sales manager for another salesperson or go elsewhere. You're the customer, it's your money, so you need to be happy.

I'm not so sure that the advice to buy a used car a few years old really applies anymore, at least not for Japanese cars and if you are buying from a dealer. That was definitely good advice prior to 2008 or so, but the used car market has changed a lot in the last few years. As an example, if you price Corollas on Carmax, you'll see that a three-year-old model is only about $3K cheaper than a new one(~14K vs ~17K for an LE), and you then miss out on the first three years of the car's life, which are usually the cheapest and most hassle-free to operate.

I haven't tried Costco, but did try a different buying program I have access to from work. I was not particularly impressed with it, and did a lot better just calling and/or e-mailing the dealerships around the area to get the best price on the model I wanted. The down-side was continuing to get voicemail and e-mail messages from sales people at every dealership for a few weeks after I had bought the car.

I do have cash, but I am thinking of a new car just because I intend to keep the car at least 10 years and totally wear it out, and I feel I might as well get the benefit of the full warranty, and less hassle. I have been looking at used cars for the model I want, and they don't seem like that great of a deal to me. For example, I want the most basic model, which is 25k, the best deal I found on craigslist for a 3 year old model with more add ons and about 40k miles on it was 24k. Why bother?

Pay cash. A car a few years used is your best bet in most circumstances (there are some rare exceptions). Get a pre-purchase inspection from an INDEPENDENT mechanic - you'll feel awkward asking and taking it, just do it.

I am personally a fan of Japanese cars (Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan).

I am 30 years old, and I have never bought a car! Well, I need to now. Any tips? Has anyone here tried the costco auto program?