The last car I bought the salesman and I agreed on a price for a specific on the lot car. I made it very clear that I wouldn’t upgrade the sound system, go for fancier wheels, etched glass, etc., etc. With that understanding, he left to “discuss the deal” with his “sales manager.” Within ten minutes or so he returned to say that he had “forgotten” that the dealership had a new general manager who had ruled the dealership would no longer pay for title and taxes and etc., etc. All in all, the price had increased by $2K at which point I very politely told him to shove it. He then asked if I would pay 1/2 of the increase at which point I less politely told him to shove it. I got the car for the original price but I will never again patronize that dealership—not even if they were selling twenty dollar bills for a dime. In my experience, tricks like the one the salesman tried to pull are very common in the car sales business. Don’t dealerships realize how such tricks hurt their repeat customer business? Or do they just figure another sucker will come through the door?
I worked as a mechanic at several dealerships; I’ve heard salesmen laughing about the suckers who fall for their con jobs. Because of the never ending hustles I would almost rather undergo a root canal without pain killer than buy a car. I’m far from alone in feeling this way, I can assure you.
What’s the best way to determine the money factor in a lease deal? They often seem reluctant to discuss item in detail.
A little over a month ago, I bought my used Hyundai Elantra (which I love, love, love). No haggling, no dickering over the price, nada. I would highly recommend the dealership AND the sales guy (who was recommended to me).
Why are there so fewer women selling cars than men?
Taken. Either the car is good or it ain’t. If it’s crap that needs an extended warrenty, why buy it? Scion dealers however are an exception to the “Toyota dealers are the biggest crooks” rule. They are fairly reasonable, and it doesn’t sound like you were screwed.
I’ve heard that salesmen juggle 4 figures up and down to confuse the customer.
Price of vehicle, value of trade-in, monthly payment, loan interest rate.
I always try to take these away from them by selling my old vehicle on my own, securing my own loan, and never talking about price in terms of monthly payments. All we have to negotiate is price of the car.
Suprisingly after all is said and done and we have a price settled on they offer to beat my banks interest rate “every single time”.
Toyota had no “financing” specials going on last summer for new Rav4s. My bank offered a rate of 8% for 4 years. The lowest on-line rate I could find was 6.5% through E-Loans. Dealer at a drop of a hat gave me 6% flat.
Do most dealers have access to excellent loan rates?
pimaspinner, any thoughts on buying a used rental from Enterprise? I’m planning to replace my old beater, hopefully in the next few weeks, and this is one option we’re looking at.
EddyTeddyFreddy, how do you like your xB? That’s my first choice, but my wife won’t go for it-- thinks they’re ugly. 
I agree with the others who have posted here that I detest the practice of selling add-ons after the deal has been made. I always insist that the salesman give me an “out-the-door” price, including taxes, license fees and all other costs.
Even after this, the credit manager still added things into the contract that I had not agreed to (rustproofing, or glass etching, or some such thing). “But we require this on all the cars we sell.”
I literally had to stand up and start to walk out the door before they agreed to remove this from the invoice. The guy was still bitching the whole time we were signing the paperwork that “I’m not going to make a dime on this sale.” Too bad. I’ll never go back to that dealer again.
I’m happy that you had a positive experience. I think of extended warranties like health insurance for my car. I personally don’t buy a car anymore without getting some sort of extended coverage suited to my needs. The government makes you buy insurance for collision/comprehensive/liablity (depending on the laws of your state), and all that does is pay to make your car pretty again. Extended warranties insure that your car stays mechanically sound. I don’t think you got taken at all, I think you made a good purchasing decision based on your personal situation. If you never need to use the warranty, you will have had the peace of mind that it gave you. If you do need to use it, then you’ll be glad you have it. Just like health insurance. 
I love it love it love it!!! Has she actually gone to look at one, or is she just judging by the outward appearance? Tell her this: The interior is amazingly roomy, tons of head and leg room in the back seat as well as the front. The big windows give great visibility on all sides. Handles neatly, gets over 30 mpg, runs quietly and reliably.
Does your wife have lots of stuff she needs places to put in her car? Then sell her on the dashboard. I swear, it’s so practical it will make you wonder why so many cars have dashboards that are just acres of useless space. Two-thirds of the top slants away from you, so stuff you put there doesn’t come flying into your lap (or face) when you accelerate. The front behind the steering wheel has several slots of varying dimensions, cubbies you can stuff a handkerchief or eyeglasses cloth or gloves or, or, or whatever into. There’s a compartment in the middle of it, under the stereo controls (thumb control buttons are also on the steering wheel), big enough to store the cable for a cellphone charger and then some.
The glove compartment on the passenger side opens outward and slightly downward, almost like a drawer, so you’ve got stuff stored down inside it securely, not sideways and hard to see or get at and likely to come sliding out. And there’s a recess above it big enough to hold a baby wipes container with room left over.
Let me tell you, when I was researching cars I too thought it was too ugly to buy, but doing the side-by-side comparisons on Edmunds.com, I always found myself coming back to it. Now that I own it, I think it’s hilarious – I chuckle every day when I walk into the garage and see my little red wagon.
Another benefit: You’ll never have any trouble finding it in a big parking lot. 
Why buy an extended warranty? I can answer that. Most people are on a budget nowadays. For me personally, it’s much easier to budget in a repair bill with my monthly payment, versus coming up with the entire amount to pay the repair bill AND the car payment. I’d rather spend the extra $20 or so a month, and have that covered. If you are wealthy enough to self-insure, then don’t buy one. In my experience, you don’t see many auto mechanics at any dealership standing around with nothing to do. It doesn’t matter what make or model (Hondas and Toyotas included), something can go wrong with the car. There are over 16,000 moving parts on your average vehicle. Say your car is 99% reliable. 99% reliable is good right? That means that during your ownership 160 of those parts will break. The question is which ones, and how much will they cost to fix? It just makes sense to me to not have to worry about it.
That’s because we have no idea how to calculate one. 
I don’t have to figure them out, thank Og. They are determined by the manufacturer. Leases are tricky beasts to understand and explain. Basically, I plug the numbers into the computer and it spits out a payment.
Our numbers have increased over the last few years, but it’s still and “Old Boy’s Network” for the most part. At my dealership the Sales Staff is 50% women, and I am of course a woman in management. When I have to go to classes or seminars, there are very few women there. What most people don’t realize is that as far as car sales goes, women have an advantage. They tend to close more sales and make more money than their male counter-parts. Why? Because most of the decision makers in the buying process are women. Married guys don’t stand a chance of getting what they want, it really is up to the wife. Women tend to be more comfortable with a woman salesperson. And men think that they can get one over on us, and get a better deal than if they had dealt with a man. I wish more women would consider it as a career choice, or a stepping stone. I know lots of people who went from cars to real estate and took a nice fat customer base into their new venture.
Women, if you’ve ever thought about selling cars, just try it. It’s not for everybody, and you have to have a thick skin. I don’t fear dating now because I’m conditioned to rejection. 
Yes! Most dealers have upwards of 50 different banks and credit unions that they have access to. Sometimes we can beat a loan a customer comes in with from their same bank! It’s because we do volume business, and of course the captive lender (Ford Motor Credit, GMAC, American Honda Financial, etc) is where you will find the incentivized rates like 2.9%, 1.9%, etc on certain models.
Most of the time I can beat your bank. Sometimes, I can’t. If not, that’s fine, but I like helping people find the best deal possible. Give us the opportunity to save you some time and money if we can.
Go for it! Most rental fleets are kept in great shape with the preventive maintenance done on a regular basis. I would have no problem at all buying a car that was in a rental fleet.
I believe Consumer Reports rates extended warranties as straight rip-offs, don’t they?
The fact that a car is 99% reliable does not mean that 1% of the parts are bound to fail, at least where a specific automobile is concerned----if I felt absolutely positive that 160 parts on a given car were guaranteed to fail, I wouldn’t but it at all.
We have around $200,000 a month paid into our shop by warranty claims (outside of the manufacturer’s warranty period). I would say that those people don’t feel like the extended warranty was a rip off. It’s a personal decision whether or not to buy one, and I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind, just give you a peek at the other side. There are some warranty companies out there that ARE complete rip-offs. If it’s not a manufacturer backed warranty, then put down the pen. Those operations burn out about 2 years after they start, and consumers are left holding the bag. The warranties my dealership sell are manufacturer backed, cost a little bit more than the rip-off’s, but are well worth it in my opinion.
Just as a side note 'cause I thought of it while responding to the question. If you have a good relationship with your service writer in the shop, he can sometimes get stuff fixed for you that the warranty isn’t supposed to cover with some careful wording of the ticket. Be kind to those guys.
I did say that I worked as a mechanic for a lot of years. I speak to service writers from an experienced point of view. In short, I don’t trust them any more than I trust car salesmen. Just for fun, do you know what percentage of people who buy extended warranties actually use them? Do you know what percent of money spent on extended warranties actually goes to repairs and what percent goes into the dealer’s profit column?
And, the question was regarding Consumer Reports opinion of extended warranties; that question wasn’t negated by anecdotes.
The lease payment calculation has a lot of factors, so if all you have is a monthly payment and purchase price, you’re still not going to be able to figure out what the money factor is. The other factor is the residual value (i.e., how much it’s predicted to be worth at the end of the lease). And the equation for monthly payment is a weird one, so it would be tough to figure out the moneyfactor on the fly even if you did have the missing factors:
[(Adjusted capitalized cost - residual value) / term of lease ] + [(Adjusted capitalized cost + residual value) * moneyfactor].
where Adjusted capitalized cost is the selling price +/- other things such as money down, taxes, service contract, etc; and the term is in months.
I work for a company that provides software for people such as pimaspinner, that makes lease calculations as easy as plugging in numbers.
Thank you KidScruffy for that software, and the equation. I wouldn’t have been able to supply that with a gun to my head. Like I said, I just plug in the numbers and out pops a payment.