Hey everyone,
I was planning on buying my first new car sometime in the near future (hopefully this weekend). I really would like a Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder GT. I was wondering if any of the teaming millions out there have any tips on buying a car from a dealer. All of my other cars have come from individuals so I have no experience with car salesmen. Well I take that back. I once tried to buy a used car from a car salesman but he wouldn’t even budge $50 on the price so I walked out of there. I really don’t want to experience that again and at the same time I don’t want to be taken to the cleaners on the price of the car. So do you have any tips?
Thanks in advance.
We’ve bought several new cars over the years. We did the best when we’d researched ahead of time and went in with an absolute price limit in mind. There were two occasions when we had to say “Sorry, can’t do this” and we got up to go. Both times the salesmen managed to work it out in our favor. We even got a CD player for half price from one guy!
Best advice: Don’t get emotionally involved with the vehicle. This is a business transaction - you have to be businesslike or you’re doomed.
Good luck to you!!
I would assume that you’ve done scads of research on the net.
I would assume that this research included looking for the web site or newsgroup that caters to people who have the make, model, and year of the car you want to buy.
If you haven’t done either of these things, take an extra few days to. We did so on our most recent purchase and it time very well spent.
Depending on your age, you might qualify for “first time buyer” programs if the manufacturer offers them. Find out ahead of time, and if you qualify, use it as a bargaining chip.
FCM is right: set your price, don’t get emotionally involved, and be ready to walk. Finally, if you live in an area with more than one dealer, check out all of them. You can sometimes play one off the other and get a better deal that way.
Good luck.
Well, I ended up buying used, but in the process of researching a new car I found these sites:
–carbuyingtips
–fightingchance
The second one charges a fee for their information, but it gives you a definitive invoice price for the vehicle you want to buy. I would recommend calling the manufacturer about factory to customer rebates. The dealer won’t necessarily tell you everything, and when I called Mazda they told me about local rebates that weren’t listed in the info I bought from fightingchance. I’m not sure how helpful Mitsubishi is about handing out that information but it’s worth a shot.
These sites also recommend shopping around. Fighting chance recommends you put together a fax based off of your research, demonstrating that you know what invoice price is and send it out to as many area dealers’ fleet managers as you can, letting them know that you’ll take the lowest offer. I didn’t end up doing this, but it seems like a good way to compare prices without taking too much time.