I already made a thread asking for help finding out where I can get reliabity info on some new cars I am considering. Now I’d like in your opinion how to get the best price possible for the cars I am intrested in
I’ve always used Consumer Reports. For about $10 or so you can get a report on what price you should pay for any new car with any options.
Then I just call around to the dealers and tell them that I’ll buy car X with options A,B,C for $XX…do they want the deal or not? First one who commits gets my business.
It’s so much easier when you tell them where you got the info. They just fold right up and there’s no fuss no muss.
And the paperwork is done while you’re driving to the dealer.
www.edmunds.com will give the straight dope on invoice pricing and what (they claim) the typical price range paid for the car is.
It’s interesting though, as you need to keep supply and demand levels from dealer to dealer in mind while shopping. Just because you have all the base pricing info. does not mean they will sell it to you for that price. I went to a local Honda dealer recently looking into the possibility of getting a new Accord to replace my 94 EX Accord. They could not have been less interested in dealing. They had no 2002 EX models and MSRP was it for the 2003 models, and I could keep moving if I expected anything different. I commented that this attitude was surprising and the salesman was quite candid about why.
He explained the dealership currently had a fairly low inventory of “leftover” 2002 models (which is good for them) and 2003s are never sold for less than MSRP this early in the year. They could not afford to search out a scarce 2002 EX at another dealer and then sell it for close to book to me. There was just not enough for them in the deal. If I wanted a deal I would have to find a dealer with a 2002 4 door dark color EX on the lot and see if he would deal. I called around and there are none in my neck of the woods.
It’s all about supply, demand and motivation. If you want the absolute best deal you might want to think about settling for one of the less popular colors like white and you could save quite a few dollars. Shop around.
Truer words were never spoken.
When I bought my '98 Corolla in December of '97, the salesman was very interested in selling me a Camry. IIRC, that was the year after Camry won best-selling car in the U.S. for the first time ever, and the dealers were all very highly motivated to repeat this accomplishment.
The fact that “best-selling car in the U.S.” almost invariably goes to whatever car Avis, Budget, and Hertz are buying and has very little to do with what Joe V6 actually drives could have worked in my favor if I’d had a little extra cash to spend.
Buy used, pay low blue book and have a mechanic look it over.
This is what I did and I found it to be tremendously effective.
First go to James Bragg’s website www.fightingchance.com and order their car pricing package. They will send you some info which has the absolute invoice price on the car you want, and you can add the options you want etc. Also he will give you recent prices paid by other folks for the vehicle you are looking at.
Then, on the last Wednesday of the month, fax a price quote request to as many dealers as you can. I faxed 36 toyota dealers within a 200 mile radius.
I got 24 responses within 24 hours. This approach flushed out the best deal. I purchased my 4-Runner for $4,700 below the sticker price !!
I think the OP was looking for info on getting the best price on the deal itself, not researching invoice prices, etc…
Anyway, here’s what I did:
After researching what I wanted and what the invoice price was, etc., I used Carsdirect.com (but I suppose other Internet sites will do) to put in a request for a bid for a local dealer. In this process, you can specify exactly what you want, 1st, 2nd & 3rd choice, etc. I did this during the last week of the month, as this is a strategy commonly recommended. Now, on this particular site, the way it’s supposed to work is that you send a request to ONE dealer for the car you want. Well, when I got to the submit part, I submitted a bid to one dealer, then hit the back button and sent the same request to another dealer as well. I ended up getting two dealers competing for my business over the same car (which was located at a third dealer, strangely enough). Both dealers were calling me and saying THEY had my car, come on down, etc. Being naturally distrustful of car salesmen, I requested that the one who actually had the car to prove it. The dealer who had it sent me a pic of it being prepped in their garage. I went down and bought it. I got it for about $100 over invoice. The car, by the way, is a 2002 VW Passat, and I am very happy with it. Hope this helps…
As usual:
http://www.carbuyingtips.com/
Wow handy, I never thought I’d be saying this but you posted a useful link, Thank you very much, my opinion of you has changed.
I want to thank everyone for their answers. Unfortunatly or fortuantly after thinking about my car choices, I relized I love the Aztek more than the others so now I just need to find out the dealer invoice on it with the options I want at a price I can afford. I asked for a bid through Autoweb and it’s showing base invoice at $21,315.00 with a base list of $23,295.00 before options (just want power drivers seat and cruise control) yet InvoiceDealers.com and stoneage.com shows it at $18,570 invoice and $20,295 MSRP with a fee of $575 for a destination charge. How do I know which one is “correct”. I know I will give up the 1500 rebate if I take the 0% interest but 0% makes more sense. I would like to get the price down to under 20,000 before I factor in special bonus’s I have from GM on any GM product.
As a side note, I wonder if car prices are going to rise because of the dock strike? If they can’t get parts to make them, then that limits their supply, right?
- Go to carsdirect.com
- Find the price on the car that you want and print out a copy.
- Show the printout to the dealer. Tell him/her that you will either buy it from them at that price or buy it from carsdirect.
Haj
Also, keep in mind money isn’t everything. You might want to have a look at the dealership’s service department, since it’s pretty common for dealers to give fewer hassles to their own customers for warrantee work (or, if you’re looking at an unusual brand or live in a small town, they may be your only option anyway). Talk to the people there, make sure they don’t have turnover problems, a messy or poorly equipped shop, etc. Saving $100 only to find your local dealership’s service department is so incompetant they do stuff like leaving a gas filler tube disconnected (actually happened to a guy on one car discussion list I follow) is no bargain.
Still, with the Internet allowing you to see what others are paying for cars instantly, dealers are likely to be pretty close on price. But be sure the dealer you buy it from is up to servicing it. I made quite a mistake when I bought a used Isuzu at a fair price from a Nissan dealer, only to find that the nearest place willing to work on it is about 40 miles away. That resulted in a lot of downtime when the timing belt broke, even though it was covered under warrantee.
You can get the true invoice price if you buy the package from www.fightingchance.com
However, Haj’s method would probably work as well.
The way it works: Tell the dealer you know what the invoice is; tell him you know he gets X dollars holdback; tell him you are buying a car this week and will buy at the best price. Do this on the last week of the month, and involve several dealers.
I got two dealers in town into a shootout and my price was $500 over invoice (that’s not counting rebate).
MadScientistMatt you raised some good points. Fortuantly where I am there are 3 or more dealerships for each major mfr in a 45 minute range.