There is no reason you can’t do that. Some people may dismiss it as spam, but you might be surprised. Then you can always play one dealer against another.
Go for it…all you’re out is some time and keystrokes.
All I have to do is call my paper buyers and tell them they are competing against a credit union or outside bank, this is the rate the customer has, give me something better, and you are also competing against bank x and bank y. I have not failed yet. I feel that it’s a blanket statement that I can make because that’s my experience.
Yes, I am speaking to my experience. I am at a Platinum dealership and my dealership can get better rates than lower volume dealers. (Betcha didn’t know that one.) I also have negotiation power of my own with the lenders. I send them so much good paper, that they are willing to stretch for me if I ask them. My point was…sure, secure your own financing, but give the dealer the opportunity to save you some money. If they can’t, fine. You haven’t lost anything. If they can, well then you would have left some money on the table in getting your best deal. You don’t want to do that do you?
The best tactic for the OP is to just wait them out. Seriously. I tried to buy an Acura RDX and got the same bullshit from the dealer: “People are paying more than MSRP in other states.” My response was “Well, other people are stupid.” They absolutely wouldn’t budge off the price, even when I brought them another customer to make it a twofer and took it to the sales manager. I went elsewhere and bought a different make, then made sure they knew about it. Six months later, the prices came down. I knew that would happen, but (as someone who has sold vehicles) their attitude pissed me off so much that I’ll never go back.
I agree with whoever is suggesting the “Internet Manager” and/or email. I had the same experience as whatami - I had a totally quick, painless and cheap car buying experience with my local Ford’s Internet Manager and have referred several people to him.
Go here on the Pontiac site.
Search for dealers within 50 miles of yourself.
Click on “request a quote” for every dealer within 50 miles and tell them all the same thing - what you want and how much you want to pay for it.
See who bites.
Yes, but some colors are more popular than others. I assume that’s what Edmunds is taking into account.
Generally, I would think it doesn’t amount to much, but sometimes some colors are really popular. Remember that hideous burnt orange that became available a few years ago?
I tried the ‘email every dealer in the region’ approach with Kia, Subaru, Mazda, Toyota, VW, and Mini over the course of a few months. Told them exactly what I wanted- options, color, the whole thing, I even used their stupid names for the option packages. The responses were less than satisfactory. The majority were form letters, sometimes identically worded, which assured me they had lots of car xyz in stock and that I should call right away to arrange a test drive. A few actually referenced the wrong model entirely. Some of the form letters invited me to tell them exactly what car I wanted, when I repeated myself, I then got form letter number one. All told, out of aout 2 dozen dealers, 2 gave me prices on cars that were not remotely the one I had described and one dealer told me what I wanted to know. I’m sure the email strategy works with some dealers, the better ones I suppose, but don’t be surprised if you get the run-around.
The email approach worked great for me. Once the dust settled I bought the car I wanted for $800 less than the first place’s “Best Price”. Send emails to all of the Pontiac dealers in your region. If it’s possible, be willing to travel. The lowest price I found was three hours away, but I was willing to go there until a local dealer matched the price. I emailed maybe five or six dealers asking for their lowest price, including all fees. I included my email and phone number, said exactly what I wanted, and asked what they could do. I really enjoyed the experience, because I was getting phone calls, and emails first thing in the morning. I could see all the prices being offered, and get a range of where dealers would price the car. If it was too high, they were off the list, if the it was competitive, then I knew that was one I could pursue.
Now, if it really is their lowest price, they may not be willing to negotiate any more from that price. Still, get an offer, and then try to negotiate a little more. When I was buying I got solid offers in emails and phone calls. One email came back without a solid offer, but he included a link to Edmunds, saying what the TMV was. I responded that I was looking for something lower than that, he wrote back within the hour saying it would be easier to get his boss to come down on price if I was in the dealership. I did go in, he explained how he could offer a lower price since I was an “internet customer”, and that it would be less than if I had just come in off the street. He admitted (who knows how much of this is sales speak) that they knew there was more competition for internet customers, which is why I was going to get a better deal. He wasn’t really committing to a price, so I told him price was my main concern, and asked what he could offer. His offer didn’t match the lowest offer I had in an email from another dealership; I told him so, and left. He caught me in the parking lot, and said his manager was willing to make another offer. He made another offer that wasn’t low enough, so I told him the quote I had, which he then got his manager to match.
Don’t fall in love with the car. Even if that is the car you want, don’t tip off the salesman. Do you know what color you want? Are you open to other colors? I was willing to go with a couple different colors (not black, and not white). There were different shades, and if they had the color I wanted, but there were different shades, then as far as the salesman knew, that wasn’t the shade I wanted. “Oh, it’s that shade of gray. I was thinking more of a silver” (or vice versa). If you aren’t in immediate need of a car, and are willing to leave/wait, you will have the upper hand with the salesman.
Of course the salesman is going to tell you there is a lot of demand (whether there is or not). They will also tell you (among other things) how there is “hardly any mark up” on the car. That’s relative, since $100 here or there means something completely different to both parties.
Definitely try emailing multiple dealerships. I easily found the internet sales email links on the dealer websites. Email places in neighboring states too, if it isn’t too far out of the way. I got personal responses that were timely and helpful, and follow up phone calls.
Good luck!
I used Edmunds to get dealers to contact me. I was insisting on a Matrix with manual tranny, ABS if I could get it, and cruise control. Black was right out. I kept getting emails about their inventory which didn’t match my specified requirements, because it was almost free to send me the information, and they might get lucky and find out that I didn’t really mean it.
This was frustrating, but finally someone said that there was a red one that seemed to meet my specs in San Diego (about a 2 hour drive away). I then told Edmunds that I lived at Petco Park, and got an email from the dealership that had been mentioned. The price was actually LESS than Edmunds told me to expect, so I just bought it. I couldn’t really imagine I was getting taken for much, with Edmunds doing the calculation.
Of course, I should also mention that I would never have bought a new car except that I discovered that '06 Matrixes were actually appreciating. The cost per remaining mile was actually more for used ones, and I was using the Kelly Blue Book website to determine this. I think they were in pretty high demand, as it’s only recently that I’ve heard Toyota bothering to advertise/rebate the Matrix. It seems to be one of those that’s so useful and reasonably priced that it keeps selling itself.
Can you do better than my mortgage rate? I’d be surprised. We’ve left our mortgage at $0 balance so we can buy our car under mortgage instead of personal loan. I don’t really think you’re going to beat that.
I encounter this every day my credit union. Each bank, finance company or credit union has it’s own set margins or spread. It’s rare that my members tell me they are not financing with the credit union because our rates are higher.
Most times, they are a full percent lower than whatever their other sources are offering them for finance rates.
My experience, as a loan officer, is that the majority of the time, I beat their rates, “A” paper or “E” paper.
Notice I didn’t say always 
Yes, she can, and yes, I can. However, you may have tax derived benefits by financing it through your home vs. getting a car loan.
I can borrow on my HELOC through my credit union at prime -1%, and I can still get a car loan rate through my credit union for less than that. However, my tax benefits of using my HELOC is something I consider each time, depending on my tax bracket.
Prime as of 4/23/08 is 5.25%. Prime -1% = 4.25%.
And I can still get a car loan rate for less than that, Hockey Monkey, and not through manufacturer’s incentives.
How can you sell your own car if you haven’t paid it off? Does your lender help you do the paperwork or are you on your own? This is what keeps me trading in - ignorance.
So can I. 
4.09% is the best I’ve seen in the last month. Not incentivzed by the manufacturer. There are no CU’s in my area that can touch that. My biggest competitor here is SECU and their auto loan rate right now is 5.75%. Everyone seems to be missing my point though. Here it is again: Secure your financing through an outside source, then give the dealer the opportunity to save you some money. Ferchrissake, if the CU or outside source is better or if the dealer is, then you have researched ALL of your options and not left any money on the table in the deal. Again, I speak to my experience.
Harder to do, but possible.
Whatever you get for your car, you still have to pay off any difference in the loan. You are on your own. Most people who do not have the title in hand will trade because they a) owe more on the car than it’s value, b) don’t want to deal with the hassle of selling it, or c) both.
If you trade it, the dealer takes care of paying the car off, obtaining the title, and can roll any negative equity into your new loan. I do not recommend rolling the neg, but it happens every day.
If you own the vehicle and have the title, selling it on your own is easier to do, and you usually can get more for it.
But if you don’t have the title, the person buying it from you has to pay you the buying price, wait while you pay it off, get the title from the lender and give it to them, which can take weeks and LOTS of trust. Right? If there’s an easier way I would sure enough love to hear it.
Nope, that’s it. No easier way to do it. Then you have to have the title notarized and go to DMV, and Oy, it’s a big hassle.
I have no idea what ‘prime’ means, but your concept intrigues me.
So you could, theoretically, take out a car loan to pay off your mortgage, and repay the ‘car loan’ at lower interest?
One “trick” I heard about trade-in’s.
Go to buy a car, get the best price with your trade in…usually a couple thousand dollars, depending upon your old car. But get that price.
Then negotiate the total price, with trade in, and tell them you will get back to them tomorrow.
Then come back and say your brother in law decided to buy your old car.
Now re-negotiate the price without trade in.
They will calculate the “new” lower price, without the trade in (that they quoted you a day earlier) and you say, “Let me think about that.”
Then come back the next day with the new “lower price” and let them know your brother in law was a flake and opted out of the deal and you want to trade your car in after all.
Now they have to give you the new low ball price, PLUS the offer they gave your two days ago on your trade in.
According to my friend, who used to sell cars, this is a deal they are hard to decline.
Let me add to the Oy factor by telling you I live in one state and my car is titled in another.