What is your strategy for getting a good deal on a car?

Question

if you have a set car you want, what is your strategy for going in, dealing with the dealer, and walking away with a good deal?

Answer 1

To add to Quiet's well written post..... you can be "too smart " for your own good as well when haggling. Sale this weekend I demoed 08 Altima, customer wanted best price of course. Place I work I have access to how much we have in car ( many places do not let sales people know this), I showed him how we would loose $ 1500 to sell hi,e the car as it was a 60 day old unit needing to be moved. Manager agreed to fix a small dent ( which was sweet as you normally won't do stuff like this when losing 1500 ) .

Customer than whips out trade which he said he didn't have, there are 2 ways to sell a car, retail to retail or wholesale to wholesale. He wanted the $ 5000 trade in from the ad on a car that was only worth $3500. Told him 5000 was from retail price not wholesale price. Car was listed at 19k and was going to sell for 16k. Was getting the better deal at 16k as 16k- 3500 = 12500 while 19k- 5000 = 14000. Was so hung up on what his trade was worth he is still driving his gas guzzling Trailblazer with 100k miles on it.

You can withold info because of what you read on the internet, but many times you s***w yourself if a dealer drops his drawers to move a unit, than you bring up a trade. Kelly's is inflated. If you look at the low number for retail trade in, that is normally what we can purchase for at auction. If a car can be had at auction for 5k, why would we pay you 7k to get you out of your mistake? Now if we are selling at retail, we can over allow on your trade and give you 7k for your 5k trade. Dollars are all the same but it comes back to the 2 ways of working a car deal ;)

Good Luck!

Answer 2

First off, you should always check at LEAST five dealers and see the different prices on the cars.

After you find the lowest price, tell them that you found a car for even a lower price,b ut don't make it too obvious.

Also, NEVER tell them your budget, and look around at other cars, just to show them that it isn't your only option.

Best thing is to go on consumer reports and look up the bottom line pricing on it. You should be looking around 200 dollars more than the invoice.

Answer 3

When you want say a new video game. Do you call the video game maker up, scream, jump up n down, etc and tell them how bad you want their game? So don't do the same thing at the dealership.

No matter how nice, sweet, kind, buddy buddy the saleman seems, he is only putting on an act to get you to feel 100% comfortable so you just talk n talk n talk. In turn giving him knowledge on you and how to play you. For he is after the sale, he doesn't care what you buy nor if you are happy. He has rent to pay and that is all he cares about.

So say you want a 2005 Dodge Neon. Hunt all through the online sites, craigslist, etc. Find a handful in the price range of your choice. Check them out, test drive them, etc. But never let on you want that car. You can casually just state you are shopping for a friend, just checking it out to see if its something you'd like, etc.

No one needs to know what you want, that you desire that car, etc. That is your business and that is the attitude you must keep. If you keep that attitude of.... yea... its ok, I know there are other cars out there better, more comfortable, faster.... but its okay I guess. Never showing excitement. For now you hold the power of the deal, and not them. Cause you are in control of your emotions.

90% of car sales are done on spur of the moment emotional moments. Drive onto a lot, see that car you just like. Act all excited about it and before you know it you are driving away. Never realizing you are now stuck in a 6 yr loan for more than you can afford.

Know the going rate of the car, what the car normally brings at auction, what a normal dealers mark up is etc. Don't think you are going to knock 2k off a car, dealers aren't marked up that much. Average cushion for dealers is around $1500 on a used car. This allows them $500 haggle space and to fix anything the customer might find wrong that they didn't.

Dealers buy from auction, so say they buy a car for $5k. They have to pay to have it transported to the dealership. Then detail, touch up paint, dent removal, interior repairs, pin stripe, smell girl, windshield chip repairs, anything mechanical, advertising expenses, cost of building, employee's, taxes, etc has to be all added on. So now that $5k car is say at $7300.

Dealer then looks at what others are advertising in prices for the same car. Say they are doing them at $8495. The dealer then will do theirs at say $8395 yet won't haggle one bit on the car. But if the others are say doing $8995, more than the $1500 mark up. The dealer will then list theirs at $8895 and haggle a few hundred.

When a salesman says "let me go ask my mgr" what they really are doing is going to check the main folder on the car. On this folder is every charge put on that car from the time it was picked up. They add all that up, price of car, have a total, minus your bid and see what the profit is. If its a car they know they can get good profit from, they won't take a low bid. If its a car that won't move from their lot or won't sell, they will take about anything as profit to get it off their lot. As it does cost them to take it back to auction.

So its hard to say.... "this is the set way to go get a car", as every car deal is different depending on the dealer and all that is involved w/ that car.

Also realize they are just like a store... you are free to leave at any given time. If you are shopping for a shirt and don't find any nice. Do you feel bad leaving the shirt salesman? So why feel bad leaving the car salesman?

Answer 4

I've bought 3 new cars in the past 12 yrs. '07 Accord, '03 Accord, and '96 Sunfire. I deducted 20 % off of the sticker price of the exact car I wanted and that is the price I paid for all 3. It takes some hard-balling but if you are willing to spend some time at a dealership and go from dealer to dealer to make them compete against each other it will pay off. You'll have to walk away a few times so be patient. One thing to remember is that the numbers they give you in reguard to what they (the dealer) pay for the car are totally false. I learned this a long time ago from a credit union I used to belong to. There is info available to the consumer. Once you decide what vehicle you want there is a package you can buy for approx. $40 that gives you all the correct info about your car in regaurd to actual prices. I've gone that route too. Save yourself the money and time. You can get 20% off the sticker price if you are dilligent enough. Bear in mind, however, that on newer models that have changed style-example: '08 Accord- you may have to wait till later in the year. One thing that is also very helpful is to wait until as late in the year as you can. I signed a contract once on Dec. 31 at 7:30 P.M..

   Good Luck. Sun Tzu has a very good point. When buying my '03 Accord I told the dealer that my wife wanted the Toyota Camry but I liked the Accord. I said "please don't let me buy the Camry". I think that that had a big influence on him.

Answer 5

1) Understand the value of the car.

2) Understand how much you're willing to spend on that car keeping the tax, title fees, and license fees in mind. Be ready to walk away. SO many people get sucked into a car because the payment is so low or the dealer is really a great guy and is adding this or that. The dealer is trying to feed his family and they are more important to him that you - true story.

3) Approach the dealer and explain your interest in the car.

4) Test drive the car, hopefully without the dealer along. This way you'll know that the dealer and his team are discussing your potential as a buyer and they are getting excited (or more so than they may be initially).

5) talk to the dealer to get info that you might not have such as factory warranty or aftermarket warranty that is INCLUDED in the deal, not just offered for an additional cost.

5) Assuming that your max price is within 10 to 15% of his sticker price, he'll "talk to his manager" after which he'll come back with another offer, usually within a percent or two of the original price but he'll tell you how great the car was priced originally. This percentage changes depending on the new/used status of the car.

6) Tell the dealer that you could come up to $xxxx (come half way to his second price from your first offer). Make it clear that this offer includes all fees and taxes and that you don't want to sit down and see additional charges on the paperwork when a deal is done. This lets the dealer know that you do want the deal to happen, and that he has some standing in making it happen to both of your satisfaction. The dealer will "talk to the manager" again and he'll tell you that he can't make it happen any lower but that he could finance it longer so your payments would still be low.

7) Shake your head, stand up and say "thank you, if you can accept $xxxx (your top dollar offer) out the door call me."

8) Leave and wait for a phone call. If he hasn't called back in a full week and the car is still there, call back to let the dealer know that you'd rather have his car, but that you're on your way to look at another car and ask him if he will consider your last offer now.

Answer 6

Don't go and buy just one car - make sure you have two or three models of car that you will be equally happy to buy - i.e. VW GTI, MazdaSpeed3, Honda Civic SI.  If you have your heart set on just one car then you'll be blind to other possible great deals on the other vehicles.

Make sure you know the invoice price of the car and also what the MSRP is.  Also make sure you know if there are any dealer insentives that they can pass on to you.

The invoice is the price that the dealership is buying the car from their corporate supplier.  

Go towards the end of the month - this is when all salesmen are trying to make deals in order to meet their monthly sales target - they will be more willing to take a slight hit on their commission in order to make the sale.

Don't tell the saleman what you're wanting to pay - let them do all the work to get your signature on the sales forms.  Go with a set amount of money that you're wanting to spend, if the salesman can't offer a car at the price you're wanting one at then walk away.  There are plenty of other dealers out there.