List your new car buying strategies...anything you have asked for and they have accepted. I normally just look at sticker price and ask for $1000+ off the + is usually to round it off so lets say a vehicle is $33,750 i ask for $1750 off. If its $33,001 i ask for $1001 off. Then i refuse any nonsense like window etching or most recently nitrofil and lately i have been refusing extended warranties because i tend to get rid of cars before the warranty is up. Then i push them to keep me under 2.0% interest. With used cars they always try to put me around 5% and i tell them "fine but then we need to take some more off the price of the car to offset the finance charge" and they then magically can do 3 or sometimes 2%.

Years ago i was always afraid to negotiate a little because i hate the long drawn out waste of time but these days i have more free time and i can always get up and drive 30 minutes to the next dealer. Now that i have been successful with a couple of cars i want to see how far i can push the envelope.

Window Etching?

Nitrofil?

Haven't heard of those. What happened to "undercoating" or "fabric guard"?

I have often got rubber mats and a trunk liner thrown in, as I haul mucky stuff.

Good tip...these items are pricey aftermarket.

Vin and maybe some other info etched in the glass. I don't understand this as theft deterrent. If anything it benefits the insurance company not the driver so they should be paying for it.


http://www.nitrofill.com/

I am sure there is a time and a place for this stuff but in $30- car i just don't get it.


You can still get them :).

what are you looking at?

Nothing right now. Time to kill at a hotel so i am cleaning up my evernote's. I started a "best practices for car buying" notebook that i never did anything with.

I started the notebook because one of the "features" at a car dealer about 5 years ago was "free oil changes forever". That worked out great for the year they remained in business. Turns out that the rest of the dodge dealers were not interested in honoring the out of business dealers lifetime promise :). I can clearly remember sitting there listening to the guy explain why i should go with them vs other dealers nodding my head up and down thinking "yeah...free oil changes".

I look at kbb and edmunds to find out the invoice price. I also read their forums for my local area to get an idea of what people are paying. You can also find any rebates or incentives that way too (and dealers aren't always forthcoming with that info)
I don't pay more than $100 for their extras, nitro, pin striping, etc.
I usually ask them to just remove it. They don't and you get if free or next to nothing.
I always get quotes online and negotiate as much as possible over email.
Last truck, I used Costco for pricing which was super easy and pretty much gets you close to the best price you can get.
Last, shop and negotiate on the last day of the month. And 2 hours before they close.
I bought a jeep that way once, guy had sold 7 cars that day already and said go pick whatever you want and I'll do it under invoice. We had gone back and forth by email so I already had pricing but I waited to stop by and see him until end of the month and got an even better deal.

I've spent a lot of time negotiating with dealers, some are a waste of time and some play ball. Weeding them out could take a while. Trucar in my opinion is very helpful with this process and the pricing is often very aggressive, to the point where it hardly makes any sense for other dealers to match the quoted price. Give it a shot, it can't hurt.

If you live in a cold climate and the vehicle has tire pressure sensors, you should be getting the nitrofill. The pressure of plain air will fluctuate enough during winter to trip the sensors and drive you nuts.

One thing I learned last time, the dealers advertise their cars online way under sticker but try to start negotiating at sticker when you come in the dealership. Know the online price before you go in and make them start there.

I'm not a strong negotiator, but usually do some research to have an understanding of vehicle price/value before I go to the dealer and just make what I feel is a fair offer.

I recently purchased a Ford Transit that had a sticker price of $39,870.  Reached a price of $37,810 without much hassle and then there were two rebates totaling $3k which brought the price down to $34,810.  This is 12-13% discount from list which seemed very fair and got me out the door with license, registration & sales tax still for less than sticker price.

The only time I bought a brand new vehicle, I did some research online and decided what I felt was fair. I got on the dealer's site, sent an email to the internet sales manager telling him exactly what I wanted to order, and how much I wanted to pay for it. I got a call within a few hours, was given the green light, went in the next day, signed the papers and put a deposit down, and waited for it to show up.

Then I had to fend off the attacks by the finance guy trying to sell me all the fluff when I picked it up. He then handed be the final sale paperwork and the price was about $700 high. I pointed it out and told him that is not what the agreement was. He goes and looks it up and corrected it, all the while, complaining how they were not going to make any money on this sale. I sat there quietly and nodded a few times, signed, and left.

Other than that goon doing what goons do, I was happy with the process. I used about 30 minutes total of the sales guy's time, got what I wanted at the price I wanted. It could not have gone smoother.

I have friends that who have sold cars. It is not a very enjoyable environment most places. I figure if I can make them an easy sale without a bunch of back and forth and time wasting negotiations, he is going to appreciate it a lot more than I would by fighting for another $500 off on a $30k sale. I hate people who are so proud that they are able to get that last $75 off the price. They talk about it as though they just saved a baby from being eaten by piranhas. Yeah...you sure showed them.

I hate haggling and negotiating in general. I wont even walk on a car lot without prices in the window and when people posts things online saying "make me an offer" i usually ignore it or send them the "$1" joke. When i bought my first car i wanted to walk in, see the price, pay it and move on. Instead i spent an hour fighting off the finance and extras guy. And when i was about to walk out i look at the invoice and the extended warranty i refused was in there anyway even though he tried for 30 minutes and i kept saying no. Then he was all bent out of shape because he had to rewrite the paper work.

I thought okay...this dealer doesn't get anymore of my business and then i had the same experience or worse at every dealer since. So now i pretty much sucker punch them stepping into the ring in hopes of getting back close to sticker price as i walk out the door. They created a monster.

This is usually my goal. Out the door (tax and title and whatever else they want) for less or at sticker price.

Last time I went by a dealership, they started the dog and pony show.

I told them to tell me a number.

They did, and I got up and walked out, being basically chased after by the sales puke, who has no power to close a deal.


I got call after call asking me to come back, and I told the guy, here's your last chance., and I gave him MY number.

"Oh man, they'll never do that."

My answer was "No problem. See ya.".


A couple days later I got THE call.


I go back and they start the same old dog and pony shit again, and again, I just got up and started out the door while telling the guy, he had his chance, so now it's another $1,000.00 less.


He asks me to wait just a minute, runs into the office, then comes back out and says "Okay, the boss said he'll do it.".

They bring the paperwork out and magically the number has gone up due to taxes, title fees, etc, etc, etc.

"Sorry, I told you 7K and my car, and that's what I'll write the check for. Take it or leave it.".


Amazingly I had new paperwork in less than 5 minutes.



The bottom line?


NEVER, but never, take the first deal offered. Know exactly what you are willing to pay, and stick to your guns.