Kim

All I wanted to do yesterday is get a feel for which type of car I liked, so I could come home and do some price research. I swear, every single dealer tried to get me "take this amazing bargain home today" but none would ever give me a straight out price. I'm not interested in what my payments would be, at least not yet. JUST GIVE ME THE PRICE I WOULD BE PAYING!!! Grrrr, sometimes it sucks to be a female.

One salesman tried to get me to buy today by playing his "I'm in the military part time, so you should be patriotic and buy this car from me right now".

Now I am discouraged, and not at all wanting to go through the hassle again next weekend.

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Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you'll be a mile from them, and you'll have their shoes.
--Jack Handey Deep Thoughts

DarkFury

Next time... just ask to speak to the manager. I bet THAT will get their attention to giving you what you want. If he is a jerk as well, then you probably don't wanna buy a car from them anyways.

I usually have a number in my head as to what I want to pay/afford. And I don't let them talk me into anything I am uncomfortable with. (Like when they look at my earnings and try to tell me that I can afford a car that is way more than the one I'm looking at buying... I know how much I make, but I also know what other bills I have to pay and how much I wanna spend on a vehicle.)

Or... you could do what I do. Just look at the cars... and get an idea of what options are available, then come home and do some "research" using N.A.D.A. and Kelly (which will be off from their price, but it will give you some idea of your range) and go back "smart" in your negotiations.

Just don't let them take advantage of you...

BTW... another option you have is... if you are a member of a Credit Union, then maybe they have a representative that can act as a "go between" in car negotiations. My credit union has something like that where you tell them what you are looking for and THEY go out and find it for you. You don't even have to hassle with the salesman if you don't want to because they have worked out deals with the CU office.

Either way... good luck on the hunt.

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Kim

Thanks DF, I think part of the problem is that I told them right off the bat that I want to keep my payments around 200. Then they started to up-sell some higher end cars, thinking that I wouldn't mind a 7 year payment on it. I've think I may be better of choosing exactly what kind of car I want, then go looking for the best deal, knowing the value. Hopefully I can get someone to take me seriously.

Bires

Haha...I had the opposite experience when I bought my car. The first two dealers were punks, so I left.

The third was really nice and fun to be around, so I bought the car from him. The problem was- I didn't despise him like you're supposed to, so I didn't keep the haggle machine working as much as I should have. Prolly cost me $300-400.

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Five years...

OremuS

Yeah, kinda agree with you on that one, except I made an error in the calculations I had in my head. I did not realize that the value of a car being traded in is deducted from the purchase price, then the taxes are calculated, then negative equity is counted. So I ended up paying about $400 more than I wanted to because my tax calculation was off. At the end of the day though, I did not feel bad about paying the few extra dollars and I had an overall good experience buying my first brand new car. Next time around I will definitely fight the man a little more on the price.

bachviet

I don't know if www.carsdirect.com does business in your arear or not but give it a try if it does.

Otherwise call the internet sale managers of the local dealers and talk to them.

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g222leav

here's a good place to start and gives you great advice on negotiating pricing, financing..etc..

http://www.carbuyingtips.com/

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"it's more fun than it looks" - Red Foreman
"trying is the first step in failing" - Homer J. Simpson
"the world needs more dumb people...dumb people can't start wars" - mike lam

Houdini

Car shopping is always a pain. Here are a few tips I've learned.

Always remember you can stand up and leave at any time, especially when the closer (finance manager, whatever they call him, usually the slimy guy they hand you over to when you agree to buy the car at whatever price from the salesman) starts to juggle the numbers. I had one guy fudge on a promised interest rate. He tried to convince me that "4.89 is closer to 4 than to 5.) I stood up to leave. He then backed down. When I sat back down, he had the huevos to try it again. So I asked him to turn around, face the camera, and tell his little video recorder the exact same thing. He was frustrated when I caught several tricks like that. He also tried several little add-on BS items and to shorten the advertised warranty. Oh yeah, all those little last minute add-on items? I still probably paid a couple hundred too much just because I lost track of one or two (coded number etching, etc). Don't go for them.

Also, bring a friend for the negotiating process. He/she can remain objective. When your friend thinks you're getting a bad deal or tries to drag you out of the room, listen.

Houdini

Eugene

try going to www.msn.com and then clicking on "autos" on top left-hand side. Then, you can search for the make and model and find retail and invoice prices. Maybe that will help?

DarkFury

yeah.. they tried to get me as well on my Dakota with the "etched glass" thing... of course I flat turned them down to the tune of like $250.

Houdini

Heh...supposedly I have etched things all over my car, but I've never seen them. I remember driving away that day (no time for etching) thinking, "the etching must have already been done, so how could they charge me for it?" D'oh! I thought I had beaten them (and I did on most counts), but they got me on that one. Byastids.

Apex

Use costco.

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The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.
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Jeffbx

Deserves a repost now & then:

Confessions of a car salesman

hoey222

never tell them what payment you are willing to pay. they can manipulate the numbers so they come out to what you want and you may still end up paying near sticker price for the car.

get the bottom line price first and work from there.....

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i have become comfortably numb......

cheapie

puhleaze check out edmunds.com!!! 1 walk in knowing what you are wanting to pay for the vehicle, not how much you want the payments to be. find out what your credit union or whatever is offering for interest and calculate your payments from that number. 2 take a sheet of paper in with different price points and what your payments would be at those prices so you don't have to ask him how much you would be paying. that takes away some of his power. 3 bring a manilla folder with your research on the vehicles you're interested in, the TMV (true market value) price from edmunds, and financing options. if you show up with your research in hand, dealers are FAR less likely to **** with you!!! 4 tell them that you already have financing taken care of but would be happy to offer them the business if they can beat your best rate.

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Kim

Thanks all, I've decided what car I want, know how much I want to pay, and I'm doing most of the negotiating online. I found out that I can get a partner discount through my X's work, so I think that pretty much limits how much the dealer can charge me.

What do you all think of Mazda 3's?

kimchicowboy

i think avlena has a mazda 3. you should ask her.

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Jihforce

www.edmunds.com
repeat after me, edmunds.com

Mazda3. My wife and I purchased one of these in August. It can be had for approximately 16k, if you're good a haggling, maybe less. Payments should be around the 250 range i think with about 1-2k down.
Personally, I like the car, its a fun little car and its fairly efficient gas wise.
We have a black one. Its the base model, with 16" alloys and the power package. We're leasing it tho, I'm an anti-buy person

Burzhui

Dude i was just about to post the same thing, i can't get a friggin straight answer out of any of them, they all want my information first, phone numbers, shoe size etc. All are d1cks, grrrr, the process of leasing a car is very aggrivating, it's not fun at all it's making me not want to get a new car

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IF A FAT GIRL FALLS IN THE WOODS
DO THE TREES LAUGH?

brain

I'm on my second auto lease and I've negotiated 5-6 others for family members. I ask for payment amounts on the assumption of a 700+ FICO score and then play it from there. Fortunately, I've found some internet managers that are very straight up and won't BS you. Now I need to find one of those guys for BMW. I hear they have horrible sales staff.

ray

Isn't p3rsian a BMW salesman?

Kim

Hooray for the internet! It's so much easier to say "no" thru email than in person. Plus, I've got two dealerships competing with each other price wise while I sit in the lazy boy sipping coffee.

ray

When I was shopping around for my car that is exactly how I dealt with it. And when I helped my cousin shop for her Accord, we used the same approach and it saved us a lot of time haggling in person.

blueindian

i hate to sound non-pc, but you should go bargain for your price and then send a man you know(who has gotten good deals on cars in the past) to bargain for the same exact car.

as much as it sucks, it has been my experience that men will get a better deal buying a car than will a women 8 or 9 times out of 10.

also check around to see if you can get a good financing deal from your bank or elsewhere other than the dealer. that way you can approch the negotiating from an "i'm paying cash" perspective.

also, if you want an extended warranty buy it aftermarket & not from the dealer.


yup. i bought my Tacoma that way. Did the whole deal via email & a couple phone calls. Ending up making a offer pending inspection & test drive and then just drove over and picked it up.

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yeah, pretty much we missed the boat on that one. but it's still here. get you some.

DarkFury

Well... that would depend....

For what it is worth, many dealer service stations will give you more grief if you show up with an aftermarket warranty...

I've had 3 aftermarket warranties and 1 dealer warranty... and there was definitely more hassles and handcuffs with the aftermarket warranties.

If you want... I can go into more detail later.

blueindian

i agree it depends. the way mine works is that, for covered items, if i don't want to hassle with a service station i can just pay out of pocket and then they will reimburse me.

don't know how well it works in practice though, since i always buy asian imports i've never actually had to use a warrenty.

DarkFury

Ok... I'm about to shark the thread here (/cue the JAWS music...)

See here's the thing... most aftermarket warranties want folks who are doing warranty repairs to observe the "shop rate and time" for each repair and since those warranties are not "officially endorsed" by the dealers, there can be arguements over the correct "shop time" to perform repairs.

I had one situation myself where the warranty company only wanted to pay for 2 hours of labor and the dealer was claiming more like around 3 hours of labor... ultimately it got into a big heated mess and they were even talkin' about ME having to pay the difference (even though I was under a supposed "bumper to bumper" coverage with no deductible). Anyways, I had to jump in there and help them to work out the details so that I didn't end up gettin' bent over in the situation.

Each time I took my car into service with the aftermarket warranty, I always had that "uneasiness" with wondering if I was 100% covered... and honestly the "fine print" is a mofo (like how my aftermarket warranty skipped out on paying for a "purge flow sensor" claiming that it was part of the "not covered exhaust components".)

Finally... dig this... the last aftermarket warranty had the unique quirk that if I got my service from the dealer where I bought the warranty, I had a ZERO deductible... however if I took it ANYWHERE else outside of a "dire emergency", then I had a $50 deductible... therefore I couldn't choose who I wanted for service without incurring a penalty. I just wish I had seen that little gem before I signed on the dotted line.

Either way... you gotta do what you are comfortable with, just go in with your eyes wide open or else they might get closed for ya. Just the voice of experience talkin' here.

Jeffbx

Also keep in mind that you can haggle on the price of the warranty from the dealer. The last car I bought I got from a friend of mine who was the salesguy. He asked the service manager to hook me up, and the guy calls me up & offers their highest level warranty (I think it was 7/70 or 7/100 with everything covered). Normally they sell it for about $3k, but gave it to me at the dealer cost of $1k. There's a LOT of padding in those warranties!

bbrian

The last two aftermarket warranties that I bought went belly up before I had a chance to use them. One of them was a very well respected company. I will never buy another aftermarket warranty. Warranties from the manufacturer won't go belly-up unless the manufacturer does, which is pretty unlikely.

Besides, the Honda extended warranty on my accord cost me less than the aftermarket warranties for my previous cars (Jeep Grand Cherokee and Chrysler Cirrus).

cheapie

hahaha....another chrysler fan buying extended warranties.