Comments on: Buying a New Car

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:59:56 +0000

I agree with Rambling News…the Costco buying program for cars is a much better way to purchase a new car. Just follow the steps Rambling News outlined and that’s pretty much it! Oh, and the tips Rambling News has on saving gas is good too.

By: Rambling News

Rambling News — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 06:44:11 +0000

Yup, bought 2 cars from Costco. Our Accord was about $900 off MSRP, and for the 2007 models, the Accord was supposed to be about $1200 off MSRP. Best way to buy ever, since you don’t have to negotiate. Check out what I think at my site…the direct link is here. Hope it helps!

By: J

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 01:04:21 +0000

Did anyone try car buying the Costco way? Using the costco membership price they prenegotiate with set dealers?

By: Alex Newsom

Alex Newsom — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 22:11:26 +0000

Have you guys seen BuyingAdvice.com its a really good website with new car price information. I saved a ton of money buying my last car by requestion a prifce quote through those suckers.
word,
-alex

By: Asif

Asif — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 02:29:56 +0000

I was a first-time car buyer in the month of May 05- a 2005 Honda CRV AWD LX. I bought a package from http://www.fightingchance.com and took 15 minutes to email 30 dealers through the Honda website asking them for their best price and got responses from about 20 of them. In 3 days, I called the dealer with the lowest price and we settled on a price on the phone. I got a nice deal (end of the month) at about $1100 below invoice, thats a 4WD for a 2WD invoice! No document fees, rubbish add-ons, etc.

After a month since I bought the car, I refinanced through my credit union for 4.25% for 36 months. The beauty of the Internet and forums is sharing experiences so that we are well prepared to avoid the shell games of car salesmen and F&I guys.

By: Heath

Heath — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 20:30:27 +0000

I’m kinda late in this comment but just thought I’d mention carbuyingtips.com. I’m in the shopping around mode right now for a new car and their tips have been invaluable. The layout is very pre-1999 but there is a ton of info there. I especially liked Top 10 Car Dealer Scams Of 2005 at http://www.carbuyingtips.com/scams.htm
Should be required reading for anyone in the market for a new car.

By: SavingAdvice

SavingAdvice — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 05:38:15 +0000

Nice post. Another good time which I find makes dealers more willing to bargain is to go is during an extended period of bad weather (even better if this bad weather happens to fall toward the end of the month). Bad weather keeps people away and when there aren’t customers coming in the door, sales people are much more willing to deal.

By: tdfb

tdfb — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 03:04:23 +0000

Great post! The next time we buy a new car (far from now) I’ll follow these same guidelines.

I agree with you regarding new versus late-model. We keep our vehicles a long time (10 years for one and the other was purchased brand new 3 years ago). In fact, the last new vehicle we purchased was for my wife and we went into it thinking “ok, what vehicle do I want to drive for the next 10 years?” so that she’d be satisfied. We also bought an extremely reliable Toyota so we know that it will last.

By: nickel

nickel — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 19:18:25 +0000

I’ve gone through Edmunds and the like before, but I’ve always found that you can get the price down further if you shop around a bit, as described in this post. In fact, the initial prices offered by most dealers are usually around the Edmunds True Market Value (TMV), and you can usually do a good bit better. And I never look at it as the amount below MSRP, but rather the amount above invoice when I’m evaluating a deal. $2500 below MSRP may or may not be a good deal depending on the price of the vehicle, the extent to which the MSRP has been marked up relative to actual cost, etc. Depending on the demand for the vehicle in which you are interested, you should be able to get very close to invoice + destination (including any dealer ‘processing’ fees) using the method outlined above.

By: ob1

ob1 — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 18:09:24 +0000

I used http://www.edmunds.com They give you the price the dealers pay for the specific make and model car you are looking for and submit your name and contact info to a few dealers in your area.

Within an hour I got 3 e-mails back from dealers with quotes up to 2500+ below the MSRP.

By: nickel

nickel — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 13:12:04 +0000

Excellent. I’m glad that you found it useful.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 07:59:05 +0000

OK, congratulations…this is the single most helpful post you’ve ever had on this blog.

I am definitely, 100% certain, following this advice the next time I buy a car. I have absolutely HAD IT with the runaround one gets attempting to buy a car from a dealer, and it would be a fabulously refreshing change to be able to walk in the door with a price quote and a check. Maybe that way I’ll be driving off the lot quickly enough that I’m not falling asleep from exhaustion.

By: Flexo

Flexo — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 21:53:21 +0000

Nickel,

I’m right with you. I was looking into a late model Honda because I love those cars. But the price differential was too low between new and used. I figured it would be worth it to get new, so I was sure I had nothing to worry about but only had to pay a small amount more. Unfortunately my timing meant that I was buying a new 2004 before the 2005s were out.

By: FMF

FMF — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 17:50:43 +0000

I did this TWICE last year and had good success with it. Some things I would add:

*Get a report on the costs of the vehicle from Consumer Reports. It costs $12 or so but saved a few hundred dollars.

*Do it at the end of the month (when they’re trying to make a sales number). They get more desperate at this time.

*End of the year works even better. I bought a car once on the last day of the fiscal year for the dealership and they practically gave it to me.

*I’ve heard shopping between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a good time to buy since it’s dead in car dealerships and they are willing to make deals.

By: Financial Fruition

Financial Fruition — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 11:41:20 +0000

Good post. If you aren’t looking for a Honda, then you can see what the dealer has in their exact inventory (I know this is true with all GM and Ford cars). This would be helpful to actually see the sticker of the car (not necessarily helpful if Honda only has a couple of options) they would be referring to and cut out not getting responses. Perhaps it may even show that you’ve done further research, but who knows what they would do with that.

Besides this bidding process, I have found that using your network to locate someone who knows a dealer manager or owner really helps in getting a great deal without any hassle. But that all depends if that resource is in your network.