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50% off would be rare. My Toyota Corolla was a $22,000 MSRP, $20,500 invoice vehicle. I bought it 2yr used with less than 30,000mi for $15,000. Toyotas hold their value really well, but I still saved at least $5000 off the price of a new one. Even though my car was used, it felt brand new and still had a new car smell.
I probably could have bought a 2yr old Ford or Chevy for much less.
I know one thing... I'll never buy another new car again.
This x1000, although I would reverse 1 and 2 in order of importance above.
OP, go to Carmax look at the model you want to buy and several similar ones, this will let you sit in them all at the same time. Test drive a few, if you want. Once you have spoken to one of their sales people, I have had 0 problems walking around sitting in all the cars I wanted. While you are doing that, have them appraise your existing car (this will set the bottom threshold of what to accept from dealer if you trade).
Once you have decided what model car and options you want, create a new email account (and/or Google voice phone number). Start emailing all dealers who have the vehicle on their lot within a couple hundred mile radius from this new account (you can typically look up stock from the manufacturer's website). Tell them you are buying tomorrow and the first one who comes back with the lowest price gets your business. Wait for their offers to come in. The key is to get a low offer at a nearby dealer and then at the end ask your local dealer if they can match that low offer. It may take several iterations to get to this point.
You always want to know what the out the door/on the road price is inclusive of all fees and NC taxes (as the fees do vary wildly). The other alternative is to figure out what the "theoretical" rock bottom price of the vehicle is (invoice - rebates - holdback) and when you reach out to dealers, say I am buying today (or tomorrow), the first person to meet my price (bottom price - some arbitrary amount) gets my business. If you get lots of, "that's too good a price" buy it elsewhere answers, you know you have gotten down very low.
Always be willing to walk away and never ever negotiate in the dealership, do the negotiation online, just show up to sign papers - be in and out in less than an hour.
This is pretty similar to my method of car shopping.
I will get up and walk out of a dealership so fast if they aggravate me.
LOL.
What I hate is when you get your negotiations done, then you get there and they try to reopen negotiations.
Watch me get right back in the car and leave.
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1. So why do you say the NC fees & taxes vary widely? If it car's price is X, 3% is the highway tax and the rest like title, registration fees etc are set by the DMV? i.e. dealers can't inflate at to these (what's called TTL) Right?. Doc fees I understand is dealer BS and but usually 500 to 600 bucks.
2. How do I find this rock bottom price (invoice - rebates - holdback)?
3. I located a car via Edmund price promise. But dealer has options installed. Paint protection crap, mats etc. I am not going to pay for those. How do I get the point across? Other than being blunt .
I'm pretty sure he's referring to dealer fees.
You have to guess at the lowest price. I usually just aim to get the Edmunds TMV or close to it.
You don't want car mats? You need mats. That said, they cannot strip off paint protection, but they can remove mats, so if you go in and you want rock bottom price, they will take those mats out of the car and argue with you over the value of paint protection.
Most of the time. Depends how desperate they are to sell a car. You should go soon. End of the month.
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I recently bought a new Honda HRV (love, love, love it) and got financing through Bank of America before I got there, plus a quote online. I feel like I still may have overpaid, and definitely got screwed on my trade, so CarMax first sounds like sound advice.
I actually went to Charlotte to get the car because they had the exact one I wanted in stock when nobody else did - a benefit of that is the finance guy didn't bother to try and sell me on their maintenance plans. He was unhappy that I secured financing first and refused to let him try to get me a better rate (it was already a good rate).
I made it clear to them that even though I'd driven from Durham I had no problem walking and turning it into an IKEA trip instead.
Hope to not buy another car for 10 years because it is the worst.
There are a few things you need to do before you approach any dealer. You have to know what car, SUV, minivan you want. Then you need to know what options/level you want on the car (a little research will let you know what options come with each level or what option groups are being bought by the dealer). Then you need to know what you are willing to pay for that car and what exterior and interior color you want - if you care.
Then you can start calling dealers as far away as you are willing to drive and ask do they have the car you are looking for on the lot. - many have websites that list current inventory.
The last car I bought, I found a dealer that had the exact car I wanted on the lot and sold it to me for the price I told him I would pay.
You need to make sure that the price they agree to is including any service fees regarding licensing and inspection.
Make sure you speak with the sales manager and not a salesman.
Negotiate price over the phone/email before even going in. I HATE dealing with a car salesman in person because you can spend hours dickering. With my last vehicle, I called them, asked to speak to a salesman, then told the person I wanted to make an offer over the phone. I said I'd be in later that day if they agreed. He said he needed to speak with a manager and he would call me back. They called back 5 minutes later and said "you've got a deal!".
If they say NO, then you haven't wasted a trip to the dealer. Just tell them "if you change your mind on the price, you have my number". Also, if you can find a similar car for a better price, tell the dealer "I found the same car at another dealer further away, but the price is better, can you beat this price so I don't have to drive further out there?"
If the car dealer has a Carfax report link on their website, you can see how long they've had the car. If they've had it for more than a few weeks, they'll do almost anything to get rid of it.
When buying a car from a dealer, I usually try to get the price somewhere between private party and dealer value. Dealers can get more for a car because they often replace tires, clean the car all over, inspect, change oil, etc.
I just bought a 3 year old car, 55K miles for 39% of MSRP.
Paid cash at a dealer. Not the 2 year as mentioned in the example, but certainly shows there is no need to take a depreciation hit on a new car.
Well done. It's going to vary wildly. Also, MSRP <> Purchase price. I expect my wife's 2015 Odyssey to hold it's value well, but helping that is they don't sell to rental fleets and the purchase price was already 18-19% below MSRP. Luxury brands tend to drop more due to fear of out of warranty maintenance costs, so you can find some good deals in that space.
Last edited by cheapdad00; 10-28-2016 at 01:54 PM..
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You need mats. That said, they cannot strip off paint protection, but they can remove mats, so if you go in and you want rock bottom price, they will take those mats out of the car and argue with you over the value of paint protection.
