Author Topic: Buying a car - is my logic sound  (Read 2145 times)

FIRE47

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Buying a car - is my logic sound
« on: June 08, 2018, 06:24:29 AM »
Just dealt with 1 dealer on a new car that I want to buy.

The dealer gives me the whole story about someone coming in to see it, they make no money on this model etc etc and they can't move on the price.

Well that's fine - but if you aren't going to give me anything off the sticker why wouldn't I just go to any dealer and put a deposit down on next year's model coming out in a month or so and have them factory order me one exactly how I want for a lower price without BS I don't need, in the color that I want in the mid cycle refreshed model that hasn't been test driven by 50 people with a couple hundred KMs on it.  Either he gives me a deal or I just do exactly what I described - I don't mind waiting a few months. What am I missing?
« Last Edit: June 08, 2018, 06:26:20 AM by FIRE47 »

use2betrix

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Re: Buying a car - is my logic sound
« Reply #1 on: June 08, 2018, 06:47:46 AM »
You’re probably going to get little to no advice or support in buying a new car around here without some more backstory as to why you need a new car or whether you’re in a good enough position financially to justify it.

FYI - I bought a new non-mustachian vehicle last year, but know it’s frowned upon around here.

FIRE47

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Re: Buying a car - is my logic sound
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2018, 07:00:24 AM »
You’re probably going to get little to no advice or support in buying a new car around here without some more backstory as to why you need a new car or whether you’re in a good enough position financially to justify it.

FYI - I bought a new non-mustachian vehicle last year, but know it’s frowned upon around here.

The back story is long and the numbers behind this are detailed. I didn't want to bog down my main question re: the negotiation. The short story is a very unique set of factors has made it possible for a brand new car to make perfect financial sense vs keeping an old one over 5 years - and likely far cheaper over a longer 10 year horizon (there is a massive rebate where I live on EV, I have easy free charging every day and I drive a hell of a lot of miles for work with a current gas guzzling SUV that is still depreciating a lot on it's own).

I thought buying a new more expensive car would be easier (only ever buy used) but car salesmen suck at every price point apparently. Shortly after speaking with the one guy I caught a $1,400 lie, so lord knows what else is going on behind the scenes.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2018, 07:07:16 AM by FIRE47 »

Joel

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Re: Buying a car - is my logic sound
« Reply #3 on: June 08, 2018, 07:13:39 AM »
I found success reaching out to the internet sales managers of nearby dealerships (at least 10) asking for their best out the door price for the specific model I was looking for. Many will hold firm, but some will play ball and compete against each other. Also allows to to avoid the dealerships largely.

AccidentialMustache

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Re: Buying a car - is my logic sound
« Reply #4 on: June 08, 2018, 07:20:27 AM »
What Joel says: Use The Power Of The Internet: get quotes from other dealers at the nearest big city. Ask your local guy to match it so you can keep your tax dollars local. They will.

Bonus points if the big city is where your cell phone number is from so they don't know you aren't local.

RWD

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Re: Buying a car - is my logic sound
« Reply #5 on: June 08, 2018, 08:19:18 AM »
Some manufacturers make it really difficult to order a new car configured the way you want (color, options, etc). They would much rather have you choose from whatever they allocated to your local dealer. If you go that route make sure you are actually having a car built for you and not just being made to wait until a random allocation happens to match your request. I've heard stories of people that thought they ordered a car in a certain color and the dealer never got one and then the color was discontinued the next model year...

We tried to custom order a Volkswagen once. When it finally arrived several months later the base MSRP had gone up and they included a bunch of options we hadn't asked for. There was also an additional vague "marketing fee" or something tacked on to the price. We walked.

Check TrueCar for pricing info, but how much you can use it for actual negotiation varies a lot. The best strategy (for widely available cars) is to call multiple dealers and have them compete with each other on price. Make sure you get an actual out-the-door price for comparison purposes. Some dealers will happily quote you some discount off MSRP but then have larger documentation fee(s).

RWD

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Re: Buying a car - is my logic sound
« Reply #6 on: June 08, 2018, 08:38:12 AM »
Jalopnik had a post the morning about pricing on ordered cars. Probably only tangentially related to this thread.
https://jalopnik.com/does-the-dealer-have-to-honor-the-price-on-a-car-you-or-1826634574

ian89T

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Re: Buying a car - is my logic sound
« Reply #7 on: June 08, 2018, 11:35:27 AM »
You are not missing too much, either the money is right or it is not. You are in full control of the deal, not the salesman. I am not in your situation, and I imagine that tax credit is pretty good if you are interested in buying new.

As per tradition, screw the dealership and buy used if possible. No fuss no muss.

FIRE47

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Re: Buying a car - is my logic sound
« Reply #8 on: June 12, 2018, 03:42:01 AM »
So it turns out it really was that simple - nothing is final yet but I have an offer sheet from one dealer to give me exactly what I want in the color I want which also happens to be roughly $1,700 less. He also waived all dealer fees and gave me $500.

Original dealer with car on lot gave me basically nothing and said they can't reduce the price on any options.

Going to go back to original dealer but I doubt he can do anything for me, he would have to drop the price 1,700 and then waive all of their profit making fees. My guess is that's too big a hit to take.