I effin' HATE car shopping.

B-i-L's 2007 Suzuki SX4 has gone from nickel-and-diming to $500 and $1000 dollaring. Seeing as they don't sell Suzukis in the States any more, parts are non-existent, best you can do is hope for a decent used part from a junk yard. Just dropped nearly $1000 on front suspension, now it needs a rear driveshaft to the tune of $500+. Ah....no. We be on the Nope Train to Fuckthatville.

So, he's decided to replace it with a Toyota Yaris, a decision I heartily approve of. As mentioned before, he's not quite capable of living on his own and certainly isn't capable of dealing with car salesfolk. This'll be the 4th Toyota (03 Corolla, 12 Corolla, 13 Tundra) we've bought from this dealer, not that that'll cut any mustard with the sales folks but at least we know who we're dealing with.

Not even going to try to trade a broken Suzuki, we'll do a straight deal and he has up to $7K for a down payment so we should be able to get decent financing with me co-signing.

E-mail a bunch of dealers ahead of time. I don't think they're too high of a demand vehicle, haven't seen dealers stock too many of them around here. Hope you can use that to negotiate a good deal for one with the demand seemingly low.

I kind of enjoy car shopping. I like the thrill of the hunt - when it's at my pace. However, if I'm under pressure to move on a car quickly, I don't find that fun at all.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
E-mail a bunch of dealers ahead of time. I don't think they're too high of a demand vehicle, haven't seen dealers stock too many of them around here. Hope you can use that to negotiate a good deal for one with the demand seemingly low.

If there are multiple dealers in driving distance you can do better than e-mailing.

Get quotes via TrueCar or Edmonds from multiple dealers. Wait until a real person at the dealership e-mails to follow up on TrueCar/Edmonds, and inform each and every one of them that they weren't the lowest bidder but you're still accepting quotes. Once you get quotes back, inform the lowest two that they weren't the lowest bidder but if they sharpen their pencil you'd take another quote from them. Once you get a bid you're happy with then and only then go to the dealership. It's called a blind reverse auction (i.e. only you know what the bid is, it's reverse since price goes lower every round, and you're the auctioneer).

Worked like a champ on my current truck as I got them to come down $3500 off the TrueCar price which was already $2000 below sticker.

I don't necessarily like having the need to buy a new car and spend the money but I do love the process.
I am willing to walk if I don't think I got the best price I could have gotten. I spent an hour trying to negotiate a lower price on a price fixed car. In the end I made them give me $1000 more on my trade than they will willing to give to close the deal.
We have been dealing with the same Toyota dealership for 14 years. We have bought 4 cars from them.
I always have fun. We purchased 3 from the same salesmen.
The last car we bought as soon as we decided what car we wanted our salesman said wait here. He told us he was not going to do the usual back and forth.
He came back and the price on the car $1000 lower then I was willing to pay and the trade was $1000 more than i was willing to take.
We bought the car and have been happy with the choice.

Tatordude's process above is basically what I do nowadays. Let them bid for your business. Lowest price wins. May the odds be in your favor!

I literally eat car salesman for breakfast. I crumple up their stupid paper and throw it in the trash can (write down what you want your monthly payment to be). Bitch, I'm paying cash. Get your boss in here. You are wasting my time.

One drawback to living in the puckerbrush. ONE dealer within 100 miles. And they know it.

Only way to somewhat hold their feet to the fire is to be willing to shop brands.

Headed up this morning.

quote:

I literally eat car salesman for breakfast.

Literally?

I have found that the best deals are infested with fees.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

I literally eat car salesman for breakfast.

Literally?

Yeah, with fava beans and a nice chianti.

As for me, I haven't done the dealership thing yet other than the time I had to get the Takata airbags replaced. Good luck.

One of our children just picked up a used Mazda 3 at a very reasonable price.

Well, that was easy. $1000 off MSRP, 0.9 for 60. Within $200 of internet suggested target

Beware the "invoice" scam. That used to be what they paid. It's not anymore. It's just a number. You are also at the mercy of the "processing fee", which is pure profit and often not negotiable.

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
Beware the "invoice" scam. That used to be what they paid. It's not anymore. It's just a number. You are also at the mercy of the "processing fee", which is pure profit and often not negotiable.

Yeah, I got stuck with the "Doc Fee" which is pure profit for taking 3 minutes to spit a bunch of forms out of a printer, but they weren't going to move on that unless I played the "get up and walk away" game and all the other histrionics and game-playing bullshit that goes with car buying. The over all price was fair and in the window of what we were willing to pay so I just signed the damn form.

^^^^^^^^^

I tell them to agree with me on a Total Out The Door Price.

As long as they meet that figure, I don't care how they Monkey the figured with fees and other crap, this is my bottom line out the door price. If they don't, bye bye.

I've seen a few times where the bottom line is as agreed, but they monkeyed around with the above numbers so that someone could make a commission, I don't care as long as the out the door price is as agreed.

quote:

so we should be able to get decent financing with me co-signing.

Do not forget when financing with a dealer the kickbacks they get from banks, GMAC, Ford Credit, Etc. You may get a lower price with dealership arranged financing because of the bank rebates. The next day go online or to a credit union & refinance eliminating the kickback cost to the bank.

here in tiny town,

there are a half dozen people that
A. find the car that they want to purchase, with in 600 miles.
B. have it shipped to them.

either through a local dealer , or not

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
We have been dealing with the same Toyota dealership for 14 years. We have bought 4 cars from them.

Can you please share the name of this dealership?

E-mail is in profile if you prefer not to put them out here.

E-mailed across 4-dealers this week---picked up a new 2018 Forester Black Edition for a nice price.


I'm happy with it - and for $2200 less than the dealer i got my other two cars from.

Luv'd the look on his face - drove in in my 2000 Outback/338,000 miles on it----tell him I bought this here 18 years ago-----what you give me for it?

Just kidding - it will be my airport parking lot car!

Would have ordered a new 2018 Toyota Tundra Limited DC 4X4 at the beginning of the year had the sales lady I talked to ever called me back. Couldn't find one in the new cavalry blue w/ sand beige leather in stock anywhere. She told me it wouldn't be any big deal to alter one of their upcoming orders to get the truck I want.

I talked to her before Xmas. She was to call me after the new year. Still waiting for that call.

I'm actually glad she never called me back. Even after trading in my 2010 DC SR5 4X4 with 50,0000 miles I was looking at a $400 payment.