Car Buying Tactics

[Mango]

I only bought one used car from Mitsubishi years ago, but prior to that I bought used cars from private citizens and got great deals. I always checked with my technician and he would look up the values for me based on year and mileage. I bought my Explorer (which I still have 11 years years now has 130K miles too) from someone who was moving to Florida and did not need 4 wheel drive anymore and got a great deal.

 

[jessifunn]

mermy what kind of car are you getting and are you sure it will hold all your stuff? ex. 2 yaks, 2 bikes, beer cooler, ect ecte ctetetcete

 

[Rudyjohn]

Every car we have bought, we have haggled over the price then we have always walked out. Every single time, the dealership has called us back either that night or by the weekend and offered a deal we couldn't refuse. It's hard for me to walk out but Mr. JR seems to know it works. I always want the car right then. And this does work for imports and new. (Mr. JR will not buy used.)

Try to narrow down your choices of what you think you might be interested in and do all the research you can possibly do. That way you can feel completely confident when you start haggling on the price. It takes us months to buy a car after all the research, test drives, haggeling.

And for Hondas, I believe that is true what was posted above. They sell themselves and there is no high pressure. We've had 2 and they have been perfect.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Mermaid,
When car shopping, do your research for prices online. Two great sights are Edmunds.com and KBB.com. Both
have customer reviews which should be read after narrowing your field of choices. Look for the negative reviews and search for common things in the negative columns. (remember that sometimes bad or good reviews may be written by people paid to represent a car manufacturor.) Chances are though, if enough people are saying the same thing, take a serious look at that when you go for a test drive.

Next, go for some test drives. Tell whomever is showing you the cars that you probably won't buy for several months, but that you are just checking out some vehicles.

When you finally find the car which is right for you, and you know the real price which you should pay, call up the dealership and ask to speak to their internet sales manager. This person is usually working on commission for quantity of sales, not the actual price of the sales. The internet sales manager is more like an internet business as opposed to the bricks and mortar business. He never goes out to the parking lot for test drives, etc. Instead, he looks for cars for people online thru inventories at other dealerships. He has very little overhead on the products which he moves, because in reality, he doesn't need the bricks and mortar. He could just as easily work from his house if the boss allowed him to. So, when you talk to this guy, tell him that you know which vehicle you want and that you want to buy the car today (very important), and tell him that you have been shopping for cars online. Also tell him that you want his best price up front so that you can quickly make your decision. He will know that his price needs to be great to sell you the car, or that you will call someone else who will sell you that car today.

Think about it. That internet sales mgr spends 10 minutes with you and makes a sale. He is loving life. He may sell 5 a day, where the floor sales rep may sell 1 or 2 per week. The internet sales mgr will be your best shot at eliminating all of the back and forth chatter of price bids and offers and he will get you the best price, often with the first shot.

Good luck!

 

[ktmeadows]

And for Hondas, I believe that is true what was posted above. They sell themselves and there is no high pressure. We've had 2 and they have been perfect.

Honda! We have an 89 Prelude 4-wheel steer with 252K miles and it's still going strong, a 97 Accord with 170K miles and still going strong, and a 2000 CRV AWD with 105K miles that's like new.

You just can't wear out a Honda! :clap_1:

 

[Rudyjohn]

Honda! We have an 89 Prelude 4-wheel steer with 252K miles and it's still going strong, a 97 Accord with 170K miles and still going strong, and a 2000 CRV AWD with 105K miles that's like new.

You just can't wear out a Honda! :clap_1:

Wow!

I feel the same about Acura's too.

 

[ktmeadows]

Wow!

I feel the same about Acura's too.

Oh yes....they're the "Cadillac" of Hondas! That's going to be my next car. They have an awesome new SUV I've been eyeballing! wub:

 

[audie]

Honda! We have an 89 Prelude 4-wheel steer with 252K miles and it's still going strong, a 97 Accord with 170K miles and still going strong, and a 2000 CRV AWD with 105K miles that's like new.

You just can't wear out a Honda! :clap_1:

amen luvthe beach ! i adore hondas, wouldn't have anything else for myself. my 2001 crv has 22,000 miles and my s2000 has 2000 miles. as you can tell, i am a shut-in !

 

[Rudyjohn]

One of the best cars we ever had was a gold Civic hatchback. It was a dream, always reliable.

I have my eye on the Acura TL - - a little more reasonable than the RL, I believe. (but they are both fairly small and I'm 5'9")

 

[Jdarg]

Definitely internet shop. We e-mailed the local dealers and told them what we wanted, and the bloodbath commenced. We literally could not keep up with the e-mails, dropping prices every time we shot back replies on the current low price being offered. After 3 days, one internet sales guy was left standing with a very low price, and we gave another salesperson a chance 'cause we liked him but he couldn't touch the price. And we got an incredible deal.

We found out about buying cars this way from a story on NPR. Basically, there are some websites that tell you the top price you should pay on any car, then you negotiate from there. It proved to be very accurate- and the dealers seemed to understand that we had done our homework, knew what we wanted, didn't have the time to bullsheet, and did not want cheesy phone calls.

I will try to find the links on the NPR website for you.