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Buying a new car in the modern era

Gone USAA/TrueCar (last 3 cars) and captain’s advice (about 10 cars total) and crushed it pretty much every time. Few things in life are as enjoyable as forwarding final sales terms in an email to a competing GM and getting a response of “Damn. Those guys must be desperate to move cars. I can’t touch those terms. Sir, you’ve worked yourself a hell of a deal.”
 
WFU71 said:
A friend of a friend is a new car dealer. He told me that they're much more interested in servicing your car than making money on the sale. They will also give you a better deal if you finance the car through the manufacturer.

Finance it w/o any prepayment penalty, then pay it off as soon as possible.
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Interesting. In the last few deals I've made, the salesman was very willing to toss in annual maintenance perks (oil changes, inspection, etc) to help close the sale.
 
I'm talking to a salesman tomorrow about a Nissan Rogue SL AWD. The MSRP is $32,840 and with incentives and savings the price is $27,158. I suck at negotiating but am looking to ask to buy on the spot with cash for $25,500 (True car's average is $27,388). That would put me in the neighborhood of $27,500 after tax, tags, and dealer fees. I don't want to spend past $28,000 if I can help it and would love to spend less, obviously. Any thoughts, positive or negative?
 
Get your current offer in email. Forward it to every dealer within 200 miles and say if you beat it I will be there Saturday. If one does, reply to your hometown dealer and demand they match. If they don't, fuck em. Buy the car from the best deal.

I wound up driving to fort worth from Austin to get my new car. The Austin dealer actually called me while I was driving back and was still too high.

If you are in the showroom, they know that they have you. You have to literally be willing to walk away.
 
WFU71 said:
A friend of a friend is a new car dealer. He told me that they're much more interested in servicing your car than making money on the sale. They will also give you a better deal if you finance the car through the manufacturer.

Finance it w/o any prepayment penalty, then pay it off as soon as possible.
Click to expand...

CantStandYa said:
Interesting. In the last few deals I've made, the salesman was very willing to toss in annual maintenance perks (oil changes, inspection, etc) to help close the sale.
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Yea, I don’t know...?

My story is about purchasing a used car, so maybe very different. Still, reflects some “modern era” concerns.

We had a very specific car in mind (make, model (late, low miles), trim, color, etc.) but were not desperate to buy quickly. Found it one day at local dealer of the brand. Due to “no haggle” pricing, they wouldn’t budge 1 dollar on the price, which was in range but not “good”. I explained that I use dealers for service for at least several years, would love to buy from them and have them service but no budging at all on price.

So I walked away, found the exact same car, with even lower miles, three months later at a competing brand dealer two hours away and bought it for 3k less.

Still take it for service to the local place. And smile.

I guess it worked out for us both. Assuming they eventually sold at their price and I bought at mine. But i can’t help feeling a little bad about their unwillingness to work with me even a little.
 
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duncandonut said:
I'm talking to a salesman tomorrow about a Nissan Rogue SL AWD. The MSRP is $32,840 and with incentives and savings the price is $27,158. I suck at negotiating but am looking to ask to buy on the spot with cash for $25,500 (True car's average is $27,388). That would put me in the neighborhood of $27,500 after tax, tags, and dealer fees. I don't want to spend past $28,000 if I can help it and would love to spend less, obviously. Any thoughts, positive or negative?
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BTW, I have a 2016 Rogue and love it. Good luck.
 
Has anybody ever done European Delivery? I'm thinking about going to Sweden this summer to get my wife a Volvo from the factory in Gothenburg.
 
Tex98 said:
Has anybody ever done European Delivery? I'm thinking about going to Sweden this summer to get my wife a Volvo from the factory in Gothenburg.
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Will the driver sit on the left or right side of the car in that scenario?
 
Tex98 said:
Has anybody ever done European Delivery? I'm thinking about going to Sweden this summer to get my wife a Volvo from the factory in Gothenburg.
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Back when I worked for the HQ of Porsche, I was looking for ways to save money while enhancing the buyer experience and went on several European deliveries in Germany. Pretty cool except the whole, now go home and wait for your car thing. Most buyers in this scenario are obviously enthusiasts and can wait. They certainly loved taking the first 100 miles or so wide open on German roads.
 
Thinking about getting a 2016-2017 4Runner limited. Does this holiday weekend work better or worse for captains strategy? We do have a trade in but dont really need the car until July
 
Start shopping. Do your homework. Just remember that showing a strong willingness to walk out the door is a really strong bargaining tool. Just don't give them your keys until you have the deal you want. Dealership will want your keys to "check out your trade-in vehicle" and then make it hard for you to leave.
 
We just bought a new car last week. Used TrueCar through USAA for the 3rd time. Took the trade-in to Carmax and got the dealer to match their offer (up $1k from their original). Had 3 dealerships fighting to offer the best deal, picked one and had it done in a day.

If nothing else, using TrueCar jumpstarts the effort with a baseline lower than what the dealers would typically offer out of the gate and has great real-world info about actual pricing in your area. Just be prepared to field phone calls and emails for a few weeks from every dealership near you.
 
DCDeac said:
We just bought a new car last week. Used TrueCar through USAA for the 3rd time. Took the trade-in to Carmax and got the dealer to match their offer (up $1k from their original). Had 3 dealerships fighting to offer the best deal, picked one and had it done in a day.

If nothing else, using TrueCar jumpstarts the effort with a baseline lower than what the dealers would typically offer out of the gate and has great real-world info about actual pricing in your area. Just be prepared to field phone calls and emails for a few weeks from every dealership near you.
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Just include fielding calls and emails as part of the price. Caller ID and delete are your friend.
 
61raddeac said:
Going through Costco was a good experience for me.
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A friend of ours just bought a Subaru using Costco; the only Costco dealer was in Greensboro (Capital Subaru). They took the same pricing to Flow and they wouldn't touch it. It was a set number below invoice.
 
Haven’t been following this thread so my apologies. What’s the deal with going through Costco? We are planning to buy the new Subaru Ascent next year.
 
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