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New Car Buying Advice?

DeacWatcher

DeacWatcher

Ricky Peral
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My wife's car is now 13 years old and she is wanting a new one as its spending more and more time in the shop. I have never bought a new car before but that's what she wants, so I need to know some stuff. Where do you find what the dealer actually paid from the factory (or can you find that number)? I don't mind the dealer making some dough, just don't kill me. Is there a new breed of car salesman or are they all complete morons that are always running back to their sales manager with every offer? What are some of the must have "new" options since the last time I bought a 1 year old truck; all electric seats and windows, AC, leather interior, 6 CD changer, & bedliner were the best things available?

For what its worth we're looking at a Ford Focus SE, a Ford Focus ST, & depending on my wife's new job a Prius if she has to drive any distance. 30K is the max we would want to spend.
 
If she's driving highway, you're better off with a traditional small car than a hybrid.

You can request invoice pricing from consumer reports. They charge per report.

Edmunds.com will give you a pretty good idea though.
 
bym051d said:
If she's driving highway, you're better off with a traditional small car than a hybrid.

You can request invoice pricing from consumer reports. They charge per report.

Edmunds.com will give you a pretty good idea though.
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Do you just mean because of the cost of the hybrid vs. actual savings in gas?
 
Some gas cars (like a Civic) get better highway mileage than hybrids, plus they usually cost less on top of that.
 
DeacWatcher said:
My wife's car is now 13 years old and she is wanting a new one as its spending more and more time in the shop. I have never bought a new car before but that's what she wants, so I need to know some stuff. Where do you find what the dealer actually paid from the factory (or can you find that number)? I don't mind the dealer making some dough, just don't kill me. Is there a new breed of car salesman or are they all complete morons that are always running back to their sales manager with every offer? What are some of the must have "new" options since the last time I bought a 1 year old truck; all electric seats and windows, AC, leather interior, 6 CD changer, & bedliner were the best things available?

For what its worth we're looking at a Ford Focus SE, a Ford Focus ST, & depending on my wife's new job a Prius if she has to drive any distance. 30K is the max we would want to spend.
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it's pretty easy to get an understanding of how much a dealership paid for a new car (used cars are different and much harder), just by doing a little research. fwiw, the dealership is not making much on a new car at all. i know that nobody believes that, but new cars seriously don't make much money (unless you're looking at super high end stuff). lower end stuff like hondas and toyotas typically make the dealership less than $1k, after factory bonus money.
 
I distracted the salesman with my boobs and he didn't notice a lot of shit that was wrong with my trade in. Another dealer offered me 1k for it (I thought 2k was fair) but this guy gave me 3500.
 
And FWIW, the Civic Hybrid gets better gas mileage than the regular Civic.
 
My 2nd gen Prius averages about 44mpg driving to Winston from GSO (30miles) and back every day. I haven't calculated savings but it does take some time to make your money back from the added upfront cost of a hybrid.
 
Consumer Reports pricing service is good and isn't expensive. Also, if a AAA member, give their buying service a call. They do the negotiating for you and save on fees as well. Though the best part of their service is the actual signing for the car. They bring the car to you and in about 5 minutes they are on their way. At the very least price check the dealer against AAA.
 
94Deac said:
And FWIW, the Civic Hybrid gets better gas mileage than the regular Civic.
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And costs $6k more than a regular Civic. That's a lot of money to make up in gas from 5mpg.
 
bym051d said:
And costs $6k more than a regular Civic. That's a lot of money to make up in gas from 5mpg.
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Yeah, that's true at $3.50 a gallon. But I see part of that premium as a hedge against almost inevitable gas price shocks and higher prices in the future. What if you wake up in three years and Iran bombs Saudi Arabia and gas is $6.50 a gallon? Just a hypothetical, please do not debate the possibility of this event versus others.
 
bym051d said:
And costs $6k more than a regular Civic. That's a lot of money to make up in gas from 5mpg.
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It's a lot more than 5MPG. And the actual price difference between a Civic Hybrid and a comparably equipped EX model is less than $2,000.
 
94Deac said:
It's a lot more than 5MPG. And the actual price difference between a Civic Hybrid and a comparably equipped EX model is less than $2,000.
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Not on the highway it isn't.

FWIW..at 15k highway miles per year and at $6.50 per gallon, the Civic Hybrid's 44 mpg will save about $300 per year versus the regular Civic's 39 mpg. The Hybrid is also not comparably equipped to the EX and the difference is actually $3.5k ($20.8 versus $24.4).
 
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