School me "buying a new car"

try working with the "Fleet Dealer" at the dealership (although they primarily deal with companies/corporations, they always manage to find time for me), I always do and usually get alot better deal the the lot rats trying to push a car onto you...

this and i always give them my OTD price i want

Thanks for starting this thread. I am on the same boat and funny cause I've been looking for a brand new Sienna as well. We went to a few dealership and it feels like none would like to negotiate on price. I might try the Costco program.

I bought my last 3 cars over Internet , starting from 2004 - select options , send requests to dealers. They often have dedicated people and pricing. You can check out dealerships from a bit further away, they could have better price. Depends a lot on brand, but anyways. prices I got were much better than costco's.

+1 on the baffling need to pay so much extra for a new vehicle.  It's just silly.

+1, +1 again, on hertzcarsales (I bought 2 this year from them), a Corrolla S and Camry S model, each had 35k miles.  They release +90% of their rentals to Carmax and action, but only those cars that do not pass their quality inspection, leaving the ones they sell from hertzcarsales as their best inventory.  No haggle price, my research found they beat all other like model sales by $3-4k.

I've purchased 2 in the last 5 years.  First one I used Costco.  The Costco price was good though since they are pretty set, there was no incentive to me to buy today vs next week.  I told the Sales guy this and he took another $750 off if I bought today.

Second car I got through TrueCar.  The prices on the site  was better than Costco and again was able to negotiate down a little since it gives you prices from a number of locations.

We did the Internet thing, after using Carmax (I think) to find the average price. Ended up getting both out highlander and the price v this way. Both on the outgoing model year, both at roughly what a used low mileage car a year older would have cost.

The next question is why cash? If you've got good/great credit the rates are insane. Like ZERO percent. Took the cash and dumped it in some cds,  teeny tiny gain couple of percent I think, but that's still more than zero!

Yup ! +1 on Costco auto program.. I bought the last three cars through them . Much better dealing with fleet manager and no hassle too ..

What a nightmare.
This weekend I went to 3 dealership. Not finding any used 15-16 in a reasonable price, I went looking for a new 2017 and start to bargain.
What a nightmare talking with these guys on the lots. Nothing against them, I just hate the tactics they are using.

After the sale floor guy sensed that I was serious about buying and has the money ready, he sent me to his manager. The the manager sent me to his upper manager. This went on all 3 dealerships.
I asked them about their bottom line, and if I agreed I would buy it on the spot right now. No, they won't, they keep reducing every $1,000 like every 10 mins until I am tired. So I need to tell them I'll need to go.

Now I am thinking of just sending to my OTD price to every dealers in 100 miles radius, see if anyone willing to work with.
Last choice, I'll just do costco program.
Thanks for advice.

Chet,

   There is another option, but a bit of a pain.  You can take over a lease, then buy out the car at the end of the lease.  The buyout is typically close to wholesale price. In the meantime, you can try out the car and see if it's something you like.  If you like it, buy it at the end.  If you don't, just turn them in.  If you do buy it at the end, ask them to eat any overage mileage cost. 

     However, you do have to go through paperwork roughly twice.

victor

Chet,

   There is another option, but a bit of a pain.  You can take over a lease, then buy out the car at the end of the lease.  The buyout is typically close to wholesale price. In the meantime, you can try out the car and see if it's something you like.  If you like it, buy it at the end.  If you don't, just turn them in.  If you do buy it at the end, ask them to eat any overage mileage cost. 

     However, you do have to go through paperwork roughly twice.

victor

I'll probably have to skip this option. That's how much I hate walking into a dealership.

On the side note, what the hell with sale guy force me to fill up "credit application" even I told them cash buy.
I had to tell 2 sale guys to stfu.

When I bought my new 4Runner I just did the internet search thing. I looked all over the place for the lowest price I could find. It happened to be at a place in Sacramento. It was a rebate price and I thought it was a totally fair price to pay after searching a ton of other shops.

I then e-mailed that dealer's add to my two local Toyota dealers and told them I was on my way to Sac, but would prefer to shop local. I told them that if they can match the listed price I'd come down right now and buy the truck, no questions.

One of my local dealers got back to me within minutes and we started the e-mail conversation. I checked the dealer's interest rates against a loan from Redwood Credit Union and RWC was a bit lower, so I went with them.

By the end of the afternoon I was putting my down payment on my truck.

So, I heard a great tip from the professor that taught my negotiations course in law school.  Write up a form letter listing the specifics that you want and the price that you want, and send it to every dealership in the state with your price, letting them know who else is getting the letter.  Apparently, he's been doing that for 40 years and ALWAYS gets dealers calling him or writing with bids UNDER his listed price.

Maybe try that?

Chet,

   There is another option, but a bit of a pain.  You can take over a lease, then buy out the car at the end of the lease.  The buyout is typically close to wholesale price. In the meantime, you can try out the car and see if it's something you like.  If you like it, buy it at the end.  If you don't, just turn them in.  If you do buy it at the end, ask them to eat any overage mileage cost. 

     However, you do have to go through paperwork roughly twice.

victor

I'll probably have to skip this option. That's how much I hate walking into a dealership.

On the side note, what the hell with sale guy force me to fill up "credit application" even I told them cash buy.
I had to tell 2 sale guys to stfu.

LOL, the sale guys are like that.   

+1 on the Costco program, you can also try www.carsdirect.com.  Also, typically Edmunds price are higher by about $500 to $1000 than bottom line that you can get.  Forums are a good place to find cheapest available price.   If you do go to a dealer, definitely talk to their Internet Sales ppl.

A friend of mine sells new cars. He's been doing it for 30 years. He told me a few of the insider secrets.

Dealers do not make much money off new car sales. They make their money off the incentives the Manufacturer gives them. For instance: The Manufacture tells Dealer X if they sell 200 cars they will give them a $250K bonus. Dealer X can make some really good deals at the end of the month to get that bonus. They make a lot more off the bonus then they do off the sale, so they care a lot more about moving the car then the price of the car. Would you give up $5000 to make $250,000? Depending on the dealer, time of year and manufacturer the bonus can be millions. They want that bonus.

Always be ready to walk away from the table and know what others have spent for the same car.

With this information I purchased a 2015 Mazda CX Grand Touring with tech package ($33,000) for $28,500 + $2500 cash back. I saved $7000 off list.

There is also a podcast on this strategy. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/513/129-cars