San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

What benefit is there that you see in buying online?

There was a great post a few weeks or months ago regarding how to get the best price from a socal dealer on a new car. It gave step by step instructions on how to do it all online and then play each dealer against the other until you get the best deal and then you go there and pick up the car either here in SD or perhaps LA if the discount is large enough to make the trip worthwhile. Since it was so good I really would rather the original posters work be seen again rather than my simplified version of it.

Hello doofrat,

I've bought 2 cars through carsdirect.com. You are actually buying them through local participating dealers. Carsdirect is like a broker, the prices they show will take into consideration any rebates offered, and discounts, that sometimes puts the price below invoice. You still need to go get the car at the dealership. The great thing about the internet, is now most dealerships have a internet sales department, and this is the best experience (painless) way I have been buying cars. Also, recently I noticed that carsdirect.com was not the best price. I checked with the Costco method (same thing as carsdirect with participating dealers), and they were $200 below invoice, when carsdirect was a couple hundred below retail.

In closing, it's safe, it's easy, and it's the best way to go if you do not like to play games (haggle, waste time) trying to get to that same price.

Good luck

Try www.edmunds.com . The site has plenty of information & a way to get quotes form local dealers. I have purchased 5 cars in the last 3 years from them (for family members & friends). Remember, negotiation is still a factor regardless of the negotiation medium - in person/email. I would NOT pay anything over what Edmunds shows as invoice. Keep in mind the options, TTL, and some possible rebates.

Good luck

The way to get the best price in my opinion was written by FLU here on this thread. Not the quickest or the easiest but I think it will get you the best price.

http://piggington.com/paging_raybyrnes_a...

There were a lot of good ideas in that thread, you are right akbar.

My only heartburn with the way dealerships are set up now is that I have to work with a salesman to get a test drive, but to get the best price I then have to work the internet sales / fleet sales via email and thereby cut the salesman out of the loop.

I feel a little guilty about that as I've then used the salesman's time but he doesn't get compensated for it. Anyone know a way around this conundrum?

Maybe I shouldn't worry about it - I'm not the one who set the system up this way.

ALSO - one pt that other thread hit that really wasn't emphasized...shop around and have your best financing pre-approved before you buy - quite often the dealership will beat that when you sit down to sign docs (something they wouldn't do otherwise).

doofrat unless you absolutely need to buy now don't do it!

Housing is not the only thing that will experience lower prices this year. Possibly MUCH lower.

That's a good pt, bub. Wish I would have thought of saying that. With car sales down, mfr price wars have to be coming.

Gosh...I would like to see that post again....
we need to buy a car in the next few months..ugh...
With what is happening with the economy and recession fears...is now a good time or waiting a another year?
We just don't buy cars very often...

I can not emphasize enough the importance of resisting the temptation to buy a new car. Unless you're going to lease, and get a car for $350 a month that would normally cost $600 to finance, I don't like the idea of buying a new car.

You loose 25+% of it's value when you drive it off the lot. Why not check out Carmax.com and find your dream vehicle in the 2006 or 2007 model year? I've found cars on there with only 10k miles on them for $7500 off the original MSRP. In fact, if you're willing to get a little higher miles, I've seen cars for $20k on there that original MSRP was $31,900.

Of course, I haven't bought a car from them so I can't vouch for them, but they do have some pretty appealing deals, and they will ship your car from one of their many dealers across the nation, so if they don't have what you want in their San Diego store they can ship it from somewhere else.

Just my 2 cents... But hey, if you want to buy new, go for it, you can't beat that new car smell, and leather seats that are crisp and new rather then wrinkled from people sitting in them. LOL...

If you do buy new, I agree with previous posters, use the internet department. Just remember, all quotes are not equal because rarely does one dealer have the exact same options on the car you're buying, so you have to look at the MSRP vs Invoice value for the model the dealer is quoting, and see which dealer is giving you the best deal off invoice. Also, make sure they're not holding any factory incentives against your price, negotiate the price based off the invoice and then make sure you're getting your $2000 factory cash or whatever incentive Nissan is offering on top of the deal they give you.

I can not emphasize enough the importance of resisting the temptation to buy a new car. Unless you're going to lease, and get a car for $350 a month that would normally cost $600 to finance, I don't like the idea of buying a new car.

You loose 25+% of it's value when you drive it off the lot. Why not check out Carmax.com and find your dream vehicle in the 2006 or 2007 model year? I've found cars on there with only 10k miles on them for $7500 off the original MSRP. In fact, if you're willing to get a little higher miles, I've seen cars for $20k on there that original MSRP was $31,900.

Of course, I haven't bought a car from them so I can't vouch for them, but they do have some pretty appealing deals, and they will ship your car from one of their many dealers across the nation, so if they don't have what you want in their San Diego store they can ship it from somewhere else.

Just my 2 cents... But hey, if you want to buy new, go for it, you can't beat that new car smell, and leather seats that are crisp and new rather then wrinkled from people sitting in them. LOL...

If you do buy new, I agree with previous posters, use the internet department. Just remember, all quotes are not equal because rarely does one dealer have the exact same options on the car you're buying, so you have to look at the MSRP vs Invoice value for the model the dealer is quoting, and see which dealer is giving you the best deal off invoice. Also, make sure they're not holding any factory incentives against your price, negotiate the price based off the invoice and then make sure you're getting your $2000 factory cash or whatever incentive Nissan is offering on top of the deal they give you.

Toots

My car is almost twenty years old, and even though it runs pretty well every month something breaks or falls off. Time for a newer car.

I agree that buying a brand new car isn't the best idea, but looking through the above mentioned websites I see that the car I'm interested in (Honda Civic) seems to cost about the same new as a 2 year old Civic. What's up with that?

Does anyone think Honda dealers might be more motivated to discount later this year? It wouldn't kill me to drive my old Volvo one more year......

Sorry for the late reply. I should be called the cheap ass new car buyer... Not for the faint at heart...But if you really really really want to try to get a good deal...My original posting is copied here...

I typically start with carsdirect and edmunds to get a ballpark figure of what you should be paying around. Also, search around edmund's blog forums to figure out what prices people are actually getting too.  I believe Nissan's currently offering

$2500 rebate and/or 1.9% financing. In addition Nissan provides a 2% holdback allowance from the manufacturer to the dealers. Also (no offense) the Xterra is not a hot selling car, so you probably should be able to get it close to invoice, BEFORE all the rebates.

Good luck... 

 ----------

All you new car amateur buyers :)

If you are buying a new car, why restrict your car purchase to just San Diego dealers?

Do your test drive in a San Diego dealer. Make up your mind (car selection, trim, options). Get your best price from SD dealers.. Call up the L.A. dealers and ask for the internet sales division/fleet sales division. Ask for a fleet/internet salesman's email, because you are from san diego and want to deal over email.

Do the complete haggling over email. If the salesman says he/she will only deal if you come in, refuse and say you live in san diego and don't want to drive there without a written deal in hand..If he/she still refuses, ask for another salesman.. If no salesman are willing to deal this way, move on to another dealer.

Over email, ask for the out the door price because dealers love quote you the price of the car excluding tax/license/registration/"fees". Tell them you're willing to drive up to L.A. to pick up the car if the price is better than S.D, but you don't want to spend a lot of time haggling over it and if you get the runaround, you'll just buy in san diego. Don't tell them how much SD dealers are offering. Most dealers with an "internet" sales division will deal all over the phone/email. Traditional salesman will try to lure you into the showroom. It's simply because interent sales division is counting on volume sales regardless of where the person is from. Showroom salesman will try to milk you, because generally he has less customers he can work with at any time. And most people that work out a deal ahead of time usually are commited custoemrs, as opposed to those that walk in who most of the time are just browsers.

Get a few offers from a few L.A. dealers. Each time you talk to a new dealer, never be the first one to name a price. Get the "best price" from the dealer first. The first person that names a price loses. Period... After you get that price, play dealer X off of dealer y, with some reasonable cushion. For example, Keyes Acura in Van Nuyes is willing to do X, are you willing to do X-$200? Or don't even say that. Subtract $200 from what dealer X is actually giving you, and say are you willing to "match" dealer Y's price of blah blah blah. If he/she is a good salesman, you'll never get them to agree on a good price the first time anyway. While you shouldn't lowball (otherwise they won't take you seriously), you defiitely should go a few hundred below what another dealer will actually give you/ You will be surprised how competitive pricing is and how much all the deals come in at the same price. If you get some crap about "we give better service than dealership Y, just remind them you aren't going to be using any LA dealership for service anyway because you are from san diego. I find doing this all over email is great because

1) I suck at this in person

2) I get too emotional in person at times

3) You have a paper trail of all the discussions.

Try to do everything over email and not use the phone.

Get your best L.A. price, and if it beats SD dealers, take that price back to the SD dealers to see if they will match. (You did get this in an email right?)

1) If SD dealers matches the price, great. End of story.

2) if the SD dealers don't match (which sometimes they won't because the market price are different in SD and LA), then ask the L.A. dealer to fax you a sales contract with the OTD price. Make sure you have the VIN number that is the car they plan to sell. Tell them you plan on going to LA to pick up the car. Don't give them a deposit, unless you get an assurance (in an email) that the deposit is fully refundable. Arrange with the salesman a time to go to LA. Don't forget to bring all your email correspondence, the OTD price, and any contract or deposit papers your signed.

Drive to LA and pic up the car..(You did remember to bring all your correspondence with the dealer, right? And you aren't planning to change any of the financing terms or options once you get to the dealership, right?) Arrive at the LA dealer, verify the price on the contract is what you were quoted. If not, ask to speak to the sales director and rage hell that you drove all the way to L.A. and the salesman didn't honor the sales term. if the sales director doesn't help, leave and call a complaint to the auto manufacturer's customer service. They won't do this if there is a paper trail...(You did remember to bring the OTD price in an email or contract right?) Alternatively, negotiate the deal with two L.A. dealers, in case one dealership doesn't honor the price, drop by the second dealer. Verify the vin of the car, inspect the car, test drive the car, sign paperwork. Done.

Regardless of where you buy, you'll pay the same sales tax (7.75%) because sales tax is computed based on the address where you will be registered, not where you purchased the car (LA sales tax is 8.25%)...There is definitely more competition among L.A. dealears than in San Diego. Most San Diegans are too lazy to go to L.A. to haggle. But there's no need if you do it all over email. Ah the virtues of technology...

Note this works for typical, mass production average consumer volume cars. It might not be so effective with cars that demand is exceeding supply, or high end cars, cars produced in limited quantities, or specialty performance cars. You can forget about getting M3's, M5's, S4's, RS4's, R8, Mercedes AMG's, or any Porsche products at invoice this way. However, if you are in the market for exotics/high end luxury/limited edition sports, it is an effective alternative to being gouged by SD dealers marking up ABOVE MSRP (*cough* Miramar Audi/VW/Porsche *cough*). Plenty of dealers in Newport Beach for never charge above MSRP for low production vehicles. Also, if you need to get on a wait-list or pre-order list for some vehicle, your chances are better in L.A. because L.A. dealers usually have a larger allocation (they deal higher volumes).

Two examples:

Wife and I bought an Acura MDX from a dealer in L.A. SantaMonica and Power acura both had the same price. I think the Van Nuys dealer were willing to do $100 below the other two, but required us to drive 45mins extra, which wasn't worth it for us. While SD dealers were quoting $1000 above invoice (Kearny,Carlsbad), 2-3 dealers gave us $2500 below invoice. SD dealers weren't willing to budge, so we picked it up in L.A. over the weekend.

About 8 months ago, I was looking at a Lexus LS for my parents. While everyone was charging MSRP here since it was a pretty new launch, a few dealers in L.A. was willing to do $2000 below msrp. I then took the price to Kearny Mesa who was then more receptive to matching the price. (Deal fell through because my parents decided they didn't want the car)

Just remember, get the deal before the arriving at the dealership in L.A. The only thing you should be doing at the L.A. dealer is inspecting the exact car you will buy, signing paperwork, giving them money, saying no to all the options like extended warranty/clearcoat/etc they offer in the finance office prior to delivery, and driving off.

Hope this helps.

selfportrait

----- Sour grapes for everyone!

I can not emphasize enough the importance of resisting the temptation to buy a new car. Unless you're going to lease, and get a car for $350 a month that would normally cost $600 to finance, I don't like the idea of buying a new car.

I guess I have a different perspective on this. If you are someone that plans of driving a car into the ground, I could not imagine any reason why you would want to take a chance on a used car, unless you cannot afford to buy a new car. You are at a huge disadvantage in buying a used car, because you do not know exactly what the previous owner(s) have or haven't done to the car. If you plan on keeping a car for 10+years, you're better off imho buying new than gambling on costly repairs down the line, unless you don't mind tinkering yourself.

If longevity is what you want, you probably should stick to an "appliance" type car (camry,corolla,accord,civic). No thrills perhaps, but definitely will allow you to do 200k miles probably without any major issues.

Unfortunately, nissans are NOT known for their reliability new or used. For that reason, I would not look any nissan product, except possibly the Skyline GT-R. 

selfportrait

----- Sour grapes for everyone!

Most any car you buy today is light years ahead in durability of cars just 20 years ago. For the most part, the difference between brands now is miniscule. We buy what we like and really haven't had a big problem with any brand.

We do drive our primary cars 150K-200K miles, so we buy new there. For my toys, I buy used since they are just for fun, I don't depend on them to get us to work on time, and I need to keep costs down. Plus I tend to trade those off alot...don't want to keep taking big depreciation hits.

Thank you all for the tons of great advice! I drive my cars into the ground (189,000 on my Civic, and now 140,000 on my present Xterra), so buying new is important to me because I don’t want to inherit a used car that has been beaten up in the first 20,000 miles of it’s life and carries both physical and psychological damage :-)

I would like to wait to buy a car, but I’ve had to fix multiple problems in the last two months that has caused me to lose faith in the car’s reliability (especially since I take the Xterra off-road).

I can tell that the Xterra’s have not been selling well because they cost so much less than when they came out (back when you could fill the tank with Andrew Jackson and not Ulysses S. Grant) so I should have a lot of negotiating room. I’ll check out what I can get in Los Angeles and in San Diego, and use the Cars Direct prices as a starting point.

I’ll be trading in my old Xterra and then paying cash for the new one. I’d really rather not go the private selling route if I can help it (unless anybody here wants a 2000 Xterra with 140,000 miles that runs great and has never been taken off-road!), but I’m afraid that a dealer will just try to make up the lower price on the new car by lowering the trade-in value. Any advice on how to deal with the trade-in and when to tell them you’re going to write a check for the car?

You’ve all given me a lot to think about and some great ideas! Thank You!

I’ll be trading in my old Xterra and then paying cash for the new one. I’d really rather not go the private selling route if I can help it (unless anybody here wants a 2000 Xterra with 140,000 miles that runs great and has never been taken off-road!), but I’m afraid that a dealer will just try to make up the lower price on the new car by lowering the trade-in value. Any advice on how to deal with the trade-in and when to tell them you’re going to write a check for the car?

You'll get more money if you sell your car yourself versus trading it in. If you do trade it in, it may get more complicated if you buy from a dealer in L.A. because they won't be able to see the car until you get there. then you'll be at a disadvantage because they'll know you want to buy the car since you travelled all the way up there, and at the same time, you'll be less inclined to leave without a new car, thereby you'd be more willing to sacrifice the resale price of your trade in.

If you're doing a trade in, you need to pay particular attention to how much they are willing to offer you on the trade in along with the price of a new car. Quite frankly, some dealers will knock off the price on the new car to say $1000 below invoice, but offer you $2000 less than what you can get for your trade in.

That's why I think you should keep the two transactions separate. The more variables you have, the greater the changes are for paying more.

My advice it to sell your car first, then pick up your new car. Worse comes to worse, you can temporary drive your beater (if you have one), or borrow a ride from friends/etc while you're looking.

As far as selling used. Got to a reputable shop to get a rough examination of your car, but don't make any repairs unless it's a safety issue. When a person buys your used car, they will (if they are smart) ask you to take the car in for an inspection. If you already inspected it, and taking care of the serious problems (if any), then you should only have to worry about the small things, possibly like tires, spark plugs, brakes, etc. Then what you and your prospective buyer can do, is just split the cost of the repair. Just go to a cheap place to get the labor done. So place like GWin Auto Repair in Miramar.

You need to leave some minor things that the buyer will want you to take care of. Anyone who buys a used car is always expecting something needs to be fixed, so if you leave them with something small to haggle with, they'll feel better once you take care of it and your wallet wont be drastically impacted.

Last comment. When I mean buying a "new car", i mean "new new", not a "demo car" at the dealer. Why? Well to put things in perspective, I learned how to drive stick in a dealership's demo car while waiting for my car to be serviced one time. I can tell you I feel sorry for the poor person that bought that car, since I pretty much smoked the clutch, and ended up pretty much doing neutral drops to get the car in first when I was on a hill. The salesman was amused, and couldn't resist say ing "so I guess you won't be buying this particular car".

selfportrait

----- Sour grapes for everyone!

You loose 25+% of it's value when you drive it off the lot.

That's not generally true anymore. A friend of mine just bought a new Toyota Avalon, and with the various rebates and incentives he got from the dealer, he paid $800 less than the bluebook value of the car with 15,000 miles on it. And that doesn't even factor in the difference in financing a new car vs. a used car (he paid cash).

I'm a big believer in used cars, but I buy cars that are 5+ years old with lots of miles on them (I'm poor and good with a wrench). New cars are so reliable these days that they lose very little value in the first couple of years, and you can often get better deals on a new car than on a late-model used one.

Oops, I forgot to mention one more thing, I'm surprised others didn't mention this already.

Make sure you get your OWN financing lined up before you visit the dealer to purchase the car. Of course, they will scream and beg and kick you to take their financing, but only do it if the terms are better then what you got for yourself.

Many credit unions have great "Sales" on their auto loan rates throughout the year, find a good rate, and buy your car when you get that rate. Get pre-approved, and a check in hand from your credit union, and then go to the dealer with the "Cash in hand", and that way you won't have to stress out about getting approved, and dealing with their financing department. Some dealers mark up the APR on financing to make up for the lower sales price, same as they do by reducing your trade in $ to make up for the price. Other tricks of course include the "torture chamber" room where you are supposed to sign all the paperwork. In this room, it's the guy's job to get as much money as he can out of you by asking you to buy the Permaplate paint protection package, the $1000+ KARR alarm system (which by the way they will tell you is "Already installed" and you'll have to wait 2 hours for them to remove the alarm if you want the car without the alarm), extended warranty, and GAP protection. The gap protection can be purchased online for really cheap, as can an extended warranty. You can shop around online for the GAP and extended warranty if you really feel you need them, but just say no to all the extras, and if they get pushy and try to pull those little "you'll have to wait 2 hours" tactics, then walk. With the alarm, I would ask the salesperson you're dealing with if the car has an aftermarket alarm, and tell him that you don't want to wait for them to remove it when you buy the car, so ask him to remove it before you arrive.... I doubt they will do it, but it's worth asking, maybe if you put a deposit down on the car before you drive to the dealership they will do it.

Other tricks of course include the "torture chamber" room where you are supposed to sign all the paperwork. In this room, it's the guy's job to get as much money as he can out of you by asking you to buy the Permaplate paint protection package, the $1000+ KARR alarm system (which by the way they will tell you is "Already installed" and you'll have to wait 2 hours for them to remove the alarm if you want the car without the alarm), extended warranty, and GAP protection.

I've been through this as well with my first adult car purhase (not the alarm, but the rest of it). The woman tried to get us to buy all sorts of protections and warranties, one of which overlapped significantly with the "certified Honda warranty that we already had. She kept trying to make the argument that it made sense, and I kept arguing it didn't, until I finally said: "Okay, let's do the math..." and proceeded to show her that unless the car required $200 or more per month repairs every month for the first two years that it would be ridiculous to buy the additional warranty... and was she actually suggesting that the vehicle was THAT unreliable?

At which point she came unglued, and proceeded to rant about "stuck-up college-educated jerks" as she hurriedly signed everything else.

These days I would just walk out at such behavior, without closing the deal. I can't stand that sort of thing, and will never return to that dealer, and would not reward a dealer who allowed that behavior with my business in the future.

With my most recent car purchase when we moved to that stage I just simply looked over the options briefly and stated quite simply that I never purchased them as the financials never made sense. When she tried to persuade me I (gently) reaffirmed my stance and told her there was no way I was going to purchase it and I could repeat that three more times if her job required it. And we moved on.

"I can not emphasize enough the importance of resisting the temptation to buy a new car. Unless you're going to lease, and get a car for $350 a month that would normally cost $600 to finance, I don't like the idea of buying a new car."

DJROBSD

Sorry buddy but your advice is off. It demonstrates that you just don't really understand the new or used car business when you throw out a blanket statement like buying new is going to cost you mkore becasue of depreciation.

It cost people who want some special car like a red MIatta wiht specific option a lot becaeu they have to pay retail for that customizqaiton. But for anyone who is open on make and model of vehicle they generally will hyave less headach and lower operating cost by buying new. End of Story.

The people who do well buying used are generally gear heads who can make repairs on the weekend that the average Joe can't. For those guys buying used make a lot of sense.

Update:

Thank you all for the great advice! I decided to use carsdirect.com to buy the vehicle and was working with them, but they couldn't find the exact car because the main and secondary color choices weren't available in So Cal. We decided to check out Mossy Oceanside to find another color to give to Carsdirect.com and there it was, the original color I wanted (apparently it must have just arrived because it wasn't even on the dealer's online inventory until the next day).

Bought it from the dealer using the Carsdirect price.

I'd really recommend using Carsdirect.com, they give you the upfront pricing for your car before you give them any information, and after giving them your contact info., they are very "non-pushy". They'll call you and confirm what options and such you selected and search their inventory. I didn't make it past this point, but I was impressed with how easy it was. They always ask "Do you want us to call you back?"

I also found a cool tool on the DMV website I'd like to share that calculates your registration fees and tax so you know what the final amount will be at the dealership. I used it prior to my purchase (changing the final for the rebate and trade in) and ended up within $22 of the final total:

https://mv.dmv.ca.gov/FeeCalculatorWeb/i...

1. Calculate this based on your price before rebates and trade in.

2. multiply your rebate and trade in by .0775 (yes, the state taxes both)

3. Subtract rebates and trade in

4. Add back in the tax you calculated on step 2

5. add $45 doc fees

6. Subtract the $100 bonus the dealership gives you for saying something good about them on a housing Blog.

This should be exactly what your total comes out to, if not, then something's wrong.

This is the second car I've bought from Mossy and I was again impressed by their service.

I have several friends who have bought the package of research this company has put together and purchased their car like fat_lazy described, all via email correspondence, and all paid below invoice. They leveraged other locations nearby - LA, etc and went back to their local dealers to ask them to match or beat the price.

Its $40, www.fightingchance.com

www.fightingchance.com

I read this article . He is selling his service but the informaiton he provides is pretty much the system I would use if buying a new car. Unless you have a personal relationship (not a friend of a friend) at the dealerships in San Diego then you are going to ahve to head up to LA to get the best deal.

See, first I was making a blanket statement, and now you're trying to do the same thing.

Yes, perhaps if you find the right deal on the right car, you might come out ahead, but overall, when you drive that car off the lot, you're loosing something. This especially applies to certain specialty models like Jaguars. It also applies to Dodges and Chryslers, they are not holding their resale value too good these days.

And one more thing, just because you drive the Toyota Camery off the lot, and your Kelly Blue Book retail value says it's still worth what you paid for it at the dealer, doesn't mean you're going to get that price if you trade it in. Yes, you might be able to get that full retail value if you sell it private party and bust your tush and deal with a bunch of flakes to sell it, but if you just go trade it in you will NEVER get that value for the vehicle.

So, before you accuse me of not knowing what I say, you better check your facts, the last time I checked, when you drive a Chrysler Pacifica off the lot, it's worth $10,000 less then what you paid for it.

Excellent Resale Value of a Pacifica w/ 5000 miles on it is $16,520

MSRP is $27,955

Your loss: $11,435 and that doesn't even include the tax, title, and tip to the dealer for all the extras if you got suckered into buying the alarm and the extended warranty.

CIAO

Long time lurker here. I really appreciate the experience many of you have and the great comments in this post.

I have a question that I have been trying to research, but have been unable to find a good definitive or, at least, general answer relating to buying a car.

The question is: can a buyer typically negotiate a better price by paying cash as opposed to using a seller’s low interest financing? (I am aware that a seller may lower the price if they backdoor the buyer with a higher interest rate – that isn’t the question here).

My specific facts are that I’m looking at used BMWs. The dealerships are advertising financing on used 2003s at 1.9% and 2004s at 2.9% APR. At those rates, they have to know they are going to lose money on the financing in view of inflation, increased credit risk now days and all. I would rather just pay cash, but my money would be much better off in my investments at those rates.

So, I was wondering if anyone knows a) if dealers will typically lower the price more if you pay cash instead of using this low interest financing and, if yes, b) is there any sort of general metric on determining how much more they would be willing lower the price?

Thanks in advance!

djrobsd

Prices on any car driving off a lot are going to typically guaranty you a 7.75% loss. It is call tax. No way of recovering that and in my opinion it is a scam that if you pay tax on a new item that the govrnment is going to continue to coleect this every time there is a transaction.

Cars bought properly should not depreciate much at all.

Here's opne for you. Most rental car companies buy brand new cars fom all manufactures, can operate them for 6 monhts to a year snd stilll sell the cars at a price either equal too or higher than they paid. Additioanlly they are collecting rental revenues all that timme. Now explain to me all that depreciation?

repost

Long time lurker here. I really appreciate the experience many of you have and the great comments in this post.

I have a question that I have been trying to research, but have been unable to find a good definitive or, at least, general answer relating to buying a car.

The question is: can a buyer typically negotiate a better price by paying cash as opposed to using a seller’s low interest financing? (I am aware that a seller may lower the price if they backdoor the buyer with a higher interest rate – that isn’t the question here).

My specific facts are that I’m looking at used BMWs. The dealerships are advertising financing on used 2003s at 1.9% and 2004s at 2.9% APR. At those rates, they have to know they are going to lose money on the financing in view of inflation, increased credit risk now days and all. I would rather just pay cash, but my money would be much better off in my investments at those rates.

So, I was wondering if anyone knows a) if dealers will typically lower the price more if you pay cash instead of using this low interest financing and, if yes, b) is there any sort of general metric on determining how much more they would be willing lower the price?

Thanks in advance!

Never financed a car, so I can't speak from my own experience. However, some of my friends have said that they were able to get a better price on their car if they financed in the dealer (dealer thinks they can make more over the life of the loan, and so can drop the price of the car to for example invoice or below). The tactic some of my friends used is that they do the initial financing through the dealer and then pay off the loan early. Don't know if it actually works.

BTW: are you SURE you want to buy a used german car????

selfportrait

----- Sour grapes for everyone!

We just bought a 2008 Xterra (in Night Armor paint, awesome!) for $4k below MSRP, which is about $3k below invoice, and about $1k below what 'others in my area' are paying, according to edmunds.com. And we even got an alarm thrown in at cost!

How did we do it? No carsdirect or autobytel sites, we simply filled out a dealer quote request to all the nearby Nissan dealers and went to the one offering the lowest price. Submitting for a quote via the web gets you the Fleet/Internet department and you get a take it or leave it, best deal price, with 0 haggling. We got out quote, drove down to the dealer (who already had our car washed and pulled up front) and were in an out in about three hours. They even gave us a decent amount for our trade in, enough that we decided to let them have it rather then try to sell it ourselves (which we have done previously with another car).

We went for the Xterra S version which gets you the side rails (a must) and other goodies, but nothing that you don't really need like Bluetooth or Navigation (both of which you get way overpriced for at the dealers and get mediocre products).

Anyhow, to make it simple:
Go to http://www.nissan-usa.com, configure your vehicle, submit it to at least 5 Nissan dealers and watch the fireworks. :)