This is why I usually end up buying cars from private parties. They can still try to play me, but they're usually pretty obvious about it and walking away is easier.
Agreed. Buying a new car is needlessly complicated. The simplest tactic is to know what you want to pay and stick to your guns. The deal will take longer to make, of course. Look at what they're offering you, what you want to pay and what your time's worth. There's no shame in walking away and no reason to come up off a fair price. The salesguys have plenty of other suckers to make their money off of.
In doing my deal, I got a vehicle that I was happy with at a price and payments that were agreeable to me. No ridiculous interest rate; not a big bite out of my paycheck either. The one place I was planning to give a little was to get the extended warranty. It paid off big-time on our other Nissan and I like the idea of any car problems being somebody else's problem for the next five years. If I could just convince myself to stop doing pro-bono work on my brother's truck...
My usual approach is to negotiate a final drive out price with the salesman, call my bank, and have a check in hand when I arrive to get the car.
Invariably they take me back to teh "business" office and try to get me to to tear up the check. They offer everything from ridiculous interest rates to free everything to get you to tear it up. Once you tear it up though, they can tack on anything and everything onto the loan they'll provide, pushing up their profit. But having a check in hand for the price, they can't add anything. So they try everything under the sun to get you to finance through them so they can add on thousands to the price. To combat this, you have to tell them that they can take the check and be happy, or you'll go to the other dealer down the street and they'll be happy. Inevitably you have to start walking out of the office before they'll agree to your terms.
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This is why I usually end up buying cars from private parties. They can still try to play me, but they're usually pretty obvious about it and walking away is easier.
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In doing my deal, I got a vehicle that I was happy with at a price and payments that were agreeable to me. No ridiculous interest rate; not a big bite out of my paycheck either. The one place I was planning to give a little was to get the extended warranty. It paid off big-time on our other Nissan and I like the idea of any car problems being somebody else's problem for the next five years. If I could just convince myself to stop doing pro-bono work on my brother's truck...
Reply
Invariably they take me back to teh "business" office and try to get me to to tear up the check. They offer everything from ridiculous interest rates to free everything to get you to tear it up. Once you tear it up though, they can tack on anything and everything onto the loan they'll provide, pushing up their profit. But having a check in hand for the price, they can't add anything. So they try everything under the sun to get you to finance through them so they can add on thousands to the price. To combat this, you have to tell them that they can take the check and be happy, or you'll go to the other dealer down the street and they'll be happy. Inevitably you have to start walking out of the office before they'll agree to your terms.
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