Negotiating a New Car Price -- Your Stories.

[epdaws]

Tomorrow I'm buying a new car. I want to hear how successfully you negotiated your new car price.

I'm getting a Toyota Matrix (for a variety of reasons, though it's not my dream auto by any means).

Two dealerships want my business. I met with them both today. I'm curious to know:

1) How close to cost can I get the dealership to go?

2) How much value do you put in a stronger warranty?

3) How did you get the best price?

Thanks in advance.

[NajdorfDefense]

Went to 4 dealerships, told them the exact car and modifications I wanted, told them I'd buy from lowest price period, that week, [1.9% was offered by all for financing], told them all what other 3 had offered, first guy gave me best price, closed deal. You have to get them to bid.

[Ray Zee]

costco has a new car program. 500 over invoice no hassels. dont pay more. make sure you see the original factory invoice to the dealer for that particular car. personally i wouldnt pay over that for any car. as the dealer also gets a rebate up to 3% quarterly called holdback from the manufacturer.
this applies to a current new car. not a leftover 2007 model that will be lose an extra years depreciation as soon as you sign the paper

its a great car. just a corrolla with a staion wagon back.

[z28dreams]

A little off track, but I'm having a hell of a time finding private party cars for a reasonable price.

Even in negotiating, almost everyone is asking near-dealer prices for their vehicles.

It doesn't help that Kelly Blue Book, Edmunds, and Nada are all WAY different from each other - we're talking factors of 30%.

Right now I'm looking to pickup a cheapo 2002 maxima - edmunds says this should be around $9000 (halfway between clean and average). People are asking 14k ... ?!? and wont' budge below 12k.

[Maulik]

z28,

The prices are a function of national resale value, certain markets demand higher prices. I realised when shopping for motorcycles in the MD/VA area.

[Cubswin]

3) How did you get the best price?

answer

[RR]

Consumer Reports sells a product that gives you all the cost information. Basically you need to find how how much they make if they sell "at invoice" and try to cut into that.

[rjoefish]

If a dealership shows you the invoice and says they'll sell it to you at that, or you can talk them to it, take it. Trying to get it under invoice because you know they may make some money somewhere on it is pretty fruitless. My boss sent a girl packing the other night because she was trying to buy a car from us doing that [censored].

[Alobar]

I [censored] hate car shopping. I wish it was a like the grocery store, the price on the item is the price you pay. Negotiating and dealing with people in sales is one of the things I like least in this world.

[One Outer]

Last year I took some time off from college and spent 9 months selling cars at a Ford dealership, so I know a thing or two about buying a new car. Here's some useful information.

The best way to get the best price on a new car is not really to play dealers off each other but to simply get up and leave the dealership if you think they're not doing their best for you. If they can do better they'll do it to keep you from leaving. And if you do get out to the car and they haven't chased you down yet, the price they gave you was the best and you should probably go back inside and buy the frackin' car. The dealers all pay the same price for the new cars and there isn't any real money in the new cars for the salesman so they just give them away. At invoice, more often than not, and sometimes they even dig into the holdback if they really want something off the lot. Of course, this is for domestics.

With a Toyota, lol at thinking that you'll pay anything significantly below sticker. I'll caution that this might have been just the Twin Cities, but Toyota dealerships don't give anything away. And we have a saturated dealer market with insane competition. They simply don't have to. Hell, last year Toyota was actually trying to buy back Camrys from people that had bought them in the last six months because the dealers could sell them for sticker all over again even with the miles on them. They don't cut anybody any deals because the next person through the door will give them sticker if you won't.

I will say, though, that the Matrix might be the lone exception because they compete directly with the Vibe for sales. If you want to save money on a Matrix just go buy a Pontiac Vibe. It's literally the exact same car and GM will just give stuff away.