Buying a new car can be a daunting and frustrating experience that is all too often made worse by the feeling that you’ve paid too much. But there are some fairly straightforward ways to make sure that your next new car purchase is your smartest and best yet. Your first task is to be a well-informed consumer. Use Internet resources, published annual buyer’s magazines that you might find in a supermarket or bookstore, reviews written by professional automotive journalists, and impartial analysis by a source like Consumer Reports to determine what car is best for you based on features, style, size, performance, reliability and price. That’s a lot of reading and research, to be sure. But within that process you will get a good feeling both for the kind of car you need and want, and what that car is likely to cost at a dealership in your area. (Check this site or this one right now to get a new car quote from a dealer in your own market.)
Job 2 is to prepare for a tough negotiation. Your research has told you what the car you want is worth. Stick to your guns until you get the price you want, and be prepared to “walk” (i.e., to go home with your old car, or to try another dealer) if you don’t get it.
While some dealerships have established “no-haggle pricing” guarantees, often those prices are more of a marketing ploy that a true bargain. The buyer is getting a discount of some sort in exchange for the ease of not negotiating at all on the price, but what are the odds that the dealer is giving you his best possible price without making you work for it? Even at dealerships that offer “no-haggle pricing,” try to haggle anyway.
Trading in your used car is another way to lessen the cost of buying a new one. If you’re trading an older vehicle, do the same kind of research on that car’s value as you did in selecting and pricing-out your new one. Click here for a quote on your used car’s value, and be ready to negotiate your trade-in just as you haggle on the price of the new car.
Avoid pricey add-ons like pickup bedliners or running boards, non-factory custom wheels, undercoating, paint and interior “protection packages,” window-tinting, graphics or pinstripes. Even if you want to add these items to the vehicle later, it is almost always much less expensive to do so at an aftermarket specialty shop than through the dealer.
Other costly add-ons at many dealerships include extra fees for documentation, shipment, “dealer advertising program” and so forth. The dealer is charging you extra for work that has already been done (a delivery fee was assessed by the manufacturer as part of the sticker price) or to cover his daily costs of doing business, like advertising on TV or in the newspapers, or paying his office staff to type-up the sales contract. Sometimes these fees run out to hundreds of dollars, and while the dealership will complain about your demands, almost never will a dealer revoke the sale because you refuse to pay these fees.
Finally, find out how much you can save by clicking here for the best loan rate or visiting this site for affordable car insurance.
Being an educated customer who is prepared to negotiate will help you drive away in that new car without the nagging feeling that you’ve paid too much.
Tags: Car buying