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Other Car Buying Methods
Auto
Brokers:
Some
brokers don't require a deposit, but pay your deposit by credit card so
you can cancel if it's a scam. Deal only with a broker who accepts
credit cards. I still think you can get a good deal on your own,
if you're a shark. Brokers can get some cars for cost, then
charge you $300-$400 on top, usually a decent price. Their fee is
usually built into the price, so you pay a check to the dealer, and the
dealer pays the broker. If you are trading
in, the broker is at the mercy of what the wholesale auctions people will
pay. Fleet managers sell to brokers at invoice because there's no
hassle, it increases sales volume and bonus incentives, etc. The
best way to find a broker is word of mouth. Deal with a broker
that a trusted friend has dealt with and liked.
 ADVANTAGES:
Usually
a good price, sometimes you don't pay dealer prep & ad fees, car is
delivered to your home.
 DISADVANTAGES:
Some
are paid by dealers, some critics doubt you are getting a good deal.
But often you ARE getting a good deal.
I recommend that every single car buyer try sites like Cars.com,
InvoiceDealers,
CarsDirect ,
Autoweb,
Autos.com,
Yahoo!Autos,
Edmunds.com, and
Car.com
first, since they're free to use, then read the rest of this article.
If the price is not within the 5% over dealer cost guidelines that you'll
see in this article, then it's time to haggle. On cars with no backlog
you should be able to get a price of slightly less than invoice price,
to no more than $500 over invoice. I've advised many AutoUSA
users to negotiate with the dealer to give up the holdback as well, and
surprisingly, many of the dealers do.
How
Much Did The Dealer Pay For That Car?
All
about Kelley Blue Book, Edmunds, and Blue Book Values
You'll hear people ask "What's
the Blue Book value of my trade-in?" The blue book value of your
car is the market value listed in the Kelley Blue Book. Many people
spell it wrong as Kelly Blue Book, or Kelly's Blue Book, or Kellys Blue
Book or even NADA Blue Book. Others refer to it as blue book values
or KBB. It's actually a yellow book! KBB started from
a family owned used car business that bought trade-ins from auto dealers
and used their internally generated list of used car prices to inform dealers
how much the car was worth. They became trusted industry insiders
and appraisers of car values. This led to Kelley Blue Book, named after
the social register, called a blue book. The rest is history. KBB supplies
used car prices to most car pricing sites.
A
word of caution about Kelley Blue Book: They are a dealer friendly
publication, and have only sold books to the public since 1993. We
get one version and dealers get another version, which is why they laugh
when you tell them you know the Kelley Blue Book Value of your trade in.
I think blue book car prices show trade-in values lower than other sources,
which falsely leads you to accept less for your car then it is worth.
I suggest you use many sites in addition to Kelly Blue Book to price your
trade in. Try to get a good consensus.
Where
To Get New Car Rebate Info & Recent Selling Prices
 You
get what you pay for and free car pricing data is no exception. You'll
see plenty of stale or incorrect free data. Edmunds had no pricing for
my Lexus SC300 months after it came out, and they didn't list the $2000
rebate we got on our Mazda Millenia. What if there was a factory
to dealer incentive that you were unaware of because the free info was
stale? This is why you need the pay sites. When you've narrowed your
choice, pay a few dollars for reliable data updated bi-weekly. My
favorite car pricing package is the Fighting
Chance because their pricing info and list of current rebates
is the best in the industry. It's a great feeling when our visitors email
me back to thank me for recommending the Fighting
Chance because it saved them $1000 by listing a rebate that the
dealer "forgot" to tell them about. It will save you money and it includes
five key pieces:
-
Complete retail (MSRP) and dealer
invoice pricing for your car's trim levels and options
-
Current bi-weekly CarDeals
report showing all rebates and secret
factory-to-dealer incentives;
-
Proprietary Big Picture analysis, an overview of
each make and model's recent sales and inventory status, including factory
hold-back and customer reports of actual transaction prices - updated monthly.
-
Several articles to help you use the information
most effectively like "How To Avoid The Big Leasing Rip-Off," "How To Do All
Your Negotiating Using The 'Fax Attack,' Without Going Anywhere Near A Car
Store" (including sample faxes),
-
Telephone access to founder/author/radio
commentator James Bragg
and his assistant to answer questions, and go through lease calculations
with you. Use a tiny bit of the money you saved by landing here at verygoodppc.com
to buy your Fighting Chance
Package. If you get a package for additional vehicles they are $8.
Pay sites cost money because they buy their data from reputable industry
sources.
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Loan/Lease Calculators:
Read
all about ALG Residual Values. You'll need this vital data to calculate your lease payments, and look
up dealer cost for cars and trucks. Every person who leases use the
same type of leasing software that the dealers use. Without it you're
sailing the ocean of confusion, and they'll swallow you whole. I
would not in a million years lease a car without using software first.
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Lease Software with ALG Residual Values
We like to use Expert Lease Pro because it's so simple.
Choose your car from the menu. It lists the dealer invoice cost and MSRP for the base model and options. Check off the options and it supplies you with invoice and MSRP
pricing. Look up the residual value for your vehicle using Expert Lease Pro's
built-in Automotive Lease Guide (ALG) residual values. Select the sales tax info, and interest rate, and the software tells you what your payments will be. It's used by
Attorney Generals to sue crooked car dealers. |
Don't
Buy A Used Lemon!
Check
That Car Before You Buy. Run A FREE Lemon Check
The CARFAX
Vehicle History Report is the best tool for used car
buyers. Enter the VIN# of the car and they search over 550 million
vehicle records for rolled back odometers, junked cars, and accidents.
They get data from auctions, DMV records, car rental agencies, leases,
& inspection stations where odometer readings are collected. If my
car had 70,000 miles on my last inspection, and I sell it to you with 20,000
miles, the CARFAX report alerts you about the rollback, saving you from
my scam. Searching title records can tell if the car was totaled
in a wreck, returned as a lemon, flooded, or if the title was laundered
from "junk" back to "used" status. Even without a VIN# you can search
cars in your state that are odometer fraud vehicles, or salvaged.
When we checked, Florida had over 700,000 problem vehicles, California
had 548,000, New York had 709,000, and Texas had 1.7 million! Dateline
NBC did a report in 8/98 using
CARFAX
on Hurricane Andrew cars in Florida with junked titles being laundered
back to "used car" status in other states. Here in Broward County, the
DMV approves 350 cars every month to be reinstated from junk to "used car".
In 1999 Hurricane Floyd flooded or totaled 15,000 cars in the Carolinas.
That's really scary. Don't rely on dealers or private owners, they just
want to sell you the car. Verify their claims with CARFAX.
Credit unions and dealers use them religiously, so should you and I. Enter
the VIN#, the report appears online, with title and registration data,
certified odometer readings, liens, more.
Some features
we liked best about CARFAX:
* The free lemon check.
* Works in Canada too, except
for Quebec, who is not setup yet.
* In some states, they can
tell you if the car has been in an accident. New states are adding
all the time.
* If you pay for a full
report, you can get additional reports free for 30 days. It's like
an all you can eat buffet. |
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Canadian
Car Pricing
 |
Click
Image For Canadian Cost |
We get tons of questions from
Canadian buyers who can't find dealer cost. Finally, Canadians can now get
Canadian car prices as well as the dealer invoice price, and rebates. At
last, salvation for our friends to the north. You can also try a FREE
referral site like
Car.com,
with dealers in Canada, that use the strength of their large customer base
to direct them to a dealer who will give them a reduced price from MSRP.
As long as you are getting a quote that's comfortably below MSRP, that's
the best you can do. How
To Price A Demo Model
Many
people ask me this. There's a loaner car on the lot with 5000 miles
that the sales manager has driven for a few months and they sure are pushing
you to buy it, spouting off about what a great deal it is. Why do
they push it so hard? Due to the mileage, they can give you a slight
discount to pacify you. One former salesman told me some "demo" cars
are referred to as "roll-backs" that people have purchased but had to bring
back because the financing fell through. These cars are regularly sold
again for near full price. The dealer makes extra cash not only by taking
a profit on it twice but pockets the extra sales tax and license fees resulting
from the different value between a new and used car. In the usual scenario
with a roll-back the original purchaser is sold a less expensive vehicle
when they bring back the first car. The dealer actually makes money three
times on this one! Then
they don't have to discount a new car on their lot, and they get rid of
a car that's racking up too many miles. Many readers complain their
"discount" was too small. How do you determine what it's selling price
should be? That's the problem, no one knows how to value them.
Here's how I value it. A car drops $3k in value the first minute
that it's used. Ask any insurance agent. Then take off another
$0.15 per mile just like they would do to you on a lease. So here's
a formula to use:
Your Price = MSRP - $3000 -
( # of miles x $0.15 per mile) So for a loaner with 5000
miles, the car should be no more than: Your
Price = MSRP - $3000 -
(5000 miles x $0.15 per mile) = MSRP - $3750. That is the very most I would
pay, not a penny more. Most people get $2000 - $3000 off MSRP just
negotiating the selling price of a typical new car anyway, so the dealer
is not giving you a good deal. You must also ask to see the maintenance
records too, and make sure the car has at least 2 oil changes in it's history.
Most cars require an oil change at 1000 and 5000 miles. If they are
about to sell it to you, they should do an oil change BEFORE you
sign, not verbal promises of a free oil change in the future. If
they give ANY excuse for not having maintenance records, the deal's off.
Any car that did not follow the manufacturer's required scheduled maintenance
will have a voided warranty. Besides, I have a big problem buying
a "new car" that several people put 5000 miles on. If you're going
to buy a new car, buy a new car, not some used 6 month old hard to price
car.
Go
To Part 5: The Law, Your Rights, And Dealer Leasing Scams Revealed.
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Jump
to any section. I suggest you read each chapter in order.
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Part
1: Car Leasing Intro
What leasing
means, how it works, the advantages and disadvantages of leasing, and how
to finance a lease. |
Part
2: Leasing Glossary
Glossary
terms used in leasing, and how they are used against you so you'll be prepared
for decisions in leasing your dream car. |
Part
3: Lease Examples
Real world
leases with fees attached. A free Excel spreadsheet to calculate your monthly
lease payments. How car dealers calculate lease payments. |
Part
4: Web Sites To Use
Reviews
of discount car buying sites, determine how much dealers pay for cars,
how to get ALG lease residual values. How to price your trade-in. |
|
Part
5: Leasing Scams
Federal
leasing laws, and all the common car dealer leasing scams. |
Part
6: Lease Dilemmas
Money
saving tips, getting out of common leasing dilemmas. What to do when
your current lease is due. |
ALG
Residual Values
Reviews of top leasing software
and where to get ALG residual values. How to avoid lease payment
scams. |
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