Purchasing a New Vehicle?

[red]

whatever happened to Toad O Line

 

[daboy]

Why not just offer $500.00 over the invoice cost which includes freight dealer prep. but excludes any management fee.
db

 

[Larry_Fyne]

I bought a book over 20 years ago called "The Single Price Solution". It had the rules for buying a car at the best price. In a nutshell, do research first as to what you want - it was suggested that you go to a number of dealers for the research, do test drives, etc. Do not commit to any sales rep and only take notes.

After doing your research, pick 2 or 3 dealers and make an appointment to meet with a sales rep. Make sure that you are on time for the appointment. Tell the rep what you are interested in and give him/her a written spec of what you want. This should be specific as possible. Then tell the rep, that you are going to buy a car in a certain time frame (ie. 24 or 48 hours). They will be give 1 chance to provide you with their "single price". You explain that you are doing the same thing at the other dealerships (don't tell them who) and they all are working to the same spec. Tell them you will contact them at the deadline to get their price and then you will go with the lowest price. Then leave.

Then do what you said you will do. At the end of the process you will have 2 or 3 quotes for the same vehicle. If there is any deviation from the spec, their quote is void.

This eliminates the back and forth, eliminates the extras and it gets you what you want. You must be diciplined to go throuigh with it.

Obviously this works best with vehicles on the lot - not orders.

It works though.

 

[Dark Chimera]

Just another comment about rust proofing....

It's a huge scam.

It's NEVER been proven to work.

In fact, all new cars carry a perforation (holed through) warrantee which is usually in the area of 6 years.

Do you know if you get your car rust proofed on day one, you void your factory warrantee (albeit, the rust proofer's warrantee now takes over)

I don't know about you, but i would rather have a GM warrantee than a joe blow rust proofing company warrantee.

You have to watch because sometimes these guys have weasel clauses written in that says if you don't take your car in for some sort of rust proofing servicing, then their warrantee is void.

Most cars today have steel panels that are corrosion protected by one form or another.

My car is now 5 years old (GM) and was never rust proofed when purchased new. I was underneath it the other day and other than the odd clip, there is not a spec of rust on the under carriage.

I find rust proofing to be a sticky gooey mess that hardens with time and then cracks at the stress points.

Water gets into the cracks and sits there or travels underneath the rust proofing making it even worse.

The best recipe for a rust free car is a clean car. Wash the wheel wells frequently (hopefully with fresh rather than recycled water) in the winter, as well as underneath.

Oil based rust proofing works by travelling along the steel. Over time it will cover all the steel. I suspect you are thinking of Crappy tire goo

 

[Chairmoon]

What's going to happen to warranties on older models if GM goes bankrupt, is the government back-stopping those to?

 

[CapitalGuy]

I now only buy slightly used cars, say 2 or 3 years old, non-rentals or fleet cars, with some warranty still on them. But I once bought a custom order Ford Explorer. I went in with all the options I wanted, and went to numerous different Ford dealers to see what price they would offer me. I got what I thought was a fairly good deal from the second dealer I saw. The next 4 dealers all refused to meet the second dealer's price. When dealer number 6 said that the second guy was making only about $200 off me, I went back to the second guy and finished the deal, as I was confident that the price he was asking, was reasonable.

Is there a lesson there? Maybe that if you shop around, you can figure out what the best price you're going to get for that particular vehicle is. The lesson I learned was, don't ever buy new. Slightly used, if you've done your research and shop smart, is the way to go. And keep it for 10 years.

 

[AJstar]

Car Cost Canada will give you the dealer costs as well as factory incentives avail. etc. I recently tried the 'one price solution' via email for tenders. It didn't work. The sales staff refused to put lower bids in writting. Knowing the #'s from CCC gave me an even playing field,instead of the ridiculous 'make me an offer' routine they usually play.

 

[tboy]

I now only buy slightly used cars, say 2 or 3 years old, non-rentals or fleet cars, with some warranty still on them. But I once bought a custom order Ford Explorer. I went in with all the options I wanted, and went to numerous different Ford dealers to see what price they would offer me. I got what I thought was a fairly good deal from the second dealer I saw. The next 4 dealers all refused to meet the second dealer's price. When dealer number 6 said that the second guy was making only about $200 off me, I went back to the second guy and finished the deal, as I was confident that the price he was asking, was reasonable.

Is there a lesson there? Maybe that if you shop around, you can figure out what the best price you're going to get for that particular vehicle is. The lesson I learned was, don't ever buy new. Slightly used, if you've done your research and shop smart, is the way to go. And keep it for 10 years.

As with all things, there is a caveat to this statement:

When you buy an older vehicle, you're buying older technology ie: newer vehicles are more fuel efficient and in the case of the F150, the '09s have more HP with better mileage.

There are some new vehicle that come with a 10 yr power train warranty.

Before deciding to buy used or new, calculate what repairs will be required over the 10 yrs and after the warranty runs out. Just one transmission problem or engine failure could mean the difference between saving the depreciation on a new vehicle over the RSP of a used vehicle.

I went out to purchase a used truck and the ONLY way it was more affordable was if you were paying cash. If you were financing any of the purchase it was cheaper to buy new. This is due to the 0% financing on new vehicles and 10% +/- on used. For eg: 10% on $20K used vehicle is about the same as 0% on a $30K vehicle over 5 yrs.

 

[james t kirk]

Oil based rust proofing works by travelling along the steel. Over time it will cover all the steel. I suspect you are thinking of Crappy tire goo

No, I'm thinking of anything except a factory corrosion prevention system.

It's ALL crap IMHO. All of it. It all voids your factory warrantee as far as I know.

 

[james t kirk]

Car Cost Canada will give you the dealer costs as well as factory incentives avail. etc. I recently tried the 'one price solution' via email for tenders. It didn't work. The sales staff refused to put lower bids in writting. Knowing the #'s from CCC gave me an even playing field,instead of the ridiculous 'make me an offer' routine they usually play.

Ditto that.

There are Factor to Dealer "Incentives" that are not shown on the invoice that the Dealer will so willingly show you.

That said, the Dealer does need to make a reasonable profit on the vehicle.

I believe CCC recommends that you take the wholesale price, add 3 to 5 percent markup, then subtract all Factory to Dealer Incentives to come out with a "fair" price.