Current Events > Tips for buying a car?

(+) Yeah! (+)

How to haggle with dealers? How to make sure I, a guy who knows very little about cars, isn't getting ripped off. Etc.
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Buy a certified pre-owned. If you find one you like for let's say 15k, test drive it, then walk up to the guy and say you'll pay 13.5k and he'll say no, then give him your card and walk away. Wait a day or two for him to call.

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I always heard buying pre owned was a big mistake unless that's all you could afford?
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Honestly just be super nice and friendly

my last car I brought it was listed at $35,000 brand new

i ended it getting it for around $27,500 brand new

just be friendly and well I guess good looking/well dressed

also just whipped out your phone and look up the car at other dealerships in front of them


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Make sure to lube your asshole before entering the dealership

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lilORANG posted...

I always heard buying pre owned was a big mistake unless that's all you could afford?

Look at it this way.

If you buy a pre-owned car and the entire engine explodes the second you crank it, and it costs $10,000 to repair it, it's still less of a ripoff than buying new.

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Buy a certified used one. Go with Toyota

SaccharineSmile posted...

my last car I brought it was listed at $35,000 brand new

i ended it getting it for around $27,500 brand new

Case in point about new being a ripoff, this poster literally talked the salesman down by almost $8k and the dealership still made what it cost them back, plus the salesman's commission, plus a profit margin.

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SaccharineSmile posted...

Honestly just be super nice and friendly

my last car I brought it was listed at $35,000 brand new

i ended it getting it for around $27,500 brand new

just be friendly and well I guess good looking/well dressed

also just whipped out your phone and look up the car at other dealerships in front of them

Okay dont do this. Dont be friendly, or theyll take advantage of you. Be firm that you dont want to pay what theyre asking for. And definitely dont be well dressed. If you have on nice clothes theyll assume you can afford a more expensive car. Wear gym shorts and a crappy t-shirt.

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lilORANG posted...

I always heard buying pre owned was a big mistake unless that's all you could afford?

The best value in buying a car is one that is 2-3 years old. The second you buy a new car, its value tanks and its insurance is gonna be real high. After a couple of years, the market value starts to match the value you will actually get out of it, and you will still have several years until you need to worry about paying for major upkeep.

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DevsBro posted...

Case in point about new being a ripoff, this poster literally talked the salesman down by almost $8k and the dealership still made what it cost them back, plus the salesman's commission, plus a profit margin.

haha pretty much

the manager whipped out some papers and showed me the break down

they still made some $$$$ profit based on the price they sold the car to me haha

its funny because the used car version was listed at $28,000, and I got a brand new one for the same price and any color I wanted

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Get it sprayed for crabs

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radical rhino posted...

Okay dont do this. Dont be friendly, or theyll take advantage of you. Be firm that you dont want to pay what theyre asking for. And definitely dont be well dressed. If you have on nice clothes theyll assume you can afford a more expensive car. Wear gym shorts and a crappy t-shirt.

dont do a George Constanza

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These bitches literally just printed out the msrp price from their internet page and gave it to me. Unwilling to negotiate at all lol.
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lilORANG posted...

These bitches literally just printed out the msrp price from their internet page and gave it to me. Unwilling to negotiate at all lol.

Then go to a different dealership. (or threaten to)

You should always know what you want, the price you want(within reason), and the name of at least one other dealer in the area that sells that same make of car. That way you can be like "well since we can't come to a deal maybe X in town will be willing to negotiate"

And if they don't play ball leave and go to the other place.

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Just leave then.

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Though tbh right now might not exactly be a prime car buying time because a lot of people are still out of work and not looking to buy a car so (some) dealerships might be running tighter margins already and less interested in lowering prices

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A new car depreciates the moment you drive it off the lot.

But here, I've got the best YouTube channel for this particular situation.

He's got tons of videos on buying used cars, brands to avoid, etc. Lifelong mechanic and car salesman.

https://www.youtube.com/user/scottykilmer

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44D8-98-hgI

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Check for rust, leaks, etc. Listen to the engine, if it stutters or makes noises in idle. Have your mechanic look at it too.
Buying used won't be the end of the world if the previous owner(s) took care of it. I prefer buying cars with one owner or ones that were a lease.
Like, my car right now is 14 years old and is a solid vehicle. My previous car was 4 years old when I got it and was a piece of shit. It all depends.

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If you want a new car buy a used one thats 1-2 years old with low mileage. The original owner already took the hit from buying it and selling it back at a depreciated value.

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Also research the vehicle you're looking at, current and previous. You don't wanna buy a car then find out that you have to replace the transmission soon after. Check their warranties too.

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wackyteen posted...

Then go to a different dealership. (or threaten to)

You should always know what you want, the price you want(within reason), and the name of at least one other dealer in the area that sells that same make of car. That way you can be like "well since we can't come to a deal maybe X in town will be willing to negotiate"

And if they don't play ball leave and go to the other place.

I did this. These are the only dealers in the area so they probs think they can run the place but I'll drive 3 hours to save several thousand dollars, no prob
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Japanese cars are usually the best to get pre owned.

Honda Toyota Mazda

Cost efficient, extremely well made cars.

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research everything about the car you want on your own including what you want to pay, average sale price of vehicles is pretty easy to find. get your loan pre approved. find your car at a dealer, do all the test driving/check out shit. when price comes up stick with what you've already committed.

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Ur not going to win

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JBaLLEN66 posted...

Ur not going to win

Its not a game you're meant to win.

They hold all the winning cards by default.

But you can walk away with comparable victories.

Like they wanted $10,777 for my car and i got them to go down to $8200 (which after taxes and stuff was $8900).

Did I win? No, not really, but I wound up saving like $2800 once all was said and done. That's a win in my book *shrugs*


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Buy private property. Pay a mechanic $100 to go over the car with a fine toothed comb.

Bada bing bada boom

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wackyteen posted...

Its not a game you're meant to win.

They hold all the winning cards by default.

But you can walk away with comparable victories.

Like they wanted $10,777 for my car and i got them to go down to $8200 (which after taxes and stuff was $8900).

Did I win? No, not really, but I wound up saving like $2800 once all was said and done. That's a win in my book *shrugs*

yep, you can cut your losses but youre not going to just outright win over the car dealer lol

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Ilishe posted...

Japanese cars are usually the best to get pre owned.

Honda Toyota Mazda

Cost efficient, extremely well made cars.

This but stay away from Nissan, they were fantastic up til like 2002 and now they're hot garbage

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Rule #1 to buying a car is... Always buy cash. Never finance a car. Financing a car is the biggest rip off in the world. Let me explain why it is. For one, when you finance a car you have to pay for full coverage insurance, which is basically a tax, you have to be a pretty lousy driver to need full coverage insurance. Second, when you finance you never own the car until you pay it off, a lot of things can happen in 5-7 years, and a $350+ monthly payment is a huge liability. You could literally be on your last payment, and if you can't pay it you will lose all you invested in your car.

Here's why you buy cash. When you buy a car cash you don't have a monthly payment, so you save yourself $350+/month, you can also get liability insurance and save yourself an extra $600/year. With all the money you save from buying cash(let's say you buy a $4,000 suv) you can reinvest that money back into the car at a good mechanic shop, figure if you're saving $350/month in payments, that is $4200 + $600 = $4800 you can reinvest into your SUV. Given the fact that most $4000 SUVs from a PRIVATE SELLER(old woman are the best to buy cars from) is going to be in good condition already, within 1 year of having the car you can have pretty much a brand new SUV, then after that you can buy another car with the money you save.

Also, another reason for buying cash is that you can sell the car if you need the money, it's an asset. When you finance you can't even sell the car until you pay it off, and if you're dumb enough to finance chances are you'll purchase a new car before you even own your car so you'll never have that asset liquidity money.

Only a fool would buy a brand new car. And an even bigger fool would buy a used car from a dealership, those cars are often sold with around 30k-50k miles and used to be rentals. I financed my car through carmax and learned this the hard way, I had to get the transmission fixed at 75k miles, thank God I payed for warranty.

I hope this post helps you. Remember, do not buy New, do not buy from a dealership, buy from a private seller, preferably folks in their 50s. Reinvest your savings into the car and save up for a new car as well and repeat the process.

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European cars are trash.

Only buy American if you need a truck.

Toyota and Honda hold their value longest and are the easiest to fix.

Buy Toyota or Honda.
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lilORANG posted...

These bitches literally just printed out the msrp price from their internet page and gave it to me. Unwilling to negotiate at all lol.

That's not so uncommon these days. A lot of their profit is selling you dumb add-ons you don't need while you're in their office finalizing everything. Think long and hard before they talk you into buying different warranties, etc. A lot of that stuff is a bad deal.

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lilORANG posted...

How to haggle with dealers? How to make sure I, a guy who knows very little about cars, isn't getting ripped off. Etc.

If the site doesnt have Kelley blue book next to it, or something similar then leave that site.

Always check that for used cars, itll list everything thats ever happened to that car service wise or accident wise. If it doesnt, dont trust the car.

If a car is listed online for $15,000 get ready to pay $17,000. Unless you go in and say this is exactly how much I have and exactly how much I want to spend and some places will work with you some wont. I got fed up looking for my current car, so after several visits to other places I put all my money together, had some cash, and said I want this car but this is all I have. They fucked around for like an hour and said they could make it work.

Dont be Hank Hill and just take any offer thats given to you.

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Make sure it has a minimum of 4 wheels

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And a big thing is dont pay too much attention to user reviews, unless its an extremely common thing with an enormous amount of people mentioning it.

People dont give compliments, they only give complaints. If you look at user reviews youll just get scared off from ever buying a car, or scared off from buying a perfectly reliable car.

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Save

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always haggle down. keep asking if there's any way they can go lower. and then ask again. and then at the end if you're comfortable with it take it. if not take out your fake piece of paper with fake prices on it, write down their final offer and say "let me go look at one more place" and see if they can drop it one more time.

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Pay in cash, you will earn the dealer's respect.

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There's so much disinformation here, it's laughable. Buy cash? Full coverage insurance is a scam? Be friendly? Never buy new? lolwtf

Some basic tips:

• First and foremost, even if you are buying cash, never mention that you're going to buy with cash. Otherwise, dealers won't give a shit about you, and just give you MSRP prices, because they make money off of financing.
• Sometimes, depending on the car, buying brand new makes sense compared to buying used. So don't just fall for the "I'm going to buy used only" trap. Look for new cars as well. For example, a new car might literally be cheaper than used, because of incentives the manufacturer has running at the time; another example is when you're buying a car that has good residual value, where it doesn't make sense to save $1,000 by buying a 3-year old car (e.g., most trucks, collectible cars, and a Land Cruiser).
• Beware the "four squares" tactic (three squares if you're not trading in). Don't fall for this bullshit, and just finish negotiating one aspect at a time.
• Speaking of the four squares, don't fall for the monthly payment trap. Talk final cost.
• If you are financing, bring your own financing to the table (but as I mentioned, do not bring this up until the very end). But don't be afraid to actually use the dealer's financing. For example, if the dealer is offering 0%, go for it. If the dealer is offering the price only with dealer's financing, and the price is like $10k off MSRP, well then finance away, with whatever APR the dealer throws at you because you're just going to refinance with your own financing.
• Don't even step foot into the dealer until you got the price down and an invoice ready to go. Don't be afraid to search nationwide, because if it's a brand new car, it doesn't matter where you buy it; it'll be brand new.
• Review your invoice carefully. Make sure there's no bullshit fees added on there. If there is, call them out on it.
• When you're in the finance office, do not fall for their spiel on maintenance plans, extended warranty, etc. They are generally not worth the money.
• Say you still want the extended warranty. This can literally be bought at any time after; you do not have to buy it there, no matter what the finance manager says. After you sign and you leave with the car, call a bunch of dealers nationwide and ask for "at cost + $100", and watch them balk and reply that they can do "at cost + $500". Then ask for the final out the door price. Now rinse and repeat with other dealers. Go with the cheapest. You can buy this anywhere. Note: Dealers will lie to you what "at cost" is, so watch out for that.

Dont worry so much about haggling if you arent confident. They do it all the time, and youre leveraging their desperation for a sale versus your desperation for a car. The first rule is that you cant be scared to walk away, and if you are, just suck it up. I probably overpaid on my first car purchase, but it was a unicorn, Id gone over a month without a car, and I didnt want to lose the best option Id found after rigorous searching. Im still happy with the purchase.

Stick to Toyotas and Hondas for used unless you know a lot about cars. Get it inspected at a garage before you buy. Learn about certain mileage benchmarks youll have to consider for upcoming maintenance.

Look at the vehicle history. Stay away from cars that were in an accident or lived in a snowy or beach climate. Rust city. Stay the fuck away from CVTs. Stay away from used hybrids. Stay away from vehicles with a long list of owners. Look for frequent regular maintenance documentation, because thats a good sign the car was looked after. Retired rental cars arent necessarily a bad option for that reason.

oh, if youre buying new for some reason, you can afford to haggle harder. There are hundreds of identical cars available new.

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i never understood the "don't buy new" thing. i'd be scared as crap to buy a used car. also go with honda and toyota. if you take care of it you'll have that thing for 20 years. i'm sure my detroit ancestory looks down on me for saying that but don't buy american.

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Know how much the car you're looking for is worth, and know how much you're willing to pay for it(be reasonable), and be willing to walk away if you can't get that price. Simple as that

I also strongly recommend not buying something you have to finance. Dealers might say they want you to finance to get a certain price, which is fine, but be able to pay it off after you drive off the lot

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FunnyPies posted...

Review your invoice carefully. Make sure there's no bullshit fees added on there. If there is, call them out on it.

You gotta be careful with this one. Seriously. Some dealers double charge you for delivery and destination fees. Check the invoice, and if it has a delivery/destination fee, check the monroney sticker. If the sticker has the fee in there, call the dealer out for this double charge bullshit.

SauI_Goodman posted...

i never understood the "don't buy new" thing. i'd be scared as crap to buy a used car. also go with honda and toyota. if you take care of it you'll have that thing for 20 years. i'm sure my detroit ancestory looks down on me for saying that but don't buy american.

I mean, these days you can see the entire mechanical/accident history of a used car

New cars(generally) lose value as soon as you buy them. If you don't care about that, and can afford a new car. Sure, go for it

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If you're buying used, there's not a lot of wiggle room with used cars. So don't be surprised if you follow these tactics here and walk away, and find out the dealer never calls you back. Check the sale records of other similarly equipped used cars, and if the price is reasonable (i.e., at the average or under), then accept it and buy it; don't play games, because it won't work in your favor (i.e., you won't get the car and the dealer won't "crawl back").

Solid Snake07 posted...

I mean, these days you can see the entire mechanical/accident history of a used car

You have no idea how the person drove the first 1,000 miles. The first owner might've floored it constantly, redlined it, towed heavy loads, etc. for the first couple thousand miles, which will ruin the engine in the long run.

Solid Snake07 posted...

I mean, these days you can see the entire mechanical/accident history of a used car

New cars(generally) lose value as soon as you buy them. If you don't care about that, and can afford a new car. Sure, go for it

i don't trust carfax. i tried to turn in one of my cars about 10 years ago and they tried to tell me i was in an accident in nebraska so the trade value would come down. i told them i've never even been to nebraska. they said they had to go by the carfax so i just drove away and sold it in the classifieds.

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Just show them the truecar price in your area and they should at least meet that, if not lower.
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