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S/o forester: car buying tips?

kmm2150kmm2150 member
in Parenting
We've only bought one other car before, and while we got a great deal in a sense ("used" car but with less than 100 miles on it, so the price was great), we feel in hindsight like we got screwed on things like the interest rate. Any great car-buying/haggling tips? I know one thing we have in our favor is that while we know what we want, it's not urgent - we have a perfectly good vehicle that's paid off, we're just ready for something else that fits our family better but we can certainly hold out till we find the best deal. Any other suggestions? @ratpasta gave some great tips the other day, so thanks for those!
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Re: S/o forester: car buying tips?

  • littlestjerrylittlestjerry member
    From experience: eat before you head out. It took so fucking long to buy our last car, and I missed lunch and was in a Hulk-like bad mood by the time it was over. Perhaps this is obvious advice, but I clearly didn't get the memo.



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  • jackson290721jackson290721 member
    H sells cars. You normally have more wiggle room on used. Normally. Whatever they say is their lowest price can not possibly go any lower, offer $500 less. 
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    because it didn't fucking snow enough for me to build my own
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  • jackson290721jackson290721 member
    fredalina said:
    Never ever talk payments. Talk in terms of car price. If you get a new car, find out what the dealer invoice price was (Google is your friend) and offer $k over it. If asked about trades, tell them you are going to hang onto your current car. Get an offer in writing and then ask what they'd give you for your trade in. (Say, just out of curiosity, if I did want to trade, what would you give me?) And buy on the last weekend in March or December if possible, esp March if buying Japanese and December if buying domestic. Don't buy Korean so no problem there :).
    If you do buy in march, expect to be there all day long. Everyone will be buying cars in march with tax returns. 
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    because it didn't fucking snow enough for me to build my own
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  • RatpastaRatpasta member
    edited February 2014
    kmm2150 said:
    Any other suggestions? @ratpasta gave some great tips the other day, so thanks for those!
    my pleasure.  I have nothing against the car companies but the stealerships on the other hand.....also if you finance through the car company sometimes they will give you an insanely low rate.  I think we got .9% because I told them I was going to use our credit unions rate at 1.5% - so you can try that angle as well.
    The beautiful thing is that you really dont have to haggle.  Do your homework on Edmunds or whatever and armed with knowledge just offer what you want to spend to the Fleet Manager.
    It usually works like a charm.  I think we paid $500 above invoice for our Passat TDI and that was only because it was the first one in California.
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  • kmm2150kmm2150 member
    @ratpasta where do you find contact info for the fleet manager? Is it usually up on the website or did you have to call and ask for them?
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  • RatpastaRatpasta member
    kmm2150 said:
    @ratpasta where do you find contact info for the fleet manager? Is it usually up on the website or did you have to call and ask for them?
    ya find the dealership that you like (via online reviews or what have you), and on their website they should have all their people listed so you can email them directly.   Thats how we did it and all of what little negotiation there was was handled over email.
    If not, just go down there or call and ask for the Fleet Manager.  Good luck and I hope you find something you love!
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  • MelCfromMNMelCfromMN member

    I second checking the rates with your bank first as well. Other tips I don't see mentioned: Check out a site like carsoup.com to compare what others locally are selling for; look for end of the year/month specials(dealerships have to meet their quotas, yearly is usually best but month end are sometimes good too); and if buying used, check out program cars if you're not too picky (I have had great luck with buying ex-rentals or big companies sometimes lease a bunch that some big wig drove around for a year, they are usually low mileage and required to be maintained, although some rentals will scare people off, I have never had a problem).  Also, check for a maintenance program, I recently bought a GM Certified car that came with 2 years of free oil changes and every other maintenance other than gas...Good Luck, and I agree, plan to be there for a few hours, I'm pretty sure I spent less time buying a house than a car.

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