Trading in/negotiating for a new car

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Wait til December 31. Get the low-end retail value for your trade-in, take the difference between that and the invoice price for the new one, and that's what you should be paying. BTW, sticker prices are usually wayyy overpriced.. you prolly could've gotten the Civic for $13k or so.

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How do you figure? $13k seems so far below the hidden invoice price I don't see how the dealers could turn a profit on that price.

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You're thinking exactly the way they want you to. Even 13k would have been too much.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

I'll second the www.carbuyingtips.com. It's an awesome website with everything you'll need to know, including how to find out how much the car really costs the dealer and how much you should be paying. It has spreadsheets and other tools to help. I used the info and tools there to buy two new cars in the last couple years and I was able to stick it to 'em about as well as you could expect to be able to. The key is knowing what the car costs them and showing them that you know what it costs and that they can't come over the top of you with some BS like they can with the average schmoe.

They still may be able to bend you over on this particular car, being that it's just coming out and Civics are popular enough that they're bound to sell any that they get on the lot, so the pressure's not really on them to sell. You can come back with the fact that the new body style is womanly and that no other man will buy it. See if you can get anywhere with that.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

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Wait til December 31. Get the low-end retail value for your trade-in, take the difference between that and the invoice price for the new one, and that's what you should be paying. BTW, sticker prices are usually wayyy overpriced.. you prolly could've gotten the Civic for $13k or so.

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How do you figure? $13k seems so far below the hidden invoice price I don't see how the dealers could turn a profit on that price.

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You're thinking exactly the way they want you to. Even 13k would have been too much.

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They're profiting if you're paying invoice. Also, I wouldn't mention that you're paying cash until you've negotiated a price solid. They're looking to make money on the financing as much as they are on the car itself, so they probably figure that anything they give you on the price can be made up in the financing. If they know ahead of time that they're not going to get anything on the financing, they won't give you anything on the price. The trade-in works similarly, but there's not much you can get around on that - you're either going to get a deal on the new car or on the trade-in, but not both. In fact, I'd negotiate the price on the car, then the trade-in, all the while asking about payments and whatnot all along, then drop the cash deal on them once you have a good price and a good trade-in. Chip those down as much as you can before they find out they're not getting anything from you in the financing.

[MaxPower]

go to www.edmunds.com.

There you can look up the invoice price for the car you are looking at. There are also forums where people discuss how much they are paying.

The invoice price is supposed to be what the dealer pays for the car, but it really isn't. There are dealer incentives and holdbacks which they don't show you.

I got my car for a couple of hundred above invoice price, but it was a 2005 model that I bought 3 months ago.

Basically, all you need to do is decide what price you want to pay for the car. Dealers usually have an internet manager. You can email the Internet manager at a number of dealers and tell them the exact car you are looking for and how much you will pay. There is no need to negotiate in person. If you do negotiate in person just hold your position and make no concessions whatsoever. They will eventually come down to your price.

When I visited a dealership, I basically told the guy that I had done research on the internet and I knew exactly what other people were paying for the car and I wasn't going to pay any more. They protested a lot, but they finally gave a quote that was less than what I asked for. I then left the dealership, called another dealer and got it for $200 less.

I didn't trade in my old car, but from what I understand they will always screw you on the trade-in. The only thing I would recommend is to negotiate the trade-in seperately from the car price. The same thing goes for the financing.

Negotiate the price without even mentioning the trade-in and whether you are going to finance the car (or whether you will buy or lease). Once you have a price, negotiate the trade-in. Once you have that, then start talking about financing. If you don't do this, they will screw you.

I found edmunds.com to be the most useful site when buying my car.

Good luck.

[Eurotrash]

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You can come back with the fact that the new body style is womanly and that no other man will buy it. See if you can get anywhere with that.

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i'm not sure if this is quite the help he was looking for, heh

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

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You can come back with the fact that the new body style is womanly and that no other man will buy it. See if you can get anywhere with that.

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i'm not sure if this is quite the help he was looking for, heh

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You've got to push even the smallest edges.

[jason_t]

Thanks for the post Patrick. That link looks helpful.

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You can come back with the fact that the new body style is womanly and that no other man will buy it. See if you can get anywhere with that.

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This car is womanly?

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

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Thanks for the post Patrick. That link looks helpful.

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You can come back with the fact that the new body style is womanly and that no other man will buy it. See if you can get anywhere with that.

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This car is womanly?




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That's actually much better than the coupe that was posted in a thread a day or two ago. It needs bigger rims, though. Not anything gaudy, just an inch or two bigger. I actually like the current/old body style, but alas you can't stop progress, can you?

Good luck with the dealer. Stick it to those assholes.

[jason_t]

Oh the new coupe is terrible, I agree. The EX trim, which I intend to get, will come with bigger rims among some other great features. The 2004 body style is lovely, but they've done so much work on adding more power to the engine without sacrificing the economy of the Civic and the interior is larger and more luxorious than any previous Civic. I saw a 2006 test model a couple of weeks ago here in Hollywood and the car really is a beauty.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

What kind of performance are we talking about? I'd google it myself, but I'll give you a little quiz to be sure you're ready for tomorrow. Torque? Power? At what RPM? 0-60 time? How good is the fuel economy?