The way to get the best car deals
Buying a new car, or even a used car, doesn’t have to be as nervous as rolling dice many years ago.
First of all, the emergence of the Internet allows car buyers to have more information than ever before.
Before visiting a car dealer, you can easily get basic information about any car you like, including suggested retail price, features, options and comments, rather than having to trust that the dealer will tell you.
As more and more car dealers appear in the market, consumers now have more chips. It’s a common consumer strategy for two car dealers to compete with each other or, in the words of a car dealer, “Cross shop” to see which one gives you the best car deals.
However, when you are bargaining with car dealers, it is still helpful to know what to say and what not to say, because you can still say the wrong words to help car dealers gain the upper hand in the negotiation.
We interviewed an AAA car purchasing expert and a car dealer to find out what should not be said and what should be said once you enter the auto dealer’s territory.
Don’t talk about monthly payments
“Under no circumstances should you start talking about monthly payments,” says John Nelson, AAA’s director of car repair and purchase“ You should focus on negotiating the purchase price. Once you start talking about monthly payments, it’s confusing because you suddenly don’t know whether it’s a 24 month payment, or a 36 month payment, or how much of it includes interest if you finance your purchase through a dealer. “
On this issue, Nelson’s proposal was supported by a sales representative of a car dealer in Virginia who agreed to give us an interview anonymously“ After all, I don’t want to lift a stone and hit myself in the foot, “he said. So we call him Bill.
“The dealer will definitely let you negotiate the monthly payment instead of the purchase price, because we’ll make more money doing that,” Bill said“ We’re going to say, “I can get you in this car for $300 a month,” but we’re not going to say how many months. ” If we can get you to commit to a longer payment structure, we are financing, and we will make more money from your interest payments
Don’t tell car dealers you trade in
Fundamentally, Bill said, “dealers like to transfer money. Therefore, it may not be in the best interests of the buyer to mention in advance that he or she has a car that he or she wants to trade in. Because once we know that, we know that you want to get as much money as you can from trade in. “
Getting more money through the best car deals can be a smokescreen that won’t save you money in the end, Bill explained“ We’ll assess the value of the car, and if it’s worth $15000, we’ll tell you, and we’ll give you that number, “he said“ But once we do, it’s hard to make a concession on the price of the car. So in this case, you may end up paying the full recommended retail price for your new car. “
Bill told us: “nowadays, Carmax is so popular that consumers may consider selling through Carmax instead of changing cars at all. If you sell it, you almost always get a better price than the discount the dealer gives you. “
Nielson, who is AAA, has a similar suggestion in this regard, although his perspective is slightly different. You can mention that you want to change cars because you don’t want to be found out and tell them something untrue. But all you have to do is tell the sales representative, “we’ll talk about this later. We’re only focusing on the price of new cars now.” Nelson said.
“Whenever you add the discount value of an old car to the price negotiation of a new car, the numbers will start to fluctuate and you may end up confused about how much you paid for the new car,” Nelson warned“ In this case, the most common mistake consumers make is to forget the purchase price of the car, which is the most suitable price for you to negotiate. “
Get your own financing to save interest rates
Back to financing: Bill revealed, “one strategy dealers sometimes adopt is to get buyers lost in the numbers, and they ask,” where do you want to go? What’s your budget? ” Once we knew that, we started talking about financing through us, which is a way for us to make a lot of money after the best car deals.
That’s why Nielsen advises potential car buyers: “do your homework, look for existing incentives, use the payment calculator you can find online, so you know how many cars you can buy at the price you want to pay.”
