Getting the best price on a new car - how?

[KrisM]

We're still debating Taurus X and Odyssey. I have questions about the Odyssey though and getting it for a good price.

The stock is really low. The first dealer I visited had none for me to drive. The second had only 1. Yesterday I noticed the first had 22 listed online and I asked my mom to go take a look at colors for me. The dealer is near her and the colors online are awful to look at. Well, all 22 are "presold" and aren't really in inventory and they still have 0 to sell.

If stock is so low or demand so high, do I have any chance in negotiating a price much lower than MSRP? Why would they negotiate if they can sell so many quickly?

DH hasn't driven one and I'm not sure I'll be able to find one for him to test drive. It seems crazy that they're so hard to find! I guess they want everyone to wait and buy the 2011.

Any advice?

[katydid1971]

We have had great luck emailing every dealership within 100 miles and asking for their best price on the exact car we want. We have saved $1000+ on our last two cars but drove two hours to get them. You can ask your local dealership if they will match your lowest price mine hasn't both times but its worth a call IYKWIM. Hope that helps.
BTW we have an Oddy and LOVE it!!!

[saleenl]

We're also looking for an Odyssey and I've read of people having great experiences with the American Express car buying program. It looks like it's just a branded version of a website called Zag. I haven't tried using it yet, so I don't know for sure how well it works. I like the looks of it, though! I plan on trying it first when we are ready to buy. We don't really want to buy until June or July, but I am worried about not finding the 2010 we want. We can't wait until the fall to buy a van, so we might just buy it sooner than we had planned in order to get the color and options we want.

[niccig]

We have had great luck emailing every dealership within 100 miles and asking for their best price on the exact car we want. We have saved $1000+ on our last two cars but drove two hours to get them. You can ask your local dealership if they will match your lowest price mine hasn't both times but its worth a call IYKWIM.

We did the same. I worked out the exact model, colour, etc. and then I emailed all dealers around us asking for best price out the door. Some didn't reply, others did. I asked if the model they had came with accessories, I did not want any accessories eg. roof rack etc, as I read that they add on more than if you go to parts department or buy online. Some dealers said they couldn't remove the extra "package", I didn't deal with those. One dealer was up front from the beginning, had car in stock (important), and said they could remove extra alarm and bluetooth. We got there, they tried to bait and switch us for another salesman rather than the person I had emailed. I refused and told them I would only deal with X. He finally came out, honoured the emiail, tried to push the alarm/bluetooth/extended warranty a little, but backed off when we said no.

It did help that from my emails I knew what other dealers had on the lot and the price. I made sure he knew that I had emailed/spoken to other dealerships in the area, and he was first we called, but would only get our business if he would honour his email price. Basically siad that we were buying a car that weekend, either from him or another dealer that I had been emailing with.

DH was pleasantly surprised that there was no haggling, we got it for a significant amount under MSRP, and no extras thrown in.

I used tips from this site to prepare for the purchase http://www.carbuyingtips.com/carintro.html they go over scams they can use eg. they go to talk to "manager", but set intercom on phone so they can hear what you're saying to your spouse. I don't know if this is true or not, but when the salesman left to go check with someone, DH asked me "what will we do if he doesn't honour x." I said "well y dealership has it in blue and z dealership has it in white and I don't care about the colour, so we'll go there." Like the Lowes commercial about the couple practicing their negotiations before buying appliances, Dh and I talked about what was/was not a deal breaker, before hand. I had done all the research on the car/buying process, so I was the one to do most of the talking and refusing "no, I don't want bluetooth, it's a dealbreaker if it stays on the car. etc". Dh would then chime in too.

If stock is really low, you could have difficulty negotiating. Try the email route, as you might find that the Internet Sales team is NOT the same as regular salespeople. At our Honda dealer it was different, and he just wanted a sale, any sale. Make it clear you will be buying, but only coming in to sign paperwork.

You could try what my BIL did. He went in to buy the car and everytime the salesman came back after talking to his manager and gave a new amount, my BIL would excuse himself saying "I have to now call my manger, my wife." and he would go outside and call her, chat about something, come back in and say "no, my wife won't go for that price. Can you do better? No, you can't, well she doesn't even want me to get this car, and she wants me home, so if you can't negotiate more, then I'll just go" It worked for him. I prefered email as no face to face bluffing - I'm terrible at poker.
HTH

[codex57]

First, check the carsdirect.com price. That will give you a "baseline" price for your zip code. The theory is if that's the lowest you can find, just buy it there. In my experience, any dealer will match or beat the carsdirect.com price tho.

If you have a bit more time, go look for forums for the car you're interested in. There's usually a thread where people post what price they just bought. Edmunds.com usually has a thread for every model, but some of the more popular vehicles have their own dedicated forums.

Once you've got a pretty good idea what a good price is, I'd then e-mail all the dealers within a certain mile range. Frankly, I'd go beyond 100 miles. It's worth the gas IMO. Since I'm in NorCal, I'll also check out the SoCal dealers. That's basically a 400-500 mile radius. I don't bother with Oregon simply cuz SoCal has so many dealers I've got better odds there.

You basically e-mail all the dealers what you're looking for. Not everyone will respond. You take the responses and then play them off each other. Shouldn't take long before you get a winner.

[mytwosons]

We priced out what we wanted on edmunds.com and then used their email feature to request quotes. Did all the rest by email. Next time we do it, I will set up a new gmail account just for that purpose; I'm still getting spam from a few of the dealers, even after telling them to remove me from their list.

[KrisM]

First, check the carsdirect.com price. That will give you a "baseline" price for your zip code. The theory is if that's the lowest you can find, just buy it there. In my experience, any dealer will match or beat the carsdirect.com price tho.

If you have a bit more time, go look for forums for the car you're interested in. There's usually a thread where people post what price they just bought. Edmunds.com usually has a thread for every model, but some of the more popular vehicles have their own dedicated forums.

Once you've got a pretty good idea what a good price is, I'd then e-mail all the dealers within a certain mile range. Frankly, I'd go beyond 100 miles. It's worth the gas IMO. Since I'm in NorCal, I'll also check out the SoCal dealers. That's basically a 400-500 mile radius. I don't bother with Oregon simply cuz SoCal has so many dealers I've got better odds there.

You basically e-mail all the dealers what you're looking for. Not everyone will respond. You take the responses and then play them off each other. Shouldn't take long before you get a winner.

I've done both of those things. For an EX-LCarsdirect says about $30,200 and people at Ody Club forums are paying around $28,200, so quite a bit lower, IMO. I'll try the emailing game and see how it works.

I truly can't imagine driving 400 miles with 3 kids crammed in a Saturn to buy a minivan and driving back! I could go more than 100, but not that much .

[KrisM]

You could try what my BIL did. He went in to buy the car and everytime the salesman came back after talking to his manager and gave a new amount, my BIL would excuse himself saying "I have to now call my manger, my wife." and he would go outside and call her, chat about something, come back in and say "no, my wife won't go for that price. Can you do better? No, you can't, well she doesn't even want me to get this car, and she wants me home, so if you can't negotiate more, then I'll just go" It worked for him. I prefered email as no face to face bluffing - I'm terrible at poker.
HTH

Tha'ts pretty funny!

Email will definitely be easier. Thank you for the tips about once we get there.

The only other cars we've bought we didn't have to negotiate because they were employee pricing. So much easier!

[KrisM]

BTW we have an Oddy and LOVE it!!!

I think this is what we'll get. I really liked the Taurus X and preferred how it drove, but I think in the long run, the Odyssey is more practical and I might end up regretting the Taurus X purchase.

We're also looking for an Odyssey and I've read of people having great experiences with the American Express car buying program. It looks like it's just a branded version of a website called Zag. I haven't tried using it yet, so I don't know for sure how well it works. I like the looks of it, though! I plan on trying it first when we are ready to buy. We don't really want to buy until June or July, but I am worried about not finding the 2010 we want. We can't wait until the fall to buy a van, so we might just buy it sooner than we had planned in order to get the color and options we want.

Thanks. I will look into that. I don't have an American Express though.

Good luck finding what you want. There are a couple colors I don't want at all and I'm hoping to avoid those. But, since I can barely find someting in stock, who knows.

[KrisM]

We're also looking for an Odyssey and I've read of people having great experiences with the American Express car buying program. It looks like it's just a branded version of a website called Zag. I haven't tried using it yet, so I don't know for sure how well it works. I like the looks of it, though! I plan on trying it first when we are ready to buy. We don't really want to buy until June or July, but I am worried about not finding the 2010 we want. We can't wait until the fall to buy a van, so we might just buy it sooner than we had planned in order to get the color and options we want.

I just checked that out, and it works for other things, like Overstock.com Cars. So, I did my info and it says there is a dealer 166 miles away who'll sell it for $29,955 and anoher 18 miles away who'll do $30,455. So, a $500 difference to drive an additional 150 miles each way. I wonder if I can do the contact form and then use that low number to negotiate with other dealers and get down closer to $28,000.

Thanks.

ETA: That price includes destination charge, $710, and so is about $1k more than people on Ody Club have paid. Still not a bad place to start with no work .