The process of going to buy a new car can be quite intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be a nerve-racking experience.
The following tips and techniques will help you remain calm as you shop for a new car and tip the negotiating power to you from the dealer.
If possible, the best time to shop for a new car is near the end of the year. Sales associates are scrambling to increase potential holiday bonuses by selling more units and there are also often healthy inventories of new-year models in stock, so dealers are under more pressure to unload older models.
Obviously, it’s not always possible to wait until late in the year to buy a new car, but timing is still important. Shopping later in the day just before the dealership is about to close can give you an edge as sales associates get anxious to wrap up a deal and get home. It’s also smart to shop on weekdays when there is less of a crowd. Sales associates are more likely to wheel and deal when they don’t have a throng of potential customers knocking down their door ready to buy.
The internet has changed the car-selling game for good. Consumers can now arm themselves with pricing information and pick the exact model they want before ever setting foot in a dealership. By figuring out which model you want ahead of time, you can do some research and check the factory invoice price. You want to get as close to this price as possible.
A great approach for people who are uncomfortable with face-to-face negotiation is to scout all of the dealers within a reasonable distance online and call or email all of the ones that have the model you want. Tell them the amount you are comfortable spending and that if they can meet that number, you’ll buy the vehicle. If they play games when you arrive, simply leave. This makes the in-person portion of the process basically a formality of signing papers.
One of the biggest negotiating advantages you have when shopping for a new car is your existing car (if you are willing to trade it in). Dealers are often seeking particular used car models (either because they have customer demand for that model or need the parts) and if you happen to have one of the used car models they want, you can often milk quite a bit from your trade-in.
The key to this strategy is knowing the Kelly Blue Book value of your trade-in before you enter the dealership. You want to get as close to that value as possible (or above).
ALWAYS look at every line of the contract before you purchase a car. Dealers are infamous for charging a few hundred bucks here or there for items that are completely unnecessary. A car alarm is a perfect example of this trap. Many cars come with factory alarms already installed, yet dealers love to sneak in cheap after-factory alarms at a huge mark-up.
Another example of a shady hidden fee would be a “gas and go” package or something similar. Essentially, you’re getting charged hundreds of dollars for some cleaner and a brush.
Many consumers don’t realize that you don’t necessarily have to buy an extended warranty at the same time you buy your car. Another common way dealers try to improve their profit margin is by artificially hiking up the price of extended warranties. Some will even go so far as to mock or scare buyers who dare not buy a overly priced warranty.
While it is usually a very good idea to get an extended warranty, you can often find them for a better price by shopping around. Some dealers do sell extended warranties apart from their cars and typically do so at a far more reasonable price.
This is probably the most important fact of all. If the dealer needs to sell the car more than you need to buy it, you’ll always have the upper hand.
