Buying a new car? Read here first!

T

tustah

New member
This is going to be an extremely detailed post, since I want to provide you with as much information as possible. Keep in mind, the more people that use this to purchase their car, the more dealerships will catch on.



In January, I began doing extensive online research on how to purchase a new car at the dealership. At the moment, I learned that talking with a salesperson is pointless, and purchasing the vehicle online would produce a cheaper price. I was looking for a 2006 Honda Accord Coupe EX in black and received many quotes (I searched in Austin, Dallas, Houston).



MSRP = $23,900

Invoice = $21,018



I didn't pull the trigger though. I continued doing research and found a site called Fighting Chance (http://www.fightingchance.com/). It was only $35 to purchase and I thought it would give me an edge to getting a great deal.



Basically, James Bragg (the owner, very nice gentleman to talk with), sends you all the information about the vehicle you are looking to purchase, as well as a sales tactic called the "FAX ATTACK". You use all this information and form a 1 page fax to send to the dealership's Sales Manager (you need to call all the dealerships and ask for their name and nearest fax machine number).



The best time to fax is 1 week right before the month ends (since they have to meet monthly sales goals). After you fax to maybe 15 or more dealerships (which you should do early in the morning so they see it right away), expect to receive calls from 11-2, and a few in the late afternoon. They will call you and give you a quote, in which you will respond by saying you are waiting to hear from a couple of more dealerships, and will call them back the next day to let them know where they stand. Do not negotiate with them yet!



Expect a total of half dealerships to call. You're just taking bids, and you're not negotiating. After receiving all bids, list them on a sheet of paper from highest bid to lowest bid.



Next day, early afternoon, call them from highest bid to lowest bid and tell them the lowest bid you received (and bite your tongue!). If they decide to give you a lower bid, add it to the bottom of the list. Keep it going until you receive the LOWEST bid possible. Arrange when to come in, and you're set!



My final purchase came out to be exactly $22,000, after taxes and fees.



Believe it came out to $1000 BELOW invoice.



Let me know how it goes! Good luck to everyone!
 
Good information. This tactic has been around for a while. Depending on the area that one lives though, will determine it's success. It highly depeonds on how much competition a dealership has in a certain area. Also, I found in my new car buying experience, that the rock bottom prices are never really given out on the phone. When you are in person ready to sign, well, in my experience, that is when the dealerships will bend the most.
 
thanks for posting this. this sounds alot better than the hours i spent at the dealership negotiating back and forth, but in the end i still got away with $500 below invoice... :chuckle:
 
This method is pretty fun actually. You can sense maybe 2 dealerships in desperation of a sale. I was phone tagging them for quite a while until one of them said they can't go lower than my final price.



What's nice about this is that it only takes 2 days. Not to mention, doesn't take much time either.
 
My parents did that when they bought a new yukon. Sent out a list of the options that they wanted via email and asked for quotes. Got responses back from many of them and began negotations. Got theres far below the price at the local dealership;
 
I emailed as well but found that many of them forwarded the email to the Internet Sales Manager, who has no authority to offer the price below invoice. I just stuck to faxing. Most likely, the sales manager will tell the sales associate to make the sale for them, even if they take a loss.



They may be losing money on the sale, but if they hit their monthly quota, they receive a huge bonus from the manufacturer.
 
This method sounds good, but I'm not sure it will help with the next new car purchase I have in mind, a Mini Cooper S for my wife. It won't happen for at least several months, after I get some other things paid off. The problem is there's only one local dealer, and the next closest ones are 4-5 hours away. To be honest, Mini's are enough of a hot commodity these days that I'm guessing their prices are non-negotiable. Right now she's bummed that they just discontinued her favorite color, Liquid Yellow.
 
That's similar to what I did for my WRX. I used cars.com and sent emails for quotes to a few respectable dealerships (I got the skinny from a Subaru board on which dealerships to work with). I called them, told them I had quotes from other dealerships, and asked if they could do better. In the end, I visited the 2 best dealerships and ultimately got my car for $200 under invoice. Not bad for 3 days worth of work...pretty painless too! I can't stand haggling with sales people, so this process really removed a lot of that.
 
velobard said:
This method sounds good, but I'm not sure it will help with the next new car purchase I have in mind, a Mini Cooper S for my wife. It won't happen for at least several months, after I get some other things paid off. The problem is there's only one local dealer, and the next closest ones are 4-5 hours away. To be honest, Mini's are enough of a hot commodity these days that I'm guessing their prices are non-negotiable. Right now she's bummed that they just discontinued her favorite color, Liquid Yellow.
Click to expand...



I agree, you can't really do much since there's not enough competition.
 
tustah said:
I agree, you can't really do much since there's not enough competition.
Click to expand...

The good news with the Mini is they hold their value better than about anything else I've seen on the market. The '02 and '03 models aren't significantly cheaper than the new ones.
 
All going to depend on the particular brand of car you are going to purchase...If you are buying an American brand, Honda, Nissan, Toyota etc it would probably work best....At the high end dealerships, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Lexus it might work on the less expensive cars like an C Class, 3 Series, A4, ES but not on any of the others...I have worked at Lexus and now at Mercedes and can tell you that you will not get any price quotes over the telephone, by fax or E Mail....
 
I basically used the same method but via email. My girlfriend was looking for either a red TSX or a white Civic. I emaild about 20-30 dealers for each car and had rock bottom quotes with a day of starting each search.



In the end the girlfriend went to "look" at a dealership without me and got conned into buying on the spot by someone who was an old "friend who was going to hook her up". She had it handed to her...and boy was I po'd.



It was funny how desperate some of the dealerships got though. You could tell exactly who was hurting and who made their quotas for the month. It was actually fun to do too. I highly recommend this as the only way to purchase a new vehicle. And remember your not locked into just local dealerships. Dealerships can ship cars for super cheap prices, but they think you don't know this. So you can easily hold one on the west coast against one on the East. Use it to your advantage.
 
This method totally depends on the dealership and the car. On the highly demanded cars they will usually not budge as they know someone else will come and pick it up if you don't. Also, some more rare cars will carry hefty mark-ups on the price as they know they can sell the car ABOVE MSRP.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top