buying a car from a dealer

If I didn't know better, I'd think Chef was my brother. As somebody who grew up in a family of car dealers, I agree with his post.

 

Mizzou's advice is sound, if you can find a good car with low mileage on it. Having leased for a few years, I'd also say it's probably the more sensible way to get into the new car market because you're sure not getting value in buying.

 

Yeah. The salesmen make all the different. Some you can tell are determined to make as much as they can on each sale and won't budge on anything.

Seems like if they ain't screwing you out of $6,000 or more, they don't want to lift a finger.

Others are great.

 

Sorry if I didn't make this clear, but I'm getting a used car from the dealer. Specifically an '06 Charger (I had a separate thread on them earlier).

 

Used cars have their advantages....

A: Save a bunch over new

New cars have their advantages....

A: With most, if not all manufacturers offering 0% interest for the life of the loan....no matter the price, still pretty hard to pass up....

B: Still get that new car smell......Doesn't matter who you are, nothing beats the feeling of driving a brand new car off the lot, with the odometer at like 12 or something like that.

 

This thread reminds me why I hate, hate, HATE to buy a new car.

 

If you're going to go this route, look over the vehicle like a hawk. Some people are exactly as Mizzou has described. Others are bad deals and terrible ownership experiences waiting to happen - something mechanically is afoul and fixed just enough so it becomes your headache, others are wrecked and not structurally sound.

Back to topic ... Have financing secured elsewhere as leverage. Better yet, when it comes time to sit down with the salesman/consultant, DO NOT - I repeat DO NOT - answer the question "What can you afford in payments?" Tell them you wish to discuss the price of the vehicle and ONLY the price of the vehicles. Then haggle over payment possibilities. Don't let the dealer lump these items together ... if you do, you're looking at numerical information overload, you get frustrated and then the dealer starting hearing his cash register overflow.

Good luck, Rusty.