Car Buying , Part Two

I've been doing more extensive research this time, looking on the Internet for all the prices for many dealers from a wider area that I normally would have looked in. This allows me to get more comparisons and start to try to play the dealers against each other. Sometimes I wonder if they already know that I'm trying to play them and they're going to play me double instead. I also went to Consumer Reports and I paid to have a pricing report made out for the specific model but I want. It cost $14.00, but I figure for $14.00 it's a small price to pay to have pages of information handy.


I also learned some things I didn't even know about the cost of cars and options before I go to the dealership In addition, I used a service called TrueCar.com and submitted my request to three area dealers. TrueCar allows you to print out or save to your phone a saving certificate so that you can go to a dealer with the preprinted certificate in hand and they will take off a particular figure from the price without hassle. In my case its about $3500. You would think that should be in addition to everything else that I can negotiate with the dealer but in reality its just that price of off the MSRP or manufacturer's suggested retail price. Now in my research I have realized and found out that the MSRP is just a number. It's not really what the car costs or what it should be priced at, its just a number, merely a starting point for them to sell up and me to try to get them to come down.


As with anything Internet related, they passed my information to the dealers, and they emailed me my “Savings Certificates” within a minute. Of course, they all called me repeatedly until I answered. This, like using a service like Lending Tree for home loans, turns your phone into a constant ringing machine. Don't use these services if you don't want to be contacted. You could use a different email address and fake phone number if you just want to see the pricing.


One other piece of advice that I got was to make sure that I already know that I am qualified to buy a car in the first place. by going to your bank or any bank and getting pre-approved. It makes sense that way because when it comes to financing you can say “I'm all set I just have to go to my bank and sign paperwork” or in the case of Bank of America if I go to one of their authorized dealers I can just simply have them find out that I'm already pre approved and it shouldn't be a big deal except for paperwork with the bank. My guess is that the authorized dealers do the paperwork on behalf of the bank.