Car buying advice. *UPDATED*

I would have been fired for not making enough money for the dealership. I probably would have sold a lot of cars though.

I've been very successful at buying new cars, and do not agree with many of OP's suggestions.

Main thing is do your homework on Edmunds.com -- You can find on their forums the deals people are getting locally if you ask. Many savy people who know the dealer cash back (which makes the invocie price eveb lower).

Key is time is $, so tell them, I know so and do dealer will do this deal, so tell them you'll buy at that price where they can make a few hundred $ profit.

Other thing to do is if they do have the car you really want in their inventory on the lot, but tell them you want another color. They say they can get it for you, from a sister dealer, but you'll pay more. Get on your cell phone in front of the salesperson and say you are calling the wife and that they only have this color, and act like you'll walk on them. You will end up getting the car as they want to get rid of their inventory.

You don't need to hire me to do anything for you, but I appreciate the offer. I didn't post this stuff on a public forum because I wanted to make money from it. I am pissed off that people allow themselves to be put through the whole process and are usually none the wiser. Car sales has a high employment turnover rate for a reason. Only the ones without a conscience can continually screw people over and not want to kill themselves. "I was just doing my job." is not an acceptable excuse.

One of the things that pissed me off most during training was that the new group of approximately 12 salespeople were actually being "sold" on the methods and tactics to use to sell cars for as much money as possible. The managers were actually trying to tell us that it was ok to screw people if it meant more money. It was much more involved and detailed than that I won't bother going into the specifics. The general idea was to make as much money as possible from each customer that walked through the door. They even trained us to deal with people who knew the game, as I have explained it. Guess what. They wanted those people out of the lot as fast as possible, and admitted that a small profit is better than none at all. That way the salesman could move on to the next, more lucrative victim.

MOVE THE CARS, anyway you can, but make as much money as you can in the process.

It is a predatory business from the top down. If you want a BRAND NEW CAR, pay attention to what I have told you. If you can find a private owner who is getting rid of a car thats a couple of years old, you can probably relax a bit. Any vehicle that I buy from now on will be at least 2 years old and from a private owner. Private owners do not have overhead and are not motivated by profit. 2 years is also enough time to get any potential problems from manufacturing discovered and corrected.

They were not "suggestions" as you say, they were what I learned from my experience. However, I do agree with the last parts of your post. If you know you are going to be taken advantage of, it's best to turn it around on them.

Also good advice.

And just what do you drive around, do you peddle for miles and miles?

What about people with bad credit, is there specific banks out there that work with it. I would rather buy from a private seller, they are cheaper and have less miles.

Your credit has to be exceptionally bad in order to *not* get a horrendously high interest rate loan through a big dealership. They have multiple financing sources, and can finance to almost anyone. If you have a job and can prove that you *might* be able to make the payments, they can get you a loan that you should never even consider actually taking.

Buy private and pay with cash. If you want to build your credit, get one of those low limit secured credit cards. There is loads of info on the net on how to do it. 6-12 months is all it takes.

Last Edited by jailarson on 02/26/2012 07:36 PM

Take it from an engineer and scientist, buy a low displacement diesel because in the next few months you won't be drivin' up to pump 7 and sliding your credit card. You'll be lucky if you're still breathing, and if you are you will need a vehicle that can bun a wide variety of fuels.

LOL, thats probably true.

i'm not joking

When a car company is offering a 0% or ultra low financing for 36-60 months, does it matter or are you still getting screwed?

What makes and models fit this criteria?

Believe me, you'll pay for it then in the price. Don't use dealer finnacing and get pre-apporved with a check valid for $xx. Don't tell them what it is good for "up to".

Do your homework on Edmunds.com forums and you can usually find what people are getting for the exact model your looking for. Look at my post earlier for other tips.

Also, never trade your car in to the dealer.

I know you weren't, but that is a whole different subject that some people are just not ready for. This thread is about not getting ripped off by a car dealer whilst operating under the illusion that "everything is going to get better". Call it cognative dissonance if you want.

So there.

Ditto.

You will only be screwed if you allow them to screw you. Read and understand what you are reading before you sign anything. Do not allow yourself to get railroaded. You can get a good deal on a new car from a big dealership, but you have to be willing to stand up for yourself and negotiate. What is your time worth? If six hours of negotiation saves you $1000 off the price of a new car, then it is worth it. Even if you normally make $150 an hour, its still worth it.

Oh, one last addition. The managers even warned us to watch our backs against the other salesmen. lol. All salesman had to fill out a form when they made a final sale for price and all that. When a car was sold, it may also have been a referral that YOU brought in, but another salesman would make the sale if you were not there, or were busy with another customer. So when the sale was made, the commission would be "split" between the two salesmen, half for making the sale, half for bringing in the victim.

What they warned us about was "form switches". With so many cars being sold, a lot of forms were being filled out and put in the same box. On a busy day, there may be 25 or so forms in the box. It was really easy to pull out a form, switch it to a "split" and gain a commission without actually doing anything. The management learned from that though, and increased the difficulty of switching forms. However, if you had a referral come in and you happened to not be there to greet them, the salesman would steal your referral and you would only find out the next time you saw them when they ask you "I came into the dealership and you weren't there. But "Terry" helped me out. Like my new truck?" Then you are thinking, "Oh, where is my commission. "Terry" didn't mention to me that he "helped" you. Wonder what happened there......."

Last Edited by jailarson on 03/03/2012 12:13 AM