I have bought 2 new cars in the last 6 months. One for my family and one for my mother.
Never buy the first car you see. Dealers will do everything they can to not let you out the door once you walk in. Well, not all dealers but the one who sell the most cars won't. 97% of the people who leave without buying buy their car somewhere else.
Do a lot of research on what cars will do the job you want it for. Not everybody needs a big SUV or Pickup Truck every day let alone more than a day or two a month. Maybe you want one and can afford one. When gas prices go back up you might regret it. For you Hummer owners out there, now is a good time to sell it. Before gas prices go back up.
We bought a Honda Pilot. But first we looked at a Mazda CX9 and Toyota Highlander. We drove them all. Put them side by side as well. The dealers were all within a block of each other.
We also looked at a few others but they didn't fit the mission. Be able to carry 3 people, two dogs and enough clothes and gear to live somewhere almost 2000 miles away for the summer. The CX5, CR-V and Rav4 didn't cut it.
While the CX9 has more listed cargo space than the Pilot it's not really usable unless you are filling the vehicle with sand or water. All those sexy looks of the CX9 make the space less usable.
We also picked those 3 vehicles because they have really good reliability records. We also asked friends and Facebook Friends what they thought of them. Many of them had the Pilot and loved it. They would all buy another one.
Another cost is cost of ownership. The Honda gets and average 18MPG the way we use it most of the time. If we only needed the extra seats and cargo room 2 weeks a year we would have bought the
CR-V. The CR-V gets almost 30MPG. The reason we didn't get it is to rent a Minivan or Pilot size car in the summer is about $1000 per week. We need this car for about 6 weeks. Do the math.
On this car we didn't have a trade. That removes one way a dealer makes more money on you than you think. I will cover how to best deal with a trade in on how and why we bought the car we did for my mother.
Then I looked at TrueCar.com and other sites to see what the invoice price was and what others were paying. Since it was a 2015, the first 2015 the dealer had sold I had to go off the 2014 prices for reference.
They were giving a $1000 dollar incentive for buying a 2014, but $1000 to buy last years model is not enough. Mazda was giving $2,500 dollars of to buy last years model. That's almost enough to buy an older model but we chose the car for the job, not the price. there is nothing you will regret more than buying a car that doesn't do the job no matter how much cheaper it is.
The 2015 ended up costing only $500 dollars more than the 2014 with the $1000 end of year discount would have been.
O.K., so now you have the best deal on the car. Not so fast. You have to make it past the Finance guy. This is where dealers make all the money. They have lots of things to sell you. All of them are based on fear.
Extended Warranties, Paint Protection, Key and Tire Insurance. Don't but it. Any of it. If you really need an extended warranty look online before you buy. You can buy them form any dealer and many sell it for hundreds less than the one that has you locked in their office.
The paint protection costs more than getting your car waxed twice a year. Keys are covered under your motor club at least part of the cost. AAA is a good deal. Don't lose your keys.
Financing. You should know before you walk into the dealership what you can get financed for outside the dealer. When you have those numbers the dealer will either match or beat it.
If your buying a car that needs an extended warranty buy a different brand or buy a cheaper car. If you can't afford a repair out of warranty you probably can't afford the car your buying.
Out of all the cars I've owned they have all outlasted the warranty period. That's probably because I actually change the oil and fluids with Amsoil.
At the first oil change I put in Amsoil engine oil and extended life filter. Then I change it once a year or every 15,000 miles. While it's more expensive initially it's cheaper than changing oil every 6 months or buying an extended warranty.
My Astro Van has 274,000 miles on it. The first owner changed the transmission at 89,000 miles. That's about 14,000 miles past any extended warranty. I put Amsoil in the trans when I bought it at 139,000 miles and changed it again at 240,000 miles. I have gotten more miles, almost double, out of the rebuilt transmission than the original owner got out of the factory new transmission. It also has the original engine and rear differential. Buy Amsoil, not extended warranties. Use that money to do the regular scheduled maintenance.
Ask most owners of the reliable brands and most if not 98% have never used that extended warranty for more than they paid for it. My mother just traded in her 2000 Toyota 4Runner. In the whole time she had it she never had anything replaced that the extended warranty would have covered.
So do the research, pay for the Consumer Reports website, use TrueCar.com, Cars.com and or Edmunds.com among other websites. Drive many cars that fit the job and then and only then should you set foot in the dealer to buy a car. If you don't know how to negotiate then you should hire someone like me to do it for you or follow the online advice of how to buy using nothing but email.
One other thing about sites like TruCar. Most dealers probably don't have the exact car you want. They will give you a price for that car but the dealers will send you quotes on cars they have on their lot.
Some will look really cheap or be within $100-$200 of all the other dealer. But read the small print and they have something called Dealer Installed Options. These are where they make more cash again. Some have $300 in options and some have $2000 in options. Most of these you don't need and many can even be removed from the car before you buy it. And then some let you keep them but take them off the price. Why? They are almost pure profit.
Once you have your new car make sure you follow all the maintenance recommendations. Here is a free website that lets you keep track and even sends you reminders. My Garage.
Enjoy your new car.
Good information!
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