How do you get the best deal on a NEW car?
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My uncle was a manager at a large dealership chain just south of here for many years. His advice to people was to pick out 3 dealerships that have cars that are as similar as possible to what you want. Got to each of them asking for their best price, going to you favorite dealership last. At the third dealership, ask for their best price. Most likely it won't be lower than the others, but then show the other offers and they will beat it.
I've never done it before
I've never done it before
Although I didn't buy a super rare vehicle I emailed a bunch of dealers and made them give me written out the door quotes. I compared sticker with out the door price. This is way easier then driving and wasting time at dealers. In the end the largest dealer gave the best deal but I drove to STL to save 1k. No one can beat their price. After the second dealer I quit giving them my phone number and went email only.
This is Subaru car buying time, everyone thinks they need AWD right now. Wait for June-ish, you might be able to finagle a good deal. But also, do what Turk said. They give you an idea of what they're selling for, if that's what they're going for that's likely the price you will pay. Nobody ever gets a GOOD deal, the house always wins. That's why dealerships make money.
As mentioned earlier, I'm a big proponent of True Car.
Get a True Car price on the car you want, take a look on Autotrader to see if there are any cars similiar forsale for less money out the gates for good measure.
We bought our Cooper strictly through a True Car interaction, and it was by far the best buying experience we'd ever had.
Specifically we found the car we wanted as optioned out as closely to perfect as we could on Auto trader. We went on True Car to see what Mini dealers were true car dealers. They said they'd do X% under MSRP, we literally sent them the autotrader link to the car we wanted that was out of state, and they had it on their lot 2 days later with the papers ready to sign.
My uncle was a manager at a large dealership chain just south of here for many years. His advice to people was to pick out 3 dealerships that have cars that are as similar as possible to what you want. Got to each of them asking for their best price, going to you favorite dealership last. At the third dealership, ask for their best price. Most likely it won't be lower than the others, but then show the other offers and they will beat it.
I've never done it before
That's pretty much how I've done it. I start with the truecar number as a starting point and then get dealerships to beat it. I'll typically have 2-3 in play but don't really clue them in that I'm price shopping. If each dealer has a car you want then that's not relevant, but when buying my 2011 Sierra it was the ONLY one in the Midwest that was optioned how I wanted it, so I had to be smart about it because the two dealers I was working with were both negotiating on the same truck, which would've involved a dealer trade. I didn't want to end up in a situation where dealer 1 wouldn't let the truck go to dealer 2 if it came down to it. Between negotiation and incentives, I ended up paying $29,000 on a $38,400 MSRP truck brand new off the lot. It took a few days, but it worked.
When I bought my Harley I started out with the dealership saying "we don't really negotiate on our bikes" to which I replied "this isn't the place for me then." They changed their tune, and after four days of negotiation I ended up getting a $14,929 MSRP bike for $12,300 and negotiated the originally quoted 7.9% interest rate down to 1.9%. After four days of wasting their time on the price of the bike, I was ready to walk out over the interest, saying I'll go buy a used bike with my down payment money over giving the bank eight points on my money and they found a way to get 1.9% (SHOCKER) lol.
Idk, I've spent a lot of time in the hot seat negotiating deals for myself and friends, if you have any specific questions I'll answer them the best I can. I will admit the one thing I know nothing about is leasing. I'd like to learn more, but it will never be for my benefit with the amount of driving that I do.
I read somewhere to shoot for 8% off the window sticker.
I use cars.com when looking at new cars. Because it lets you pick options and gives you the window sticker dollar amount as well as the dealer invoice dollar amount. So you know what the car you want costs with the exact options you want. Or if you find a car price it off the options it has. That way you know exactly where you stand numbers wise with the exact car. Because you can get a dealer offer you $xxx but then come to find out the car they are pricing is missing a option you really want. So no it is no wonder they can give you that price, it is a cheaper car.Once you have the dealer invoice numbers from cars.com work down from there. @Beats hates that I know dealer invoices when I am looking at buying something. lmao But it leads to a quick negotiation and easy transaction. Cars.com showing the dealer invoice is a great tool to have on your side.
Best advice is don't get excited by seeing a shinny new car and let it cloud your buying decisions. Wait for the deal you feel you can get. If a dealer is willing to take that offer they will. If you walk and you never hear back from the sales person you were probably really low. lol
I use cars.com when looking at new cars. Because it lets you pick options and gives you the window sticker dollar amount as well as the dealer invoice dollar amount. So you know what the car you want costs with the exact options you want. Or if you find a car price it off the options it has. That way you know exactly where you stand numbers wise with the exact car. Because you can get a dealer offer you $xxx but then come to find out the car they are pricing is missing a option you really want. So no it is no wonder they can give you that price, it is a cheaper car.Once you have the dealer invoice numbers from cars.com work down from there. @Beats hates that I know dealer invoices when I am looking at buying something. lmao But it leads to a quick negotiation and easy transaction. Cars.com showing the dealer invoice is a great tool to have on your side.
Best advice is don't get excited by seeing a shinny new car and let it cloud your buying decisions. Wait for the deal you feel you can get. If a dealer is willing to take that offer they will. If you walk and you never hear back from the sales person you were probably really low. lol
I told Panda my experience looking for a Forester XT for the wife. Subaru dealers don't have much markup on certain models, and they are selling certain cars like hot-cakes as people have mentioned so they aren't as willing to negotiate. I will have to give Grand a try as I didn't realize they are such a high volume dealer which always helps.
Best I can find on a 30k forester is ~2k off which is invoice, guess it depends on the car. It seems anything beyond base model type stuff or completely loaded higher end models they just order it from the factory, which then leads them to pull the no-haggle card as they are not pulling from their current stock.
Subaru seems to be much different than the domestic or even german manufacturers as they dont have huge markup prices, like we were looking at a escape and you can get something stupid like 6k off msrp on a 30k vehicle without even trying based on all their dealer rebates and other incentive programs lol
Best I can find on a 30k forester is ~2k off which is invoice, guess it depends on the car. It seems anything beyond base model type stuff or completely loaded higher end models they just order it from the factory, which then leads them to pull the no-haggle card as they are not pulling from their current stock.
Subaru seems to be much different than the domestic or even german manufacturers as they dont have huge markup prices, like we were looking at a escape and you can get something stupid like 6k off msrp on a 30k vehicle without even trying based on all their dealer rebates and other incentive programs lol
I try not to lock into ratios like that, because you might be leaving money on the table.
I will mention that there isn't much rhyme or reason to me getting a good deal. I usually just pick a low number and say that's what I want the car for. If they ask me how I came to that number I will simply tell them I pulled it out of thin air, but it sounded good to me. Letting them know you're serious and ready to buy if the deal makes sense but also completely unattached from the particular vehicle you're trying to buy helps. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is walk away from a deal and say you'll come back tomorrow. I've had salesman calling me early the next morning saying they found some more money they can take off.
Also, these are mostly deals I've helped other people get. My Sierra and Harley were tough buys, but my Mustang and TDI were pretty cut and dry. I came in with a TrueCar sheet with the lowest reported price someone paid and said I want it for that and I want X for my trade-in...
The F-350 was used, and that deal was so good I couldn't shake someones hand quick enough, so there was no drama there.
The F-350 was used, and that deal was so good I couldn't shake someones hand quick enough, so there was no drama there.
If you go to Grand Subaru ask for Damien. Tell him Pratt sent you. He is the used car sales manager. But he will make sure you are put in the right direction.
I kind of agree with you on the percentage off of window stickers. But it isn't a bad number. I prefer to go off of the dealer invoice for negotiations. That is why I like that Cars.com gives you that info. Because if you just pick a super low number you might be telling the sales person you are not interested in being reasonable. You are the kind that just throw out a low ball number because that is the way you roll. Trust me, sales people love when people low ball them just because they can. lmao If they feel you are wasting your time they can blow you off too.
Now if you walk in and say you know the dealer invoice is $xxx and your willing to pay $xxx it shows you at least have done your research and know where you should be able to purchase the car at. Again, wasking way too much off the dealer invoice on a car probably isn't going to be any better than the scenario above. lol
I usually go off invoice or cars.com, I helped my ex get a new Jetta and used cars.com and the invoice numbers as a starting point, I think truecar was $21,300 and I said $20,000 sounds good. It wasn't just throwing numbers out there, it was good round starting point for us to work from. I'm not just saying $19,440 are my lucky lottery numbers so that's what I want to pay lmao, I just don't go with a set figure, I just kinda start somewhere and work to an agreeable medium. Let it be known I've never walked into a dealer and done this without buying a car, whether it be mine or for someone I'm helping out. I'm not blowing smoke up people's asses, I just kinda cowboy it sometimes and see what works.
I just tried true car. It doesn't even let you pick options. It groups options together and makes you pick those options for pricing. Not actually letting you pick options like the manufacturer offers them. So I can't even price the truck I am looking for with the options I want. I am familiar with the Mustang options so I tried to price that. It was the same way. Kind of odd and doesn't help you get accurate pricing.
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