O'Connell's Off Topic

Good luck... I hate car shopping... I've always had good luck with the cars I've purchased... but I can never help thinking I'm getting screwed through the whole process...

If you get the feeling the salesguy (or gal) is pressing you too much - walk away... You can always come back later...

I too actually went to Dallas and saved over 1400.00 on my new Lexus. Ask to see the sticker price (If its not on the window) and then ask to see the invoice price. Once you have those ask them to pull the residuals over the next 4 years and that will help you in making your purhcase by comparing the numbers to other cars that you are interested in....

Boy I wish I could afford a new car. I totally bombed yesterday trying to make a deal for a car. The sales manager was a complete ass. So now I am back to square one.

Buying a car isn't fun. I am on the fixed ops side of the car business and often wonder how cars get sold with some of the sales people that are out there.

That being said, mark up is typically 3% on new vehicles and can vary drastically on used cars. I am always shocked that people feel that car dealers cannot make a profit. Often dealers are left to make money solely on incentives from the car maker when a car is sold.

Frequently, customers ask for discounts and justify it because of the perception dealers should have deep pockets. I don't remember being able to visit the market and get my 7th bag of groceries free because I just bought six bags. Yet, the consumer buying a car, parts, or services feels justified in asking.

I don't mean to vent. I have been on both sides of the fence here. Point is dealers are in business to make money. If you think you are getting a good deal, that is all that matters.

Buying a used car is tough. I hope I am never in that position. There are two main reasons. One is that I dont know how well the previous owner/owners maintained the vehicle. Second, is that I dont know if or what kind of pre-delivery repairs took place at the dealer. Many dealers are content to polish a turd and sell it to you. Many trade-ins do need some TLC. On overage, figure 500-1000 on each trade in. That and the used car market is not what it was due to the economy. So many people have held onto their vehicles and the once surplus of nice used cars has waned. So, what NADA figures as trade in can be off quite a bit.

If you are on that strict of a budget, I would either get an extended warranty or get less car and save some money for repairs. At that age, you are walking into the world of repairs. Which, no matter what brand you choose, they get costly. During that time frame, the reliabilty of FORD and GM were average at best....something to consider. I had a 2002 Trailblazer LTZ that I loved. They have been pretty bulletproof for GM. not many powertrain concerns at all and they are all over the place. I am sure you get one for cheap, if you like those vehicles.

I dont envy your position. Best of luck. Its freaking tough.

Congrats!

rule about buying a used car

The one you are trading in is better than the one you are getting

That's good to hear. My mom needed a new car this summer and it was a nightmare. No one had any new cars and supposedly there was a waiting list for new ones. Funny thing was the dealers didn't seem to know what they had coming in. And, although they didn't have cars to sell they had plenty of them to lease. Go figger. Even though the economy was in the tank everyone said they were having record sales. I found that hard to believe. I also thought we ran into a lot of salesmen that really didn't want to sell us a car. Must be nice to basically ignore cash in hand. My favorite was when we sat down for a deal they had one price if we bought it today and another for tomorrow. Of course they couldn't give us any price unless we wanted to buy the car. One thing I was noticing was that there wasn't a whole lot of difference in some used and new prices. We finally went to our go to guy at the Hyundai place where we've bought plenty of cars. She got a nice 2010 Elantra at a good price. And since she's lucky to be a 5K a year driver - her 2003 had 48K on it which included many trips to and from Vegas - the 3 1/2 years left on the warranty will outlast the 22K left before 60K.