New car advice

[oze]

Buying cars is way different than it used to be. Last two cars I bought, sight unseen, over the phone, with a credit card. I had negotiated several cars with dealers via email prior to that. Most blew smoke up my ass, one guy got incredibly pissed, but I found out exactly how much to offer that way. The second car was in Florida and they bought my plane ticket to go down to get it.

I did most of my negotiating via email, after spending a lot of time on Car Edge. Many dealers will make an offer that seems great, but add on crap like "anti theft" (etching the VIN on some of the glass!), "paint protection" etc, etc. Short version of negotiation, know what the car is selling for within, say, 100 miles, how long it's been sitting around and, most important, hammer out the fact that you want the Out the Door price before discussing trade-in, financing etc.

After 3 weeks and lots of email, I ended up driving 80 miles to Mishawaka and getting a high-demand Kia Stinger GT2 for $9,000 below MSRP OTD.

 

[miguel]

I've been looking for a new (to me) car for a little while now. My last daily driver got totalled out in the summer when some ding dong ran a red light and smashed my driver side all to hell. Since then I've been driving a '97 Toyota 4Runner to get around, but it's a project car and has 289,000 miles on it. When I do commute to the office it's 110 miles round trip and the 4Runner averages about 15 mpg with 33" tires on it, so that wasn't a long term option.

I'd only been half-heartedly looking, mostly through an Auto Trader search every week or so to keep my finger on the pulse for prices. I'd primarily been keeping an eye open for used Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai models.

Monday I saw a 2020 Honda Civic with less than 30k miles at a price lower than I'd seen anywhere within a 100 mile range. And it still had some time left on the factory power train warranty. So I grabbed the wife and we swung by the dealership about an hour before closing. Sales guy comes out and I ask about it, and show him the price on Auto Trader. Told him I would be a motivated buyer at that price. He proceeded to tell me they had just bought it from their sister dealership next door and it had been delivered a few hours before. They hadn't even been able to go over it yet. It had come off a 3 year lease well under the 36,000 miles. The price on Auto Trader was what they had paid for it. Well that was a mistake on his part, because now I knew exactly what they had in it.

We did a quick test drive and then haggled a little bit. Fast forward an hour and I wrote a check for $1,500 more than what the dealer had just paid for it.

It was the only car we looked at, and the only one we test drove. The dealership made $1,500 for essentially doing nothing and I'm very happy with the purchase because I didn't have to eat the depreciation or spend any time thinking about financing.

The entire process took less than 90 minutes start to finish.

The real question is, did you keep the 4Runner or trade it in?

 

[MCgrease08]

The real question is, did you keep the 4Runner or trade it in?

Of course I kept the 4Runner. Her name is Greta. I paid a grand for her and I've got probably $12k sunk into it at this point with repairs, overdue maintenance and upgraded parts. No way I'm ever getting any of that money back. She's just a toy for me.

 

[DCR]

In my many decades as an auto mechanic I've come to convince myself that it would be better to buy a new car and pay it off as quickly as possible then trade it every 3 years or so while it's still has warranty left and still in good shape.

I have kept several cars for 20 or more years and kept them up maintenance wise and repaired, but then nobody else wants them they're not worth anything and I just have to junk them out.
If I had it to do over again I would have just bought new and traded or sold it. The overall cost would be about the same and I wouldn't have had to do all that work to it myself.

Now that I think about it, about 1/3 of the cars in my lifetime have been sold for junk.

 

[stocknup]

My motto ............It hasn`t steered me wrong yet . Slave no more ............

 

[oze]

My motto ............It hasn`t steered me wrong yet . Slave no more ............

View attachment 319083

I know I'm in the minority here, but I only agree with that motto wrt my house. After pinching pennies for 50 years, we're at the point where, within reason, we don't have to anymore. So cool is better than old.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

My motto ............It hasn`t steered me wrong yet . Slave no more ............

View attachment 319083

You can do both if you plan right.

 

[oze]

You can do both if you plan right.

Right. I wasn't clear: new and paid for is the best. I guess my response should have been

 

[stocknup]

I know I'm in the minority here, but I only agree with that motto wrt my house. After pinching pennies for 50 years, we're at the point where, within reason, we don't have to anymore. So cool is better than old.

We aren`t pinching pennies either . We just planned well for our retirement . Actually bringing in more per month than when working and everything is paid off . I guess we just choose to not be cool , and go "to and from" in less "style " than the Jones` .

 

[firecadet613]

You can do both if you plan right.

Exactly this!

 

[miguel]

Of course I kept the 4Runner. Her name is Greta. I paid a grand for her and I've got probably $12k sunk into it at this point with repairs, overdue maintenance and upgraded parts. No way I'm ever getting any of that money back. She's just a toy for me.

I always thought you were a good guy. Now I KNOW you are.

 

[miguel]

One of my "go to" YT channels when I want to hear auto industry news and car buying strategies is this father and son combo. High production value and the old guy was apparently a GM for several dealerships during his career. Entertaining and informative, if anyone wants to give them a try.

https://www.youtube.com/@CarEdge

 

[firecadet613]

One of my "go to" YT channels when I want to hear auto industry news and car buying strategies is this father and son combo. High production value and the old guy was apparently a GM for several dealerships during his career. Entertaining and informative, if anyone wants to give them a try.

https://www.youtube.com/@CarEdge

This guy has been insightful and entertaining...

https://twitter.com/GuyDealership

 

[bobzilla]

You can do both if you plan right.

Was about to say the same. Replaced wife and I dailies last year with new cars. No payments.

 

[oze]

We aren`t pinching pennies either . We just planned well for our retirement . Actually bringing in more per month than when working and everything is paid off . I guess we just choose to not be cool , and go "to and from" in less "style " than the Jones` .

Which is fine. I don't worry about anything the Jones' have. We're just enjoying things now that we couldn't before.

 

[oze]

One of my "go to" YT channels when I want to hear auto industry news and car buying strategies is this father and son combo. High production value and the old guy was apparently a GM for several dealerships during his career. Entertaining and informative, if anyone wants to give them a try.

https://www.youtube.com/@CarEdge

Car Edge is the best!

 

[BJHay]

Typically I'll look for a car that's one or two years old with low mileage. That way someone else takes the biggest hit on depreciation. Many brands have transferable warranties of 5-7 years.

I need a car too but I'm trying to hold on for a bit longer. Here is the Car Guru's index for used car pricing for the past six months. It generally tracks similar charts from other sources.