Car/truck buying service
07-18-2020, 04:38 PM
#63
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2017
Position: Retired NJA & AA
Posts: 1,912
I just helped some Vietnamese friends of ours trade down from a 2019 4Runner to a 2020 RAV4. Covid really hurt their business. And I bought a car for my wife last year. And I've been on LTD/Retired for over 3 years now and have watched 100+ hours of videos on the car buying process. Here's what I've learned, although it depends on what you need as far as financing, etc.
First, I've used USAA Car buying service a few times. Always beat that deal by a significant margin. Don't know about Costco. Dealers have all different levels of bogus fees and add-on's. The easiest way to shop for that truck is to find several dealers that have a truck acceptable to you. ONLY deal with drive away price. Same model/trim is helpful. Tell the dealer you're going to do this just like a major project on your house. Get 3 bids minimum. No haggling. Tell them to give their best bid on a drive away price, then divide that by the Monroney label, which is the legal name for the Window Sticker minus any dealer crap. Dealers can't mess with the Monroney label, it's protected by law. Invoice numbers can be a total work of fiction. Don't even bother. If the dealer balks, tell them if they bid they have 1 chance in 3 of selling a vehicle. If they don't they have zero. If they refuse it's probably because they know they're much higher priced than their competition. The great thing about doing it this way is you don't care about their fees and add on's. (My favorite is nitrogen in the tires when the air we breath is 78% nitrogen).
It is a good time to buy a new car, not so much for a used car. Used car values are way up, even with Hertz dumping so many cars on the market.
Now if you're financing thru a dealer that makes it a little more complicated but not too bad. That's what happened with my friends but luckily the dealer with the best financing offer also had the best price on a basic RAV4 LE. Last year I bought a year end closeout 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe Ultimate. With incentives dividing the drive away price by the Monroney Label gave me percentages ranging from 88 to 91%. I've been buying cars in CLT for 30 years so I've gotten to know the character of many of the dealerships and that helps. This method even works with a trade in. My friend's 2019 4Runner ranged from $39K cash offer from Carmax to $39,750 from a Toyota Dealer 1.5 hours out of CLT. Kelly Blue Book and Truecar "Instant Cash" offers are bogus, don't bother except to get a reference point. The best offers on their trade in were from dealers outside of CLT.
There's a Facebook group called "Beyond The Showroom" which is run by a Chevy Salesman in IIU who also does a lot of YouTube Videos under the name "The Chevy Dude". He has a lot of good videos and there's some car buying experts active in the group including one guy who works as a buyer's rep, you hire him and he'll work the best deal for you. The "Chevy Dude" works for Bachman Auto Group and they have a number of dealerships in the IIU area. He sells a lot of cars to his subscribers when the distance isn't a big factor. Had I not been able to get a good deal in the CLT area I would have worked one over the phone with him and non-revved to IIU and driven the 7 hours back home.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/carbuying101/
First, I've used USAA Car buying service a few times. Always beat that deal by a significant margin. Don't know about Costco. Dealers have all different levels of bogus fees and add-on's. The easiest way to shop for that truck is to find several dealers that have a truck acceptable to you. ONLY deal with drive away price. Same model/trim is helpful. Tell the dealer you're going to do this just like a major project on your house. Get 3 bids minimum. No haggling. Tell them to give their best bid on a drive away price, then divide that by the Monroney label, which is the legal name for the Window Sticker minus any dealer crap. Dealers can't mess with the Monroney label, it's protected by law. Invoice numbers can be a total work of fiction. Don't even bother. If the dealer balks, tell them if they bid they have 1 chance in 3 of selling a vehicle. If they don't they have zero. If they refuse it's probably because they know they're much higher priced than their competition. The great thing about doing it this way is you don't care about their fees and add on's. (My favorite is nitrogen in the tires when the air we breath is 78% nitrogen).
It is a good time to buy a new car, not so much for a used car. Used car values are way up, even with Hertz dumping so many cars on the market.
Now if you're financing thru a dealer that makes it a little more complicated but not too bad. That's what happened with my friends but luckily the dealer with the best financing offer also had the best price on a basic RAV4 LE. Last year I bought a year end closeout 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe Ultimate. With incentives dividing the drive away price by the Monroney Label gave me percentages ranging from 88 to 91%. I've been buying cars in CLT for 30 years so I've gotten to know the character of many of the dealerships and that helps. This method even works with a trade in. My friend's 2019 4Runner ranged from $39K cash offer from Carmax to $39,750 from a Toyota Dealer 1.5 hours out of CLT. Kelly Blue Book and Truecar "Instant Cash" offers are bogus, don't bother except to get a reference point. The best offers on their trade in were from dealers outside of CLT.
There's a Facebook group called "Beyond The Showroom" which is run by a Chevy Salesman in IIU who also does a lot of YouTube Videos under the name "The Chevy Dude". He has a lot of good videos and there's some car buying experts active in the group including one guy who works as a buyer's rep, you hire him and he'll work the best deal for you. The "Chevy Dude" works for Bachman Auto Group and they have a number of dealerships in the IIU area. He sells a lot of cars to his subscribers when the distance isn't a big factor. Had I not been able to get a good deal in the CLT area I would have worked one over the phone with him and non-revved to IIU and driven the 7 hours back home.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/carbuying101/
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