Deciding How Much to Pay When Buying a New Car
Know what you are going to pay for that car before hand...
You know you want that hot new car that just hit production lines. You also know if you show up at a car lot without doing your homework, the salesmen will eat you alive. The best way to protect yourself from being talked into a deal you really don't want is to know what you want BEFORE you ever leave the house. Knowing what you want includes knowing what kind of prices are available in your area. I like to use autos.com to save the time, gas, and headache of zipping all over town looking for a good deal.
Saving Money When Buying A Car
Steps you can take and save money on a new car...
1. First determine how much you can afford to spend on a new car.
2. Make a list of few cars you want to check out within your budget.
3. Once you determine your budget and select the cars your like, get your credit score to see if you will qualify for financing. I recommend .
4. Important: Know how much that new car will cost you from autos.com before walking into dealer shop.
Let's take a look at what happens when you go to a car lot without doing the homework before-hand:
1) A friendly looking young person walks up and says, "Hi!! Can I help you find anything?".
You tell her you're interested in the new GMC Yukon.
"Hey, you're in luck!! We just got several and we're trying to get rid of them. Let's go take a look!!
2) On the long walk across the car lot the helpful young lady tells you how she just started this job and she's so excited at the thought of selling her first car. She tells you she got the job because one of her friends bought a car here and told her about the great prices and awesome, friendly people here. She even lets you know about how she looked at other car dealers before coming to work here and couldn't find anybody who had could match the prices or the easygoing atmosphere she found here. "I wanted to work somewhere they didn't have those pushy salespeople", she states with a conspiratorial grin.
3) You get to the area where the Yukons are. "I'm looking for a 4-wheel drive model.", you tell her.
"Oh, you don't want a 4X4. They burn too much gas, they have all kinds of transmission problems, and they're soooo expensive." she informs you "We don't even carry 4-wheel drives because the smart customers don't want them and only smart customers buy their cars here."
4) You get a similar result when you tell her you would prefer a certain color, or leather seats, or anything they don't carry on the lot.
5) Regardless of what YOU WANT, the tail-end of the conversation becomes, "Now what can we do to put you in this car today?"
This is the problem with going into the car shopping experience cold. You have no way of knowing whether a given car dealer has the car you want with the options you want, or whether they're going to spend the entire time trying to convince you that you should settle for what they happen to have.
Don't let yourself fall into this trap. Do yourself a favor: go to autos.com. Choose the make, model, and trim package you're interested in, and they'll give you a quote tailored to what you want, and even let you know where you can find that particular vehicle in your area.