| How to buy a car: 1) Do research, determine a reasonable price for the car. The cost structure of car dealerships is complicated with incentives, to the buyer and the dealership from the manufacturer (holdbacks, etc.) There are spreadsheets and data available on the internet to compute fair pricing. 2) Call all the dealerships that you are willing to travel to. Tell them your price, ask if they will sell the car to you for that price, "out the door, including taxes and registration" Many of them will say "we don't negotiate over the phone". That is fine, don't buy from them, they want you to come in and give you a hard sale. Eventually you will find one or more that are willing to sell to you. 3) If you need financing, get it from a credit union beforehand, unless the dealership has a special deal going. One less thing to negotiate at the dealership. 4) The basic takeaway is: Don't go to the dealership to buy a car without an agreed price. Test drives in the days beforehand are fine. If you arrive, and they don't want to honor the price, just leave. There are more dealerships, dishonest people don't deserve your money. |