Car Buying Services - Your Thoughts

[Rick_Head]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lakewood90712 ... I would stay away from a previous rental. Might look shinny, bur lot's of renters drive cars hard ....

Interesting, I bought my truck from Budget. 1 year old, 8K miles and 25% below MSRP. How bad can you be to a vehicle in 8K miles?

[MRG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick_Head Interesting, I bought my truck from Budget. 1 year old, 8K miles and 25% below MSRP. How bad can you be to a vehicle in 8K miles?

Ever shifted into reverse at 45, and floored it? It's very interesting what happens.

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRG Ever shifted into reverse at 45, and floored it? It's very interesting what happens.

Don't do it with your own vehicle though, do it with a rental.

[Lsbcal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRG Ever shifted into reverse at 45, and floored it? It's very interesting what happens.

OK, what happens?

[Nunthewiser]

^^ Nothing. Until it goes 10,000 miles and some rick_head buys it....

[MRG]

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Originally Posted by Lsbcal OK, what happens?

Wheels break loose and tires burn. Feels smooth, till the transmission blows 2k miles later or so.

[RAE]

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Originally Posted by travelover If you go to Truecar, you can see the actual prices paid for a specific model in your zip code. They present you with a bell curve of actual prices paid, so you can compare an offer to see if it is actually a low one. I sent an email to a half dozen dealers and took the lowest offer. Alternatively you can get a fixed price from Costco, AAA, Consumer Reports or others and use that as your initial negotiating price. The dealer pays a third party a cut, so you are basically negotiating against that cut. Getting an out the door price is essential or they will try to claw back profit with phoney document fees, paint and interior treatments and anything else they can get away with.

Yes, I did the same thing (using Truecar), and it worked well for me. I got an "out the door" price via email from the dealer with the best price, printed it off, and went in and bought the car for that price. No big hassles. I had made it very clear before I went to pick up the vehicle that I wanted a final price in writing, and I just wanted to come in and pay for the vehicle (no financing) and drive it away. So I think they knew that there was no chance of getting any extra $$ out of me.

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amethyst Oh, I like that! Before settling a price, I will ask if we can put any of it on a credit card, although I would expect them to say no since it costs them..

No, just settle on a price, then tell them before signing you will pay 10% via CC and the rest in a check. Mine had no issue with a $3K CC payment.

[45th Birthday]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DFW_M5 One other consideration about price, if there is a terrific dealer locally from a service shop perspective, that is worth something to me versus having to drive many miles to get to the low purchase price dealer.

You can take your car to any dealer for service, or better yet you can use your own mechanic if not warranty repair.

[meierlde]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRG Ever shifted into reverse at 45, and floored it? It's very interesting what happens.

With automatics the engine is killed if you shift into reverse when moving, its a part of the transmission design. (I did it once in the past at about 10 by accident and it just killed the engine)

[MRG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meierlde With automatics the engine is killed if you shift into reverse when moving, its a part of the transmission design. (I did it once in the past at about 10 by accident and it just killed the engine)

1993 - Blue Pontiac Grand Am, they didn't have that feature. I was in the passenger's seat, no fluke guy did it 15 times or so. Few months later I got the same rental, transmission slipped majorly and reaked of burning transmission fluid. Car only had about 8k miles. No way I'd ever buy a used rental!

[Rick_Head]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nunthewiser ^^ Nothing. Until it goes 10,000 miles and some rick_head buys it....

Your first word is correct.

Good thing it was a Ford: What Would Happen If You Put Your Car In Reverse While Driving?

Quote:

Craig Renneker, Ford's Chief Engineer for transmission programs. As a way of protecting us from ourselves, automakers design a function called Reverse Inhibit into transmissions to prevent inadvertent selection of reverse. "Putting it into reverse [in modern cars] when going forward has no action at all, the car just ignores the request until you get down to a proper speed," said Renneker, using Ford's six-speed automatics as an example; "It'll just say 'hey, I know you want reverse pal, but I'm just not going to give it to you until the appropriate time.'"

[GTFan]

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Originally Posted by travelover Agree, but I haven't seen those numbers for a loooong time. Turns out that all those years of low new car sales has created a relative shortage of used cars.

If you actually look at some of the cars listed at the dealership I posted you'll see plenty of 2-3 year old cars going for 40-50% off of new MSRP. There has not been a shortage of good used cars at good prices in the ATL for a long time now, but you do have to do some searching to find them. As I said this particular dealership doesn't play the usual overpriced haggling game, they deal in volume and price fairly from the get-go. Might be a regional thing.

BTW my current car is an off-rental convertible that I bought 13 years ago, never had any major issues with it. I know all the horror stories about rentals but they're not all abused - it does pay to get one while still under warranty however.

[jerome len]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DFW_M5 If your so inclined, why not price out the car from both Costco and USAA's buying services and then see if you can beat it through your own shopping. One other consideration about price, if there is a terrific dealer locally from a service shop perspective, that is worth something to me versus having to drive many miles to get to the low purchase price dealer.

+1!

[eytonxav]

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Originally Posted by 45th Birthday You can take your car to any dealer for service, or better yet you can use your own mechanic if not warranty repair.

Or you can do your own maintenance. Nevertheless, I would prefer to patronize a place that does a great job vs one that does not even if it costs me a couple of dollars.

[pb4uski]

Quote:

It'll just say 'hey, I know you want reverse pal, but I'm just not going to give it to you until the appropriate time.

Heck, my automatic with paddle shifters won't even let me downshift to a lower gear if in the transmission's opinion I am going too fast for that lower gear.

[travelover]

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Originally Posted by GTFan If you actually look at some of the cars listed at the dealership I posted you'll see plenty of 2-3 year old cars going for 40-50% off of new MSRP.......

Maybe true in some locations. Here in SE MI, Hondas / Toyotas depreciate slowly. US cars more so because (I guess) that nearly everyone buys on a friends or family price discount.

[Rick_Head]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRG 1993 - Blue Pontiac Grand Am, they didn't have that feature. I was in the passenger's seat, no fluke guy did it 15 times or so. Few months later I got the same rental, transmission slipped majorly and reaked of burning transmission fluid. Car only had about 8k miles. No way I'd ever buy a used rental!

Yep, and my grandfather's horse broke a leg when told to back up. My dad had a Model A that wouldn't start unless you cranked it just so.

Your 20+ year old car may or may not have had a problem, it may not have been the same car. Did you check the VIN? Good on you to remember the color. Maybe it was a blue thing? Blue cars don't work like they should?

Next reason you can do serious damage in 8K miles? Let us know.

Feel free to buy new. It's probably a good thing for "car illiterate" people.

[surferLife]

I've heard nothing but rave reviews of USAA's service.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick_Head ... Feel free to buy new. It's probably a good thing for "car illiterate" people.

I'd love to see some examples of steep discounts on used cars. Like others, my impression is that used car prices have increased significantly, and the old advice is not so applicable anymore.

For me personally, it would take a steep discount due to:

1) Unknown treatment of the vehicle before I owned it (you can diminish this all you want, but it is still a risk)

2) That first brake and tire change will be coming up sooner, and that isn't an insignificant cost.

3) Since I keep my cars for > 10 years, it actually is nice to have those first few years of a new car. Keeping a car that long also makes #1 a larger factor.

4) Many high-end options are dropping down to lower-end cars at a pretty fast rate. It's pretty likely that a 2 year old car will have a few less things that I really might appreciate over the next 10+ years.

So again, examples would really be appreciated. Especially for a Volkswagen SportWagen (was VW Golf, now Jetta?) in the NW Chicago area

-ERD50