Pricing new car online?

[wanaberetiree]

Wonder what people use nowadays to price a new car online?

Hate to spend a day for it !

 

[travelover]

I used Truecar to get an idea of what prices people in my area were paying, then sent email requests for bids to all the dealers in my area. Costco, AAA and others will also get you a bid, though not rock bottom.

 

[braumeister]

Edmunds and KBB will give you pretty good estimates.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

We used USAA buying service thingy. It eliminated the more expensive dealerships. We still had to deal with the car buying stresses but less of them.

 

[euro]

All of the above are good advice. I wonder though: why WOULD YOU NOT want to invest some time in this? It's a major purchase and doing good research can save you thousands of dollars. Sounds like pretty good compensation!

 

[Senator]

When I buy, I buy through the fleet department at below Ford's X-pricing. It should be better than any online price.

 

[kaneohe]

All of the above are good advice. I wonder though: why WOULD YOU NOT want to invest some time in this? It's a major purchase and doing good research can save you thousands of dollars. Sounds like pretty good compensation!

The major work is researching the cars to determine what car and options you want. Also test drives to get real info on visibility/etc. Once you determine what you want Edmunds has a nice TMV (true market value) to tell you what folks are paying in your area so you have some basis for judging the offers you get. The last piece is to go to the manufacturer's site, select dealers in your area, e-mail your RFQ with your specific requirement and then sit back and wait. No in-person bargaining required.

 

[Bamaman]

I used to be able to come up with actual cost (less programs) on KBB.com and Edmunds.com.

Now it seems everyone's trying to get you to use their buying service at a "fair price."

I say put the invoice on the table to a dealer, and we'll negotiate from that point--less all factory sponsored sales incentive programs.

I ordered a new Camry this week @ $577 under cost but the dealer has a $398 Doc Fee to consider. He has no add on's or secondary window stickers--home owned dealer.

 

[Sunset]

I used to be able to come up with actual cost (less programs) on KBB.com and Edmunds.com.

Now it seems everyone's trying to get you to use their buying service at a "fair price."

I say put the invoice on the table to a dealer, and we'll negotiate from that point--less all factory sponsored sales incentive programs.

I ordered a new Camry this week @ $577 under cost but the dealer has a $398 Doc Fee to consider. He has no add on's or secondary window stickers--home owned dealer.

Who is to say the invoice is really true, and not just printed up in back ?
I have no idea what all the factory sponsored sales incentive programs are, as it's not public knowledge.

This is why I hate buying cars, and delay it as long as possible, because I'm sure I get screwed over each time.

So how much is your good deal on the Camry before taxes ?

 

[kaneohe]

Who is to say the invoice is really true, and not just printed up in back ?
I have no idea what all the factory sponsored sales incentive programs are, as it's not public knowledge.

This is why I hate buying cars, and delay it as long as possible, because I'm sure I get screwed over each time.

So how much is your good deal on the Camry before taxes ?

You can get the invoice at edmunds.com An example:
https://www.edmunds.com/toyota/camr...s/?legacy=true&sub=sedan&color=#step1#facets1

which shows MSRP,invoice,as well as TMV which is supposed to represent
actual sales in your area. I believe you can get the sales incentive programs from Edmunds also. In a way that should be built into the TMV which represents actual sales. Once you know what a reasonable price is, you send e-mails to local dealers (as far as you want to deal) and let them compete for
your business and make sure you get an out-the-door price w/o any add ons.
The beauty is that you don't have to negotiate in person so that levels the playing field. Once you get the lowest bid, you can negotiate further if you dare but usually the bids are pretty good because they know they may only get 1 shot at you.

 

[brucethebroker]

The major work is researching the cars to determine what car and options you want. Also test drives to get real info on visibility/etc.

We are looking a buying a new vehicle. We were able to rent one at the airport on a recent two day mini-vacation. THAT was a really nice test drive.....

 

[bmcgonig]

We're all kinda funny here. Me included. Our portfolio jumps up and down by thousands every day and yet we worry so much about getting the last couple of hundred from a car deal ☺

 

[Pilot2013]

I know a lot of people buy new, but I just can't do it. We just replaced DW's vehicle with a "newer" vehicle coming off 2 year lease. The new vehicle MSRP - $67k. Our after lease price (with 18k miles), $37k including as CPO, 2 additional years warranty to 100k miles. I just don't want to be the guy eating the $30k drop in 2 years. 2nd vehicle this way, and our loss after 3 years was half or less the initial "new" loss.

 

[Closet_Gamer]

I know a lot of people buy new, but I just can't do it. We just replaced DW's vehicle with a "newer" vehicle coming off 2 year lease. The new vehicle MSRP - $67k. Our after lease price (with 18k miles), $37k including as CPO, 2 additional years warranty to 100k miles. I just don't want to be the guy eating the $30k drop in 2 years. 2nd vehicle this way, and our loss after 3 years was half or less the initial "new" loss.

We've bought our last 3 cars this way. Best deal going IMHO.

From memory so may be off a bit...

Car #1 new MSRP was around $53k. We paid $38k...it was 2 years old with 9k miles on it and we got an 5 year bumper to bumper. Small smudge on passenger visor. 33% off.

Car #2 new MSRP was around $43k. We paid $33k...it was 2 years old with 7k miles on it and I got a 6 year bumper to bumper. Zero defects I could find. 23% off.

Car #3 new MSRP was around $19k. We paid $13k...it was 4 years old had 21k miles on it. Balance of mfg warranty plus a modest extended warranty. A few surface scratches. 30% off.

I'm bored with car #2 and it may get flipped early...but I will likely do the same thing unless I stumble on some super aggressive lease deal.

 

[kaneohe]

We are looking a buying a new vehicle. We were able to rent one at the airport on a recent two day mini-vacation. THAT was a really nice test drive.....

Yes,that's a nice way to get 2 birds..........but you may need to repeat if you have other alternatives in mind.

 

[RetiredGypsy]

After I've decided what vehicles I'm interested in, I usually try to find the biggest forum for each. Typically there's a What Did You Pay? thread for new vehicles.

 

[Ready]

I know a lot of people buy new, but I just can't do it. We just replaced DW's vehicle with a "newer" vehicle coming off 2 year lease. The new vehicle MSRP - $67k. Our after lease price (with 18k miles), $37k including as CPO, 2 additional years warranty to 100k miles. I just don't want to be the guy eating the $30k drop in 2 years. 2nd vehicle this way, and our loss after 3 years was half or less the initial "new" loss.

I agree with this philosophy for luxury cars where the MSRP is $50K+. However, if you try to buy a 3 year old Camry you may find that you will only save around $6K off the price of a new one, in which case I'd rather spend the extra $6K and buy new.

I do believe that as technology becomes more critical to a car's overall set of features, depreciation will be even heavier than what we've seen in the past. Think about how much a 3 year old computer is worth. If technology continues to change rapidly in the auto industry, we could see much more rapid depreciation. This could be especially true as autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles become more prevalent.

 

[nash031]

We used USAA buying service thingy. It eliminated the more expensive dealerships. We still had to deal with the car buying stresses but less of them.

Seconded. USAA uses TrueCar as well. When we bought DW's car last year, we used both TrueCar and Edmunds to get an idea, but ultimately priced it out with TrueCar via USAA.

 

[ERD50]

We're all kinda funny here. Me included. Our portfolio jumps up and down by thousands every day and yet we worry so much about getting the last couple of hundred from a car deal ☺

I dunno. We have no control over the day-to-day market. But we have control over a car buying decision. Though personally, I don't stress over the last few hundred, I just want to make sure I'm not getting a bad deal. But I hate buying cars.

I think most of us have been aided by sweating the small stuff that we can control, and learning to roll with the stuff we can't control.

-ERD50

 

[bmcgonig]

I think most of us have been aided by sweating the small stuff that we can control, and learning to roll with the stuff we can't control.

-ERD50

Good point.