OT: Paying cash for a new car, tips?

[Mikej]

No matter what the price a stealership is willing to sell, you’re getting ripped off🤣

[Nomadmax]

When I have a vehicle choice narrowed down, I rent one. Yes, it's money out of my pocket but I have time to really get to see/drive it without someone yammering in my ear.

[buddybikes]

If paying off loans early, are car loans front loaded - pay more interest up front? If so would think taking a loan to pay off quick wouldn't work.

Forgive me, last time I had car loan was 1980s..

Wishy Ryun was nearby (New England) neighbor across st needs car fast, someone totaled his few weeks ago

[rice rocket]

Originally Posted by pdonk

Maybe, maybe not. When I financed my car, I asked about paying it off early and was told that the monthly payment price was basically the cost of the vehicle, plus financing over the life of the loan divided by the length of load, so there was incentive or savings to pay off early. When I read the agreement, it was pretty clear that the lender got its interest no matter what.

The commission the dealer receives for selling you a loan is nowhere near the interest paid on the loan. i.e. they're not making $8k on $40k loan, otherwise the bank wouldn't make any money and they have all the risk at that point.

It's closer to a couple hundred.

But yes, they will earn the commission no matter how long you choose to pay it off.

[binxnyrwarrsoul]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

Find the car you want and then deal with the internet sales manager on the phone. Do t go into the dealership until the deal is done and it’s time to pick up the car.

This. The last two cars I bought (Subaru WRX and Kia Stinger), negotiations were via email. With three dealers trying to get the sale. Then the extended warranty for this and that which they got a no, no, no and also no. Buying a car is a nightmare, still.

[FriarQuade]

Originally Posted by benb

Eh... legit worry if a car has a break in period and/or a manual transmission.

They don't want to buy one that someone test drove to 100+ mph in the break in period and then accidentally downshifted from 5th to 2nd.

You can't "money shift" the new Corvette, they're auto only.

Corvette owners have their stereotype for good reason and they love to think all these random things add value to their relatively common cars. But the break in concern is very valid for performance cars that people have legitimate reason to want to drive swiftly during a test drive. I always felt like a dealership should have demos for cars like these so people could go enjoy a broken in car like they are made to be driven and then sell you a brand new one with single digit mileage. But there's a lot of extra cost for a low volume car involved.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by FriarQuade

You can't "money shift" the new Corvette, they're auto only.

In that case, maybe a Blackwing...

[C40_guy]

Originally Posted by Mikej

No matter what the price a stealership is willing to sell, you’re getting ripped off🤣

Paying a fair price for a good product is acceptable to me.

I do my research ahead of time and I know most games that sales people play...having been in sales most of my career and having sold cars briefly.

Yea, some sales people are thieves...in any industry...and others are upstanding people who want to do right by their customer.

[rwsaunders]

Carvana is a good resource for benchmarking a reasonable trade-in value and the value does fluctuate up and down with market trends. I’m trading in a 2018 CRV-EXL with 50K on a new CRV hybrid and the Carvana offer was a good counter to a low-ball offer from one Honda dealer, who wanted to send me an article rationalizing why it was ok for them to charge above MSRP and pay below the KBB offer that his website published, as “it was only a general guide with inflated values”.

I asked him then *** do you even waste people’s time with the process and told him that the 80’s were calling him and to have a great day. He continued to text me after I told him that there was no need to continue, and I eventually blocked his cell after another text barrage. Somehow people like that manage to make a living. _EAN HONDA…South Hills/Pittsburgh…avoid like the plague.

I’d just as soon drop the old CRV off and drive the new one home, so it’s about timing in this case. The entire transaction has been via email and some phone calls with the internet manager. We paid $31K for the CRV in 2018 and the trade-in offers were between $18.5-20.5K, and I went into the deal informing the dealers that we were trading in a specific car. Unreal used car values as Ryan said, as I guess that the 2018 will be sold right after we turn it in. I did cut the deal yesterday (31 January) as we started negotiations at the beginning of the month.

[tomato coupe]

Originally Posted by benb

Eh... legit worry if a car has a break in period and/or a manual transmission.

They don't want to buy one that someone test drove to 100+ mph in the break in period and then accidentally downshifted from 5th to 2nd.

It seems to be a weird Corvette thing. I have test driven many high performance cars. Sometimes a salesman rode along, and sometimes they just tossed me the keys and asked that I bring the car back in an hour. The only other car I was unable to test drive was a Viper, but that was a one-time thing.

[Llewellyn]

When we bought our Volvo's about 12 months ago the salesman asked how we'd be paying, we said cash and he didn't bat an eyelid or try to talk us into finance. We paid the deposits on credit card and did an EFT for the balance a few days before pick up. Couldn't have been any easier.

Thinking about it I don't think any dealerships would take a bank cheque these days.

[zap]

edit

Originally Posted by Ryun

With current used car supply being extremely limited most dealers will be more aggressive on pricing if they know they are getting a solid used car they can retail.

Interesting. Manufacturer specific?

My understanding is that the used vehicle wholesale market has seen significant price declines in the last month or so. I'm seeing an increased pricing spread in some vehicles (cough, not Jeep) with new listings US$3-7K less than vehicles that were listed (and still available) 1-2 months ago.

[kppolich]

Agree upon price days in advance then place a small deposit to hold the car.

Check with Dealer to see if they have payment requirements if you are buying from out of town or out of State and paying in full. Depending on price, your location, or if you have done business with them before, things could change

I previously paid cash for my last car and since I didn't bank in the state I was buying the car in, the dealer required a Cashier's Check.

[CAAD]

Originally Posted by rice rocket

The commission the dealer receives for selling you a loan is nowhere near the interest paid on the loan. i.e. they're not making $8k on $40k loan, otherwise the bank wouldn't make any money and they have all the risk at that point.

It's closer to a couple hundred.

But yes, they will earn the commission no matter how long you choose to pay it off.

Just don't go telling them you are going to pay it off immediately. They will get a chargeback if you pay the loan off early. There is usually a 60-90 day chargeback period, of you pay the loan off within that period they won't get a dime. So keep your financial plans to yourself when purchasing. Financial institutions also pay incentives to dealers/F&I managers for sending them "X" amount of business each month. There is a lot of money to be made in F&I for a dealership, it's one of the most profitable offices in the building.

[benb]

Originally Posted by tomato coupe

It seems to be a weird Corvette thing. I have test driven many high performance cars. Sometimes a salesman rode along, and sometimes they just tossed me the keys and asked that I bring the car back in an hour. The only other car I was unable to test drive was a Viper, but that was a one-time thing.

The salesman doesn't care, he/she will never be footing the bill if something you do puts undue wear on the car that will only manifest later. (E.x. burning up the clutch on the test drive, the car will still seem fine but whoever buys it might have to replace the clutch earlier than they should have)

I do agree it's probably way less likely you're going to damage an automatic transmission/automated manual car, and if the manufacturer really has a break in like restricted RPMs until you hit a certain mileage/hours then they should be programming that into the computer.

The stereotype of the Corvette owner is very easy driving though I guess.

You want to see a tough buying experience go try and see if anyone will let you test ride a high performance sport bike.

At one point I was allowed to test ride a used sport bike.. after I had many years of experience with the dealership and they knew I was skilled & responsible. I was never ever able to test ride a brand new bike though.

For good reason, it's so easy to find those videos where the new buyer totals the bike < 100 yards out of the dealership when they pick it up.

Speaking of break in a couple of the motorcycles I owned had severe break in guidelines, one was so severe you couldn't go on the highway till the break in procedure was done because it limited you to 50mph for the early break in. Almost all bikes like that will do 75mph in first gear, many do 100mph in first gear, so a clueless test ride would absolutely blow right through those RPM limits.