OT: Paying cash for a new car, tips?

[fmradio516]

Originally Posted by nhaero

oh, you've tried to buy a car from a quirk dealership ?

yup!!!

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by tbike4

At what point do you see the car you want to buy & inspect it to make sure it's what you & the web guy are talking about? You do a walk around right before signing papers and driving away?

If its a new car, its not a problem - I've already figured that out.

If its a used car - get lots of pictures and walk around videos and do as much digging as I can on that car's history, the dealer selling it, and any dealer that sold it in the past. If I'm unsure about anything I can have a PPI done wherever the car is - I've bought plenty of cars that I didnt see until it showed up at my house on a truck.

[Ralph]

If visiting in the Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh area with family (and bikes), Is The Neuse River Greenway Trail the best paved trail for family riding in area? We can stay in hotel about anywhere we want in general area. Thanks

[jh_on_the_cape]

I am bumping this back up. I am looking at buying a used car from a dealership. I am searching around on cargurus.
Is it still the case that cash vs borrow doesn't matter to dealership?
I have the cash on hand, and I will either trade in my car or just sell on carvana, depending what they offer.
Just looking for any suggestions. I have always bought cars locally from craigslist and FB marketplace but there seems to be very few people doing that these days.
Any other good person to person car sites?

I am looking at going from my 2013 Subaru outback to a lightly used rav4 hybrid, if that matters.

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by jh_on_the_cape

I am bumping this back up. I am looking at buying a used car from a dealership. I am searching around on cargurus.
Is it still the case that cash vs borrow doesn't matter to dealership?
I have the cash on hand, and I will either trade in my car or just sell on carvana, depending what they offer.
Just looking for any suggestions. I have always bought cars locally from craigslist and FB marketplace but there seems to be very few people doing that these days.
Any other good person to person car sites?

I am looking at going from my 2013 Subaru outback to a lightly used rav4 hybrid, if that matters.

if you have cash and want to pay cash, you should have no problems.. if the dealer gives you problems, that would be a red flag for me.. some folks on here will go on an on about out how you're giving money away paying cash, yada, yada, yada.. up to you, but I wanted to buy the car and be done with it.. the dealer even took a personal check for way more than I thought they would.. this was in Oct of 23..

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by fourflys

if you have cash and want to pay cash, you should have no problems.. if the dealer gives you problems, that would be a red flag for me.. some folks on here will go on an on about out how you're giving money away paying cash, yada, yada, yada.. up to you

I'm one of those people, but I'll also add this caveat - for used cars and smaller dealerships, cash can be fine as its cash now instead of cash in a few weeks with financing, and cashflow becomes important in those situations.

New cars and new cars with manufacturer subsidized financing is where you'll get hit for sure.

[rice rocket]

Cargurus is good, it shows you time on lot and price change history.

If they're not actively cutting prices every few weeks, probably worth reaching out to them to see why they haven't. You'll either learn (a) they think they're sitting on some gem, or (b) they're willing to move.

[CAAD]

Originally Posted by jh_on_the_cape

I am bumping this back up. I am looking at buying a used car from a dealership. I am searching around on cargurus.
Is it still the case that cash vs borrow doesn't matter to dealership?
I have the cash on hand, and I will either trade in my car or just sell on carvana, depending what they offer.
Just looking for any suggestions. I have always bought cars locally from craigslist and FB marketplace but there seems to be very few people doing that these days.
Any other good person to person car sites?

I am looking at going from my 2013 Subaru outback to a lightly used rav4 hybrid, if that matters.

Depends on the dealer. If you say you are paying cash then the dealership won't get any financing reserves. Those dealers won't play ball and in turn not give you a good deal. If you run into that move on and don't do business there.

Negotiate the cost of the car first, no other factors. Don't tell them you are paying cash or that you have a trade. The car purchase is transaction #1, the trade is transaction #2, the trade is an entirely separate transaction! Go get an in-person carmax offer (not online), most dealers will beat a carmax in-person offer printout by $X. I used Carvana personally, and neither the dealer nor Carmax could even come close.

If the car has been sitting on the lot for 30+ days, they will be motivated to move the unit. I like Caredge.com , pay for one month for a few bucks. It gives you good insight on how many days a car has been sitting on a dealer's lot. The longer it sits the better, they don't want to keep paying floorplan cost on that car.

[benb]

I think you gotta play it by ear based on the car you want.

I'm in this extended period where I look at new stuff that's coming out and what deals are out there even though I'm not really interested in buying anything.

It would really depend on if one of these cars I'm interested in is not selling well and they have some crazy deals on the financing side.

Otherwise loan rates and interest rates on your own investments go up at the same time so it's always hard to tell.

If my car took a dump right now I might very well replace it with a VW ID.4.

The local dealer has the loaded ones marked almost $9k off right now which is awesome compared to a year or two ago, but the financing offers are very "meh". 6.9%-7.1% for 60 months? Nope, cash sale for sure. There aren't really any "easy" savings/investments that beat that. Private Equity/Credit do, but even those don't beat it by that much.

[jh_on_the_cape]

Thanks this is super helpful. I wasn't sure if they looked at the whole deal rather than parts. For instance, they lower the selling price to make you feel good but lower trade in value so it's the same in the end.

Originally Posted by CAAD

Depends on the dealer. If you say you are paying cash then the dealership won't get any financing reserves. Those dealers won't play ball and in turn not give you a good deal. If you run into that move on and don't do business there.

Negotiate the cost of the car first, no other factors. Don't tell them you are paying cash or that you have a trade. The car purchase is transaction #1, the trade is transaction #2, the trade is an entirely separate transaction! Go get an in-person carmax offer (not online), most dealers will beat a carmax in-person offer printout by $X. I used Carvana personally, and neither the dealer nor Carmax could even come close.

If the car has been sitting on the lot for 30+ days, they will be motivated to move the unit. I like Caredge.com , pay for one month for a few bucks. It gives you good insight on how many days a car has been sitting on a dealer's lot. The longer it sits the better, they don't want to keep paying floorplan cost on that car.

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by jh_on_the_cape

Thanks this is super helpful. I wasn't sure if they looked at the whole deal rather than parts. For instance, they lower the selling price to make you feel good but lower trade in value so it's the same in the end.

some will try this for sure.. that's why I always go in and get an OTD/Out the Door price before I talk about trades or financing.. I want to know what my out the door price is, that includes price of the car, taxes, registration, and any fees the dealer may want add on.. only after that will I discuss if I have a trade or how I'm paying.. and make no mistake, they will try and pressure you into telling them your plans right off the bat, but you have no obligation too.. also, you do NOT have to do a credit app to take a test drive.. I didn't do a credit app at all the last car I bought..

as far as your current car, a trade should be the last thing you want to consider.. sometimes we have our reasons (I've traded in plenty of cars), but is really is the bottom you'll get for your car typically..

finally, dealers are mostly starting to hurt to sell cars at this point.. I can't imagine anyone paying full MSRP on 90% of the new cars for sale at this point.. it was funny, I was walking around a Ford dealer while my Subaru was getting serviced and noticed the dealer was still trying to add on "additional dealer markup".. on most of the cars on their lot.. the funniest was probably the full size Broncos they wanted an additional $5k for.. when they 15 of them lined up and you could drive down the 101 10 miles and see 15 more.. insane..

[froze]

Usually a new car dealer that sells used cars will have better quality cars than just a dealer that sells only used cars. Typically a new car dealer gets cars from trades, then wholesale out the bad ones to independent dealers; sometimes they'll go to auctions, but they only buy the cream of the crop; and sometimes they'll make deals or trades with other new car dealers for their trade-ins. So usually you'll buy a better-used car from a new car dealer.

You are limiting yourself a lot by just wanting 1 particular year of a vehicle, you should open your horizons a bit but looking at older cars back to 2009 or 8. If the car is well cared for, and garage kept, the age isn't going to matter, and you can find 20-year-old cars with 60,000 miles or so, and that is considered lightly used.

A lot of people think Subaru is the best, but it really is not, whereas the Toyota RAV4 is a much better car. The Subaru suffers from Engine issues, including high oil consumption that could cause the engine to seize; transmission failures; excessive battery drain; faulty airbag components that could rupture; and Windshield cracking. But they did resolve the head gasket issue with these years so the engine should last 250,000 miles, which is more than most cars on the market, but the transmission will only last 110,000 miles on average and will cost you around $8,000.

Whereas the Toy RAV4's engine AND transmission, both can easily last 250,000 miles which is more than most cars on the market. There are issues involving cheap interior materials and a lousy infotainment system which you can get used to with time.

The numbers I gave were averages, with proper maintenance you can exceed averages, but the Subaru's most expensive weak spot is the transmission. You may get 300,000 plus miles out of the engine but have to replace the transmission two or three times along the way, not a good deal in my book. Also with a Subaru AWD system, there is a problem with tires. If you put on new tires for example, with a 60,000 mile treadlife warranty. At 20,000 you fatally damage a tire, so you go back to the tire shop to get a new tire, the shop tells you, or the should tell you because it's extremely important, that you will need 4 new tires! Why you scream? because the Subaru AWD system only has a tolerance of 2/32nds of tread life variance between all 4 tires, and at 20,000 miles you wore the tread down by 4/32nds, and if you put on a new tire and not all 4 new tires then you will damage the AWD system, and that will set you back about $8,000.

But, the RAV4 had an option for an AWD, it's almost as bad as the Subaru, but instead of 2/32's difference between tires, the Rav4 is 4/32nds and the cost to rebuild is about the same as the Subaru. And you need to have the tires rotated at every oil change to keep the wear equally balanced.

Now there is a way around this tire dilemma. If you call tire places, or alignment specialists some might still have lying around a tire shaver. Originally this was designed to shave rubber off a tire to balance the tire without adding weight, but, since AWD cars have come along they now use it to shave off enough of the tire to match the other tires. Problem is these tire shavers are now far and few between, so you might have to do a lot of calling before finding someone that has one. To get a tire shaved shouldn't cost you more than $35. Of course, once you shaved a tire the tread life warranty will be null and void on that particular tire.

Due to the expense of fixing the AWD system, I would personally have a tire shaved even IF IT FITS THE CAR MAKERS PARAMETERS!! I wouldn't want to risk 1/32nds even!

Speaking of buying older cars, I used to collect classic cars, so I know some stuff about cars, buying certain older cars to drive in the summer doesn't bother me the least bit. About 3 months ago I bought a 2002 Lexus CS430, that is a hardtop convertible, it had 63,000 miles on it, it rides excellently, and it looks almost brand new after I had it detailed, the Lexus dealer did do a minor detailing job but not as good as my friend can, I even get compliments on it driving around in it, sort of weird because I wasn't expecting that from a non-classic car.

[CAAD]

Originally Posted by jh_on_the_cape

Thanks this is super helpful. I wasn't sure if they looked at the whole deal rather than parts. For instance, they lower the selling price to make you feel good but lower trade in value so it's the same in the end.

Negotiate the out the door price of the car your purchasing, taxes and everything included. So do your research to see what a fair price would be for that vehicle and all local and state taxes. Watch those fees and doc fees, most are state regulated but I have seen $1k for doc fees in that case just walk out.

If you go in with all the cards on the table they will just move money around to make the deal look good. These car dealers are looking to maximize their profits, and that's ok to some extent good dealers should earn profits for the investment and risk they take on operating a dealership.

[Peter P.]

Continuing this thread.

I've mentioned earlier I'm in the market for a new car but not one that's on the lot. I plan to order the car using Ford's web site.

Which I did, and it sends the build to the local dealer who I presume will contact me with a quote. I did receive the automated reply from Ford, but haven't heard back from the dealer.

I'm beginning to wonder whether the dealer isn't replying because they would prefer to move their inventory rather than order cars.

[jh_on_the_cape]

Well I hit a deer with my car last night. I am OK but car isn't! Waiting to hear back from insurance but tow truck driver thought it was totaled. Back to car shopping in earnest now!

And the deer was not OK.