Shopping for a car is one of the things that most people dread, I know a couple of people that like it but they are very deranged individuals. I mean who wants to spend a perfectly good Saturday arguing with some guy in a tie with his hair slicked back who is using every closing clich? you ever heard to try to get you to buy today?
The way to avoid the majority of the conflict in the first place is to do your homework first. If you have access to the internet and since you are reading this I assume you do, there is no excuse for not being well prepared in advance. You can go to sites like Edmunds and Kelly Blue Book to get the actual invoice costs on vehicles and with a little digging you can find out what their dealer holdback and carryover allowances are as well as find all the current rebates and cash incentives. If you don't do this you are setting yourself up to get taken.
Don't fall in love with a particular car and buy into the lie that it is the only one. That is the beauty of buying a new car, if the dealer you are trying to buy from doesn't want to give you the deal you want you can go down the road and find another car exactly like you want and get the deal you want.
Depending on what time of the year you are trying to buy you can buy a new car for invoice if you know what you are doing and stick to your guns. Now some vehicles you won't be able to do this on. If you just have to have the hot new model, expect to pay for it but generally most dealers will take a deal if they are making anything at all on it. Each car on their lost is costing them money every month it sits there.
As I alluded to earlier don't be shoved around. Tell the salesperson what you are willing to do and if you are like me and want to avoid the back and forth game then tell them you are not going to play their back and forth game, they have one shot they can do what you want or you will go elsewhere. They need to sell a car more than you need to buy one, I promise. You can be firm without being a jerk; you just want to be in control. The control starts the moment you arrive at the dealer, if you are approached tell them you want to look by yourself and you will come get them when you have found something you like.
Dealerships train salespeople to control the prospect so if you turn it around on them at the start then the ball is in your court.
If you are looking at the average new vehicle you should be able to get it for no more than about a 3% profit. I bought my 2005 Nissan Titan for about $600 profit and got a $1500 rebate off that taking it below the dealer cost. So be prepared and you too can get a good deal.
