R3V's FT86/FRS/BRZ Purchasing Guide.
 

So I posted a bunch of stuff last night in regard to purchasing a vehicle and it got a whole bunch of attention, so I figured I would post up the info in its own thread.

Those who get the best deals negotiate price first, trade second, rate third. All three need to be done. The best deal is the number that they will let you leave on.

You need to come in ( as a buyer) with:

For your trade: KBB value (inflated consistently), NADA value (this is normally the closest to what dealers actually use), plus autotrader buying certificates from other dealerships.

For the car you plan to buy: TrueCar price certificate, Car Gurus estimate, plus other dealership quotes/ePrices etc. There is no real "set" amount that you can expect to get off. It's important to recognize that up front. Don't go in and assume because you're not getting $5,000 off the price of the car that you're not getting an excellent deal. Do your research, see what online pricing you can get, see what TrueCar/CarGurus/etc. list average sale prices are before you get started. It's also important to recognize that the lower the price of the car, the lower the markup.

For the loan (oh yes, you MUST shop for financing up front): Offers from credit unions and other banks. As long as the inquiries happen within the same 2 weeks AND YOU PURCHASE it will only have one "hit" on your credit. (Same applies when shopping for a mortgage). Keep in mind that you are NOT at the mercy of lenders that the dealership provides you with. Banks want your loan, you don't want to empty your savings, so go to a variety of large lenders and credit unions to see who offers you the lowest rate/terms that work best for you. Just because the dealer can get you 3.9 in house doesn't mean you can't go get 1.9 or less and still keep the rest of the deal. UNLESS you have very, very poor credit you are NOT at the mercy of the dealer and its lenders.

When it comes to very low rates (1.9 and less) that are not coming from a credit union, often those are incentives rates from the manufacturer to draw your business and you can only get that rate with the dealer. More often than not it's either a cash rebate off the car OR 0%/0.9% etc. Do the math and see which one saves you more, and if the dealer comes at a non-incentivezed rate that's a bit much you have the option to procure your own financing. Additionally, it's often the ultra-low financing rates that are for a shorter term than norm (36/48mo), which increase the payment substantially. Never negotiate payment. If you do your homework and have realistic expectations across the board the payment will fall in line with the budget you already set out for after determining the amount you can afford to finance and if it is feasible to get the car you want for that amount. No $30K car will be $350 a month on a retail purchase without large participation on the buyers end via lots of trade equity or cash down.


OTD: Out the door. Number after all is said and done. Total amount financed (before interest) or paid in cash.

For the purposes of fair assessment it's useless to use an OTD figure because of the differences in tax rate, tag cost, amount of dealer fee, trade equity/inequity, money down, etc.

For example, someone could have bought the car at full MSRP, but had 5K trade equity, putting their "OTD" after all the other stuff tacked on at approx 2K under MSRP so they feel they got a very good deal.

Another good one is someone paid under MSRP, but got a little less on their trade. The dealership actually valued your trade with more money, showed you less, gave the difference amount as a discount, and made full sticker on you. It doesn't matter where they show it. There are two numbers for your trade. Shown value, and actual value. Actual value is the real number that they value the trade at. For example:

Sell at cost/invoice (on the car) BUT actual value on your trade is 3K more than the value they show on your paperwork. Boom, $3,000 profit. And you didn't even blink an eye. Same is true conversely, full MSRP (bullshit there is no discount or room to discount) but give an extra $500 for your trade. They didn't have to actually give $500 more for your trade, just take $500 profit from the price of the car and flip it into your trade.

Top line will always be price of the car, the negotiated price. If it's MSRP or asking price, unless you beat their brains in for huge amounts of money on your trade in they could have knocked your head off and you'd never know.

If you want to compare deals, compare price of the car exclusively. Feel free to post full details of your deal below, but include all figures including starting prices + where you negotiated to and please leave out tax/tag/fee's as they change dealer to dealer.

** If anyone wants something expanded on please let me know **

This second post covers a few websites that can help exponentially in terms of helping you find the best pricing up front.

1. TrueCar
   TrueCar.com is an excellent resource for those in the market. I shows not only a guaranteed savings price from TrueCar dealerships (there's a lot!) but also pulls actual sale information to show a range of pricing. TrueCar is not the end all be all, but its a much better place to start negotiating. Just don't expect huge additional amounts off a TrueCar price.
   
   As an example TrueCar shows such info as these numbers for zip code 32801 on a 2014 BRZ Limited with an MSRP of $28,813:
   
   Unusually Low Price - Less than $26,452
   Great Price - Less than $27,262
   Good Price - Less than $27,840
   Above Market - $27,840 or more
   
   Average Paid - $27,373
   Factory Invoice - $27,274
   $27,200 - Local/National
   
   Showing 27 Sales
   Price Certainty
   96.76% Find it exactly HERE.
   
2. Car Gurus
   For used cars, CarGurus will pull average market values and display each car that you search with a rating of how it places in its market. This includes such things as noting if it is below average price, above, very good deal (way below) or over price deal (way too much). Again it compares vs. what they actually sell for. Generally if its already a good value the dealer has posted their best price online.
   
3. KBB
   Everyone knows this one. Numbers are always inflated.
   
4. NADA
   This is what banks will base percentages that they will loan off of (retail sale price NADA). Meaning if a bank will loan 110% of the value of a car in your loan, they get that value from NADA. A great place to figure out not only (accurate) trade values but also how to insure you get into a good auto loan/financial position.
   
5. Autotrader Purchase Certificate
   Guaranteed amount you can go to any dealer and get for your car. Bring this in conjunction with below.
   
6. Carmax Purchase Offer
   A lot of states don't have CarMax, but they will just straight buy your car at fair value. They give you a certificate that is valid for 1 week, and this + the Autotrader can be a great trade negotiation tool.
   

I was reading a thread the other day where someone said they only paid X, but then stated they paid Y down.
No. You didn't pay X.
You paid X+Y. You financed for X. BIG difference, people. The amount you put down doesn't increase the quality of the deal.

When I get home I will post my numbers.

It's definitely a good start. I'd love to see you go into some more on financing negotiation as well as make it a little more clear about what price you can actually expect to negotiate. It's not too uncommon to see sub 1% interest rates with little to no money down in this market.

Many of us, myself included, purchased our vehicles new for significantly under MSRP and well under invoice.

I expanded on those topics :thumbsup:

PM's answered. I guess if you have specific questions just PM me? Not my intention to give direct situation advice but we can roll with it.