Another milestone in adulthood
I decided that it's time for me to buy a new car. Actually, my mom decided it was time for me to buy a new car, and so we went to the Honda, Nissan and Toyota dealers in Iowa City in hopes of taking advantage of the tornadoes that went through the area a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, those tornadoes left many a college student with no place to live. Fortunately, however, they also left many of those brand-new cars with tons of barely noticeable scratches and dents that forced dealers to slash their prices.
My parents eagerly took advantage of the deals, snatching up two brand-new cars. So when I came into town, I decided to head down to Iowa City with my mom to check out all these amazing deals that I'd heard about. Sadly, most of those deals were long gone - all those storm-damaged cars sold like wildfire within a week of the tornadoes, leaving me with little to look at.
But I did find one new Nissan Sentra with a big dent in the hood and scratches all along the side. To top that off, the windows had all been blown out of it, so the interior was coated in mud. I couldn't have been more excited, knowing how much my parents' cars were discounted for barely-noticeable damage.
Unfortunately, the salesman was only willing to sell it for $1,500 off the overpriced sticker price of $22,000. Since he had previously indicated - before I test-drove it, of course - that we would be looking at paying $14,000 to $15,000 for the car, I was a little disappointed. My mom basically told him to go to hell and we left.
Even though I didn't buy a car that day, the test drive made me fall in love with the idea of having a new car. So now my new project is researching everything I could ever hope to find out about the two cars that I would consider buying – the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic. I found some cool Web sites that have the MSRP, invoice cost, and market value for both cars, so the next time I go face the salesperson, I have ammunition and know what I should be paying for the car - as opposed to the bullshit, inflated price they put on the window.
That Nissan Sentra, by the way, was supposed to sell for $20,000 anyway, and they were offering it to me for $19,500 with a big-ass dent in the hood and trying to pass that off as a good deal. I'm glad we walked away from it. And since I'm in car-buying mode now, I'm interested in any car-buying horror stories, tips, advice, etc., that my many faithful blog readers care to offer.
My parents eagerly took advantage of the deals, snatching up two brand-new cars. So when I came into town, I decided to head down to Iowa City with my mom to check out all these amazing deals that I'd heard about. Sadly, most of those deals were long gone - all those storm-damaged cars sold like wildfire within a week of the tornadoes, leaving me with little to look at.
But I did find one new Nissan Sentra with a big dent in the hood and scratches all along the side. To top that off, the windows had all been blown out of it, so the interior was coated in mud. I couldn't have been more excited, knowing how much my parents' cars were discounted for barely-noticeable damage.
Unfortunately, the salesman was only willing to sell it for $1,500 off the overpriced sticker price of $22,000. Since he had previously indicated - before I test-drove it, of course - that we would be looking at paying $14,000 to $15,000 for the car, I was a little disappointed. My mom basically told him to go to hell and we left.
Even though I didn't buy a car that day, the test drive made me fall in love with the idea of having a new car. So now my new project is researching everything I could ever hope to find out about the two cars that I would consider buying – the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic. I found some cool Web sites that have the MSRP, invoice cost, and market value for both cars, so the next time I go face the salesperson, I have ammunition and know what I should be paying for the car - as opposed to the bullshit, inflated price they put on the window.
That Nissan Sentra, by the way, was supposed to sell for $20,000 anyway, and they were offering it to me for $19,500 with a big-ass dent in the hood and trying to pass that off as a good deal. I'm glad we walked away from it. And since I'm in car-buying mode now, I'm interested in any car-buying horror stories, tips, advice, etc., that my many faithful blog readers care to offer.
posted by Melissa @ 1:30 AM
2 Comments:
At 8:46 PM,
MaggieCat said…
When we went looking for a new car to replace the then dead Alero last December we didn't have much time, but I did most of my research on cars.com. Actually, MOM and I did most of the research on cars.com. We new we wanted another Alero or similar car like you. We went to various dealers adn got a pretty good deal. My new Alero was $11,000 for a 2004.
My bigest advice would be not to be afraid to go to the expensive dealers. We got the best deal at the Betts Cadillac dealer - better than the local Carlisle dealer who has known us for years. The small dealers marked everything up to make a profit. The big expenisve dealers made their money off the luxery cars, so they didn't have to worry about squabling for a few thousand on a trade-in. Also they treat you better. We got SUCH better service. At the small local place we were treated like cattle or trash since we weren't looking at brand new cars. Which is odd becuase that what you would have expected at the Caddy dealer instead. At the Caddy dealer there was always a salesman to help (they even brought us out drinks whenever we wanted) and our personal guy took us to the shop floor where all the loaner cars were being kept. He even showed us cars that weren't technically listed as available for sale, but he thought his boss wouldn't mind and we got a better deal on them anyway! So don't be afraid to ask and look at places you wouldn't normally think of.
My other piece of advice having bought to new-to-us cars within the last 5 monthes. Go with your gut instinct. I saw a couple others cars before the Alero and a couple after it, and all the ones before just seemed wrong. The same was true with the Neon - it was the 1st we saw and the most expensive, but we just kept going back. So look around, but don't be afraid to go with your gut instinct. If you like a car and it's in your price range - get it, you'll be happier about the deal in the end. Let us know how the hunt goes!
At 7:02 AM,
Gene Paul said…
Another piece of advice I have been given, but haven't had a chance to test, is to first just go looking for a car, find one you like (like a Honda Civic), then go to your car insurance company, and ask them what they would give you if you were to wreck that Civic driving it out of the parking lot. They'll probably give you the Blue Book value of it, so you could just look at that, but basically, you use that as ammunition with these sales people. They just want to make a sale, and if you tell them you're serious about buying the car from them if they're willing to work with you, they'll be more willing to work with you. Also, don't let them push you around. Like Colleen said, be ready to walk out the door, and do so if they try to jerk you around, because if they're jerking you around now, they won't be very good to work with down the road if you have problems with the car.
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