My own car, the “Red Baron”, has been getting up in age – 10 years to be exact! So I’ve started the process of looking for replacement vehicles. There’s such a vast amount of information out there, you could spend hours filtering through sites. From everything I’ve seen so far, two in particular stand out.
Provides detailed trending information in a variety of formats. The basic report is a histogram of actual sales data for your area. The best feature has to be the seeing the price swings between the: sticker price, factory invoice, average paid, and dealer cost.
Understanding the true costs of a car purchase are critical to negotiating the best possible price. Referred to as the “Cash Flow Shell Game” (scroll to bottom of page), the site provides a graphic worth checking out explaining how dealer’s make their profits.
Allows you to search dealerships in your area and read the reviews submitted by others. What’s nice about the reviews is that you can separate between “sales” and “service”. While comprehensive, still could use more data. Dealership reviews can range from under 5 to over 100.
Thinking of these two sites in conjunction made me realize that maybe there’s a step missing from the car-buying research.
We end up spending a lot of time researching the car of our choice. What safety features are included, how reliable the car is, the highway fuel economy, storage or passenger capacity, and so on. While we research the price, a lot of that information is based on trade-in values, MSRP prices, and other gray estimates.
TrueCar allows us to take the pricing research a step further and pinpoint our purchase price. The importance beyond saving money? Remaining firm in our negotiating, instead of relying on ranges and budging as a result.
DealerRater allows us to take the negotiation a step further and filter through potential dealerships. No matter how good your poker-face is, or how easily you can walk out – what does it matter if you walk into a notorious dealership? You probably won’t get the same deal as if you found a more amicable dealership with a more positive reputation.
Remember that all of this goes back to the idea of EDUCATION. The more you are informed, the more you’ll understand, and hopefully the more you’ll get ahead. Think of your knowledge as weapons – you want to be armed with scud missiles instead of bb guns.
It’s been quite a journey indeed!
At your recommendation I checked out Dealer Rater and its a great resource! And of course I’ve been on fellow yakezie Car Negotiation Coach’s site.
I actually have made a purchase and I think I’ll post the final chapter in that saga tomorrow — be sure to drop by!
Oh, almost forgot: Edmunds.com and autotrader.
My process went something like this:
1. Search autotrader for “type” of vehicle in my price range
2. Check reviews on Edmunds
3. If it passed, I checked dealer rater for red flags.
4. Compare a few vehicles, rinse and repeat!
.-= Lakita | Personal Finance Journey´s last blog ..Don’t Finance a Vehicle without GAP Insurance =-.
@ Lakita:
Congrats on the purchase! I’ll definitely check out the article.
You should highlight the cross-referencing aspect, that’s key. Like I mentioned, there’s so much information out there – you’ve got to double-check and make sure the information is viable.
What did you end up getting?
2007 Mitsu Lancer
That’s a good idea, I’ll discuss the cross referencing.
Thx
.-= Lakita | Personal Finance Journey´s last blog ..My Conversation with a Car Salesman =-.
@ Lakita:
Whoa baller….don’t go getting speeding tickets now!
Don’t fall for it! Red Baron is still a baby, she just needs a little TLC.
The last thing you need is a new car.
We’re sitting on a 12 year old Honda. She’s not pretty but she is reliable…. and oh yeah, no payments! Let’s see who can make their car last longer!
.-= LeanLifeCoach´s last blog ..A Thought Experiment – Changing Roles =-.
@ LLC:
I’m not “falling” for it, but I’m preparing for it. I’d like to squeeze another 100k miles out of it, but thanks to the public transportation here – my fiance and I will be maintaining a 1-car lifestyle…so we don’t want to get caught with our pants down per se (and pressured into a position).
Thanks to the TLC I gave it way back when – the car doesn’t look like its 10 yrs at all.
Nice Purchase Lakita! I love that car!
FinEngr, good sites, and sweet pic. Cool to look at AND breaks the heart! :)
@ MFO:
Yeah it does – the site actually focuses on “supercar” crashes. Looks like there’d be a market for training new owners how to actually drive their cars!
That picture is both awesome and depressing at the same time.
I buy cars at government auto auctions, but these sites are def. good for research!
.-= MyFinancialObjectives´s last blog ..New Student Loan Objective =-.
@ MFO:
How does that work exactly? Ever thought about writing a post about it? Do you end up getting good deals?
Hey Sorry I commented twice… The first time I did it nothing showed up…
It’s pretty simple actually. There is a HUGE parking lot with a ton of cars. You can go around and start them up, check them out, then eventually they are put into the auction line. They roll through the lane with dozens of ppl on both sides, and you just raise your hand if they want to bid. There is a guy telling you the current bid as well as screens displaying it.. pretty neat stuff… I SHOULD post about it, your right!
.-= MyFinancialObjectives´s last blog ..XML Sitemap Upgrade, RSS Corrected, Permalinks Fixed, Link Rally! =-.
Brilliant post, nicely done. And thanks for mentioning all that info – you have introduced to me to three new blogs and I love them all! Cheers :)
Glad you enjoyed – thanks for the note