Itll be my first time so I wanted to see what you guys have to suggest for tips.

I am looking at an 09 mitsu lancer GTS
options:
sun n sound
navigation

Off of cars.com they gave me this info.
http://www.cars.com/

2009 Mitsubishi Lancer
GTS 4dr Sedan

...............MSRP1 ...Invoice2
Base Price $17,990 .$17,139
Destination $650.....$650
Options......$3,700 $3,275
Total...... $22,340 ....$21,064

Advice?

I'm not the most experienced in this, but from the last time I went through it, make sure you negotiate in terms of final price instead of monthly payments.

I walked out the last time because the salesman kept saying, "how bout this monthly payment?" After repeatedly trying to explain that I'm not negotiating that way, I walked out.

Shop around, call a bunch of dealerships and get prices. Call Dealer A and get a price. Call Dealer B and when Dealer B tells you a price, tell them Dealer A quoted you $$$ price. When I was shopping around for an 07 CBR600RR I did exactly that. A dealer quoted me $9500 OTD I called a couple other dealers to get other prices, mentioning the price I got from the first dealer. Called the first dealer back and they dropped the price down to $9200. When you go in there, seem disinterested in the car, especially the color. The color is the #1 reason why people buy a car so even if they have your color act like you don't like it but you will settle for it if the price is right.

Call consumer reports and get the report on it, I think it's $20 and will tell you everything you need to know, cost, options cost, etc (there's an ad on the back page of every Consumer Report mag or check online). It also tells you how to negotiate. Don't beat up your salesman with this info though. They have to make money too and if you are financing, an extra couple hundred here or there won't affect your payment much.

Go for a test drive with the salesperson and make him buy you a few beers! I did when I got my F150. Went for a test drive, stopped at the German joint, told him he has to buy me 4 King Ludwigs before I buy the truck, he did, and then he drove back to the dealer for me to sign papers!! Hah ha

Best time to buy is when they are literally offfloading the car from the truck.

A colleague who audits car dealership was telling me that the factory gives the dealer x # of months of financing funds, and if the dealer sells a car that's on the lot for 1 day, it means they keep the factory's $$ so there's more incentive to move the newer cars than the older ones.

Plus, being a Mitsu, (which aren't quick movers on the market) you'd probably get a dealer to take invoice price less whatever rebates they're offering.

Go in the last day of the month........no BS, you'll get the best price as dealers want to make monthly goals. Also, do your homework on price. Get a rate quote from your bank and make the dealership beat it, know what your beacon score is, know how much you want to put down. Be prepared to walk out.........dont worry, they'll call you back with a better offer. DONT be a monthly payment buyer, be an out the door final price buyer.

0% too! Make them give it to you if you go through the dealer.

tell them you're ready to buy today if the price is right, and shop around never buy a car the first day you go in to look at it

Don't negoicate monthly payments

Start low and negociate upwards, not high and negociate lower

Do a google search with this exact thread title. A lot of good info on the net

More info because you guys are reallllly helping!!!!

I got approved for credit at a tier 2 which = 4.99% (this is great for us due to high revolving balance) on 60 mos

they didnt have any manuals around for me to test drive so they ordered one in the color I want.

So I would imagine they better want to get it sold because itll sit on their lot.

+1...they need to push cars at the end to meet or exceed quota

I would be very careful with 0%. The dealership will offer you 0% but they will then jack up the price so you end up paying the same. If the manufacture is offering 0%, don't tell them you need financing until after the price and everything has been negotiated. Usually dealers get profit from giving you financing, but in this case its the reverse. They are losing money by giving you 0% so they make the money back by selling the car for more. You will probably get a better deal if you say you don't need financing but take it at the end anyway. I've never purchased a car (or any big ticket item really) but this is stuff I've heard/read from various sources.

The 0% thing depends on what other offers they have going. It's usually a toss up between the 0%, or a certain dollar amount off the msrp. You have to figure out what will cost more in the end, but it also matters how soon you are going to pay it off. Hopefully the 0% would be cheaper unless they're scamming. Take all the rebates instead of 0% if you're going to pay it off fast. If you're going for the full term, the 0% is probably better.

That's all pretty good advice and everything, but it's easier than all that...I sold cars for almost 5 years, and it's incredibly easy to get an awesome price. All my friends bring me along with them, and it costs a grand total of $5 for Taco Bell afterwards, and I usually get a free hat from the dealership too.

1)Go to Edmunds.com, build your car with the exact equipment that the one you want has on it. The report will tell you Invoice (usually about $200 off for dealer advertising fees), MSRP, and What Others Pay.

2) Prep the salesman...ask him if he's going to give you a good price (he, of course, doesn't know he's being set up). He will of course say yes, so later when negotiating begins, remind him he said he's going to give you a good price. He will say yes, then you pull out the Edmunds sheet, and show him what others are paying, and that a good price, he will have to agree (he'll usually stumble on his words at this point), would have to be below what EVERYBODY ELSE PAYS...Right away, you knocked negotiating down from MSRP to whatever the "What Others Pay" price is, and you proceed til you get him within invoice to $300 above...So if the car costs $20000, and Others pay $18500, you immediately, without having to be confrontational or be an asshole, took $1500 off with a guarantee of more. Trust me, it works. I have never failed at using this...

Oh yeah, CarMax does sell new cars in Kenosha, so if CarMax has the brand you're looking for, find the car you want online, print it up, and bring it to the dealership and have them match the price...CarMax has the LOWEST price you'll see, and dealerships will usually try the "but you have to drive an hour out of your way to get it." Worst comes to worst, you can tell the dealership that it'd be about $100 of gas there and back, so you'll give them $100 more, but that's it...Hold your ground and the dealership cracks...

3) Don't let em screw with you on the payments or financing and extras...know exactly what you're paying for each item if you choose to buy them, and make sure you can calculate what the true payment should be (Good rule of thumb is every $1000 for 60 months is $20/mo.

DJ

any other questions, let me know! And good luck!

1. set a price.(do not tell if you have a down payments or trade.)
2.buy off lot.(go too dealer that has your car.)
3.take wife with.(she can help close or make walking out easy.)
4.take auto trader mag with(salesperson will tell mgr you have it.)
5.after you get price tell salesperson you would like too look at fin %.
6.fill out cred app.
7. after salesperson tell you %rate and term(years)tell him you have a trade and down payment.(half of what you really have.later you say your ma &dad will help after he comes back with first offer.you will see the payment drop.
if you can make the payment on the 2nd offer buy. make sure you get your payment with the ext warr.

Ok, I jumped on edmunds like you said but I came across something interesting.

"
................................MSRP Invoice National Base Price What Others Are Paying
................................$17,990........... . $17,139....................$17,990
Optional Equipment .... $3,700 ..............$3,275................... $3,700
Accessory Nav Package $1,800 ..............$1,593 ................... $1,800
Sun & Sound Package ..$1,750................$1,549.................... .$1,750
Rear Wing Spoiler.........$150 ..................$133 ..................... $150

Total with Options .......$22,340 .............$21,064....................$22,340

"

Makes me a saaaad panda.


(APRs are preapproved, we went thru credit app already)
4.99apr, payment around <330
Insurance is going to be around 70 (checked already) so thats what gives us our idea.
3K trade in on the cavi. they mentioned 4K heavily, but thats when the price was shot up on the car of course.


21064 for the car,
-3000 trade in
____________
18064
x7 ($1264 tax)
__________
19328
+300 misc transfer etc fees
______
19628
/60 (5 year)
__________
$369.51 PMonth

Now if I do a "6" year, the apr goes to 5.99 but then the payments are smaller, but no prepayment penalty so I can just make larger payments when we can so we dont pay that extra year of interest but we have the flexibility to make normal payments on tight months.

19628
/72 (6 year)
__________
$324.37PMonth



thoughts?



And DJ, lemme know when you want your TBell!




my treat naturally.

question...


manufacturers rebates.
do you have to fill out paperwork, etc. or do they just "tick" something that says they verified that you are eligible for those things.

reason being is if they bsd a couple I would get the price down 2k,
500$ each, recent grad, military, mitsu loyalty, auto show.

You pos eclipse does not qualify you for Mitsu loyalty.

And it made me so sad... I have bought more OEM mitsu than real mitsu owners. Clone cars count damnit!

Email negotiating. Did this on my current car. We had 72 hours to come in and use their quote.

We came in with the email quote up our sleeve. Test drove the car we wanted, said we would think about it. They wanted to negotiate and they offered a price.

We said we like the online email quote better.

He said that he couldn't use it. Took the quote to the manager, had an yelling match, and the manager came over and told us we found a price that could not be beat.

Later on, a friend at a different dealer couldn't believe that our price was that low, and said they almost 100% postively lost money on that car.

We were happy.

End of story.

just take up as much time as you can when you are at the dealer.

he is going to want to sell other cars so they will try to get you in and out as quick as they can. don't be weak. stand up for what you feel is right and if thats getting a good deal! then do it

+1 I freaking love the internet. I hate to waste my time in dealerships. I just picked up this Civic SI last week. It worked much better looking on Cars.com, seeing an ad, speaking to an internet manager, and getting a decent price set aside before you even walk into the dealership. No need to waste gas and time if they aren't ready to deal on a car. Like whitedawg said, you have all the pricing info available on the net, so you know if a dealer is trying to rape you, when they start pushing insane numbers walk, or thank them for their time over the phone and move on . Like others have said, know exactly how much you plan to spend, financing included, and never leave that figure. Start with just negotiating the price of the car, once that is solid and where you want it, then discuss the trade. When both of those are to your liking, only then run a credit application. No need to have many credit pulls when the deal is not close to being done in the first place. Some dealers will try hard to pull your credit first, don't let them. Tell them your credit is fine and that there is no problem there, you just need to make sure the numbers are right.

lets see pictures of the civic SI

I thought you saw them, here are some of the pics

All I have to add is threaten to walk out towards the end of the deal. If you must, even get in to your car, start and back out. When I did this while buying my mother's car the guy actually ran out with his manager in tow and stood in front of our car so we couldn't leave. Also go in towards the end of the month AFTER a slow day (rain or other nasty conditions that prevent browsers from coming in). If they let you go then just go to the next dealership. They expect you to play the tough guy so do your part just don't be an asshole.

This has to happen within the next couple days. so sadly this method isnt an option.



But im not afraid to leave. "I need to think about it. the only way I dont need to think about it is if I get to the price"

it has started. I spoke with a fellah from MadMax Countrysde even tho I have been working with naprville. "get your best price from XXX, and then come here so I can beat it."

I like this guy. Hes a shark, not a sheep.

The parts department at mad max is very good. I have been told the sales team there is also good. When I pick my stuff up Rick, I expect a test ride.

I think it's close enough to the end of the month. If anything rent a cheap POS for the next week and take your time. If he's a shark and not a sheep he'll smell you bleeding from miles away and he'll come outta the blue and shark rape your ass real nice and good without any sorta lube.

Bobby, from what I've been told, when you do E-mail quotes and car buying, you are often working with the "Fleet Sales" guy who seems to get better deals on cars and has more power over what he can and can't do than the floor sales guys. At least that's what I've been told. That probably explains your killer deal.

If Brianne and I get anything other then a Scion as our next car, I'm going to try the E-mail thing too. Scion has fixed pricing, so the dealership tries to rack you up with extended warranties (which don't need to be purchased at the dealership), rims and add ons (which can be done on your own), and any other sort of BS they can think of.

I walked out with my '05 xB at $14,195, but I did drop some extra cash into the dual sunroof through the dealership because it would be covered on the extended warranty that I made them price match with a Scion dealership in AZ. You *don't* have to buy your extended warranty at the dealership you buy your car, in fact, you can buy the extended warranty directly through the place that sells extended warranties and bypass the dealership all together. But you can't finance it then.