Duke said:Fly and drive to the one that's in inventory? If you can spend $400 on a plane ticket, night in a motel, and gas but save $2000 on price, you've just paid yourself $1600 for a 2-day field trip.
This would be the correct answer for me.
Duke said:Fly and drive to the one that's in inventory? If you can spend $400 on a plane ticket, night in a motel, and gas but save $2000 on price, you've just paid yourself $1600 for a 2-day field trip.
This would be the correct answer for me.
Datsun310Guy said:All I can add is it’s a year long process with a lot of time wasted for me. I’m the giant pro/con yellow pad kind of guy. Analyze and analyze again. You gotta live with this decision for a long time - decade or more?
My in-laws were GM retirees and decided they wanted to get a new car and went to the Buick dealer on a Saturday and bought a new LeSabre that day. Who does that?
I do.
My bike was a one day situation. I like this bike how much? Okay sounds good get the paperwork going.
Same thing with the wife's car last year. Wife likes this one how much? Okay sounds good let's get the paperwork going.
I don't have the time or patience to deal with multiple visits or trying to get something for absolute bottom dollar. If it's the vehicle I want and the price is acceptable then that's it. If it's not then I walk away. Pretty simple.
If you're able to wait several months and want a very specific set of options that aren't commonly available, then a factory order is a good idea. Get the price, rebates, etc in writing on the same contract as you make the deposit, though. Check into state laws about this -- California, for example, requires that all deposits on car purchases be refundable.
Ok I asked two of the dealers to do just that, to confirm exactly what the price could be if I order it from them. I asked what are they offering to put down on paper as the final delivery price.
I also just found a van only 6 hours away instead of 15. My coworker says I should ask which ever dealer I like best locally to try and get it for me. But then I realized that both of those far away vans are in states with front license plates and when I took another look at the photos I got sad as both have the brackets already installed. Growing up in Michigan, where I never had front plates, I just don't like them or the holes they leave. sigh.
Yes I often falter when at the table across from the salesperson but I will definitely make sure that the paper we sign shows all the numbers.
The way I understand it, you get the rebates in place when the sale happens. That means you will get whatever rebates are in place at day of delivery, for better or worse.
In reply to Advan046 :
Look closely at pictures of the front license plate brackets on that van. On my TSX, the front plate bracket is cantilivered out from under the bumper, so installing it makes no visible holes in the face of the fascia. It was easily removed with no visible marks.
With a lot of research you know a good deal - then I jump on it. In 2017 I jumped on a leftover Silverado in Indianapolis. Grabbed a flight and drove her home.
My bride wanted a Volvo XC 90. The closest Volvo dealer was a couple of hours away from us. Went to take a look and the color my bride sort of liked was a complete stripper - base everything. Their price was $5K over list. Talked to the sales guy for a bit, he wouldn't budge, so walked away.
A couple of months later, we found out our big box store had a deal with a number of dealers for 'special pricing'. I was in our state capital on business and stopped at the closest Volvo dealer who was offering this special pricing. Walked in and told the sales guy what I was looking for. He was retired highway patrol and this was his last day selling cars - and he really wanted to sell one more car. They had the exact color my bride wanted, but the car was fully optioned out. Worked with the guy for a while and ended up getting the car for less than the stripper model's list price by several thousand bucks. Drove it home that night.
The look on the sales guy face when we took it into our dealer for service was priceless.
Saw a lightly used car I wanted - called the dealer, got a few additional pictures, sent a deposit for $500, flew down the next weekend with a check and drove it home. Was pretty painless.
Whole process took about 2 hours online and 2 hours at the dealer.
I followed advice from you guys and had the BEST new car purchase experience in my life. I negotiated online 100% showed up at 4:30pm. Paperwork was ready. Only had to sign about a dozen papers. The salesman had them ready on his desk. We actually spent more time in the van going over the features than we did anything else. Left at 6:17pm.
Thanks for the advice guys. We love our new Pacifica.
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