https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sun, 05 Apr 2026 19:30:01 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question/page/2#post-2754044 Fri, 30 Jun 2017 16:07:13 +0000 MrsBrewer 2754044@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@T.H.O.U.: haven't thrown out a number yet at all. Agreed on autotrader it looks like around 17k is normal, but I can't find any that year with that low of miles anywhere near us. Maybe I will expand the search. It's about 75 miles away right he way it is. </p> <p>The dealer responded back that there's an appt with the car tonight with someone else and he will let me know if it doesn't sell. He's not pushing hard at all via email. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question/page/2#post-2754042 Fri, 30 Jun 2017 15:45:37 +0000 T.H.O.U. 2754042@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: Again, until you see all the numbers I wouldn't throw out a counter offer because they will try to hold you to it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question/page/2#post-2754041 Fri, 30 Jun 2017 15:41:20 +0000 T.H.O.U. 2754041@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: Have you looked on Autotrader to see what they are going for? Put in the exact stats of the vehicle with a range of similar miles and a range on price (maybe between like $12k and $18k)</p> <p>ETA - it looks like on auto-trader, most in that range at a dealership are in the $18-19k range. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question/page/2#post-2754040 Fri, 30 Jun 2017 15:39:55 +0000 T.H.O.U. 2754040@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: Did they provide you a breakdown of that price? Is that the purchase price or the out the door price?</p> <p>Remember if you're just negotiating on the price of the vehicle, they can just throw in extra "dealer fees" to make up their profits (shell game). So get a breakdown! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question/page/2#post-2753939 Fri, 30 Jun 2017 12:21:05 +0000 808love 2753939@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: Exciting!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question/page/2#post-2753927 Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:52:35 +0000 MrsBrewer 2753927@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Well I'm emailing back and forth right now. And no warranty or anything comes with it. But I just said based on the KBB this seems to be priced pretty high, probably based on year. yadda yadda.......</p> <p>Am I the first one to throw out a counter off amount? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question/page/2#post-2753920 Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:41:37 +0000 MrsBrewer 2753920@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@avivoca: I knooowwwww I'm trying to jump on this one quuiiiccckk!! And its the EXL, so not quite top of the line, but close to it! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question/page/2#post-2753918 Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:39:38 +0000 avivoca 2753918@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: That is a unicorn, you better email them now! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question/page/2#post-2753912 Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:31:02 +0000 MrsBrewer 2753912@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I just KBB it and its saying $15,795 for the retail price. so I know there definitely is wiggle room </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question/page/2#post-2753909 Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:28:10 +0000 MrsBrewer 2753909@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Alright ladies. I think we found a minivan that we really like. I would love to start negotiating via email now, but I don't even know how to start/begin!! Here's the specs</p> <p>2010 Honda Odyssey<br /> 56k miles<br /> clean carfax - only 1 owner!<br /> $16,900 </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question/page/2#post-2753361 Thu, 29 Jun 2017 09:49:52 +0000 lawbee11 2753361@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: I believe it's for new or certified pre-owned. We were initially going to buy used, but you get the manufacturer incentives/rebates along with the Costco pricing. On the car we wanted they were having $3K back incentives. So with the $3K off plus to Costco price it was actually cheaper for us to buy new. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question/page/2#post-2753352 Thu, 29 Jun 2017 09:40:03 +0000 808love 2753352@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@gingerbebe: Thanks for detailing. I've only bought from a dealership once and wondered how others did it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question/page/2#post-2753318 Thu, 29 Jun 2017 08:44:08 +0000 MrsBrewer 2753318@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MommySLP: @lawbee11: Is the Costco Auto program only for new cars? Or is it for used as well? We are Costco members and I'm super interested! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2753304 Thu, 29 Jun 2017 07:54:01 +0000 looch 2753304@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We didn't use Costco's program, but we were able to get a local dealer to match the offer. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2753237 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 21:55:28 +0000 MommySLP 2753237@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: not sure if you're members at Costco, but they have a car buying program. Their prices they've negotiated with certain dealerships are way better than any we've seen. And they do most of the work for you! Free benefit with membership. (We hate the car buying process, too!)<br /> <a href="https://m.costcoauto.com/enterzipcode.aspx?gotourl=%2fDefault.aspx" rel="nofollow">https://m.costcoauto.com/enterzipcode.aspx?gotourl=%2fDefault.aspx</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2753208 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 20:11:23 +0000 Eko 2753208@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>So, I personally sold cars for a couple years and my husband is a service manager of 15 years now. Car sales are actually the least profitable part of a dealerships business. They do not make a lot of money off of each car. Dealerships make money first off of financing / selling extended warranties then service and finally car sales. </p> <p>It really does not matter if you buy a car same day or not, unless you feel more comfortable taking time to look at numbers. Definitely try to buy at the end of a month then at the beginning. You will never be able to negotiate a lot of money off of a car. The biggest favor you can do for yourself is get a pre-approval from a bank and see if the dealership can match it. When we bought our car recently, we got a pre-approval from our bank for about 4%; when we went to the dealership they were trying to finance us for 7.5%. When we showed them the pre-approval they matched our rate and we just financed through them out of convenience. Extended warranties are usually never worth it. If you have a specific car in mind you can try to compare similar models / mileage with different dealerships in the area. You will be able to see what the average going rate is. I also tend to look at KBB for what used cars are selling for. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2753184 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 18:47:06 +0000 lawbee11 2753184@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We went through the Costco auto program. They have prenegotiated rates with certain dealerships and were more than happy to provide me "out the door" pricing via email. I emailed other dealerships to compare and Costco's price beat all of them. We got approved through our credit union, showed up with the preapproval letter, and they beat their interest rate so we financed through the dealership. No haggling on price as it was all set through Costco. In and out same day. It was the easiest car buying experience I've ever had so we'll be doing it again in the future. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2753177 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 18:33:07 +0000 lemondrop 2753177@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I agree 100% with @CarDad: we had a great experience with True Car, we actually found out about it through our insurance who uses them for a car buying service. </p> <p>I also agree with not negotiating on monthly payments, it's so much easier for them to jack up the price that way. </p> <p>We used AutoNation and did most of the negotiating through True Car online. We had the final price in hand in 4 hours through e-mail with the dealer and took two more to do the paperwork in person, it was super easy and not an unpleasant experience. We shopped around a lot and test drove a ton of cars, but when we found the right place, it was super easy and really was the exact price we paid in the end. </p> <p>Our car insurance also did financing, so we locked in a great rate through them, also True Car, our bank (super crappy rate) and the dealer ended up matching it, so we were happy! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2752978 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 12:04:37 +0000 Littlebit7 2752978@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: Id go about it like you would a house.<br /> We went in with a literal binder full of "comps (other cars for sale and their mileage)" from within 50 miles at other dealerships. We knew exactly which car we wanted to end up with. We were also able to pull the carfaxes ahead of time.<br /> DH is a tough negotiator. We did end up buying the same day we went looking but he also had a target out the door price he wanted to get. Going in super prepared left the dealer a little blindsided which worked to our advantage. He said he had never seen someone with actual charts and graphs plotted out with depreciations, price comparisons and such. I'd suggest doing as much homework as possible. CPO is great, you get a solid warranty at a lot of dealership.<br /> Full disclosure: I hate these types of situations so I sat in the parking lot on a curb. I probably would have accepted the dealers first terrible offer since I don't like negotiating. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2752948 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 11:30:49 +0000 gingerbebe 2752948@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>In 2015, we bought a certified used 2012 Toyota Sienna XLE with 38,000 miles for around $28,000 including all the taxes and fees. We walked in at 7pm and we were out the door with the car at 830pm. </p> <p>My husband and I list car buying at the top of the things we hate the most to do. We don't really negotiate, we don't want to waste time forever, we just want to walk in and buy the car and leave and drive it for at least 10 years. We also don't bother going in multiple times because we have to arrange childcare, I don't want to drag my kids to dealerships, and if we're looking it at based on my husband's hourly billable time, its a huge waste of money. </p> <p>Honestly, we USUALLY buy our cars straight cash because even dealing with financing is annoying and you command much better prices when you walk in and say this is how much I have to spend, yes or no. But a fully-loaded van even used was a little more than we wanted to pony up in cash with a baby on the way and one in daycare. So we financed part of it.</p> <p>We first plugged in what we wanted into TrueCar's website in the used section. Basically we looked at Hondas and Toyotas and plugged in the trim levels with the options we wanted. It gave us a good idea on what a great price would be on the van we wanted within 100 miles of where we lived. This is how we found our car. The listed price on the vehicle on the dealer website was $26,995 and I knew it was a great price. The only drawback was the dealership was 60 miles away. So we knew if we were going to haul all the way there, we better be ready to buy.</p> <p>We called once about the car to inquire if the car was still available. That's when they paired us with the salesman. Said thanks and hung up. Then we called him a second time to ask him to go check the car and physically confirm that it had the specific items we wanted (power liftgate, power doors, captains chairs, power seats, etc). That's when we hooked the salesperson. </p> <p>He kept calling and asking if we wanted to set up a time to come in because he only worked certain days and he wanted to make sure he was the one to sell us the car. We said we'll get back to you because you guys are really far so we want to check some local places out.</p> <p>Time of year, month, and day in terms of shopping really helps. We called the salesman on a weekday and told him we'd come in to test drive the car on a day that ended up being the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Turns out it was not a day he was originally supposed to work, but he came in to try and earn that commish. It was the end-ish of the month, at the end-ish of the year, on a rainy day, in the evening, you get the idea. Dealership closed at 830pm, we walked in at 7pm, so we were on the clock. </p> <p>We test drove the car in under 15 minutes and waited while they valued our Jeep for trade-in. That meant we were captive with the guy for 20 minutes in the showroom with him wanting to run our financing (we did not tell him we had CU financing at that point). We said we'd wait until the trade-in value came in first before we discussed financing.</p> <p>At this point, my husband legitimately needed to jump on a conference call, so it threw the guy's game off because he cut him off to ask if he could use an empty office to make a call. So I think at that point the dealer didn't know if we were serious about buying or not because the man had left the negotiation desk. (Eyeroll).</p> <p>They came back and said they would offer $4,000 on our trade. I told him I wanted the car for $26,000 even, $5,000 on our trade, and we can button this up right now. He was like there's no way, blah blah, the car is rock bottom priced, maybe I can get you $4,500 on the trade, etc. </p> <p>We weren't that far apart since I felt like I offered him reasonable terms, so we ended up with $26,495 and $5,000 on the trade. It was only at that point that I was willing to talk about financing. And that's when I told him I already brought my own. He asked if he could try and run their own financing and I told him I wasn't interested/wasn't enough time. I think this is the point where you could have them try to beat it or not, but for us we knew it wasn't going to make much of a difference, but that it would eat up a lot of time. Used car interest rates tend to be higher and a little tougher to incentivize. (Oh, and FYI, Toyota loves to offer you a super low interest rate but then tack on a "loan fee" - especially when you use that 0% APR - that basically negates the value of the interest rate cut). </p> <p>It really depends on how your specific bank handles it, but for us, we got financed through our credit union and had a physical check in hand. Basically, they approved us for a certain amount and gave us a blank check that we filled in at the dealership and we could spend up to the approved amount. We put down $10,000 cash (actually, it was $5,000 in a personal check, $5,000 on our Amex for points since we could put up to that amount on the card towards the purchase of a car), got the $5,000 for our trade, and cut the CU check for the remainder. By the time my husband was off the call, we were done and we were ready to sign paperwork.</p> <p>I will say that because we hauled out so far and because we knew the van was the best deal within 100 miles of us, DH and I agreed on how much flex/wiggle we were going to be okay with going in (I think we were willing to pay full price and take as low as $4000 on the trade in). Because we had the game plan beforehand, every time the dealer asked me if I wanted to check with my husband first or whatever, I was like no. And we didn't have to waste time asking for a second to confer with one another. The only time I had to go to my husband was when we agreed to terms I walked over to whisper where we landed and he gave me a thumbs up and I went back to finish the paperwork.</p> <p>Sorry for the novel, but we legit HATE buying cars, and have a really weird way to buying that prioritizes spending as little time as possible at the dealership, so I thought I would detail. Good luck. Vans are awesome! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2752905 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 10:29:50 +0000 nanilani 2752905@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: Sorry, I just searched my Google drive and couldn't find it. This was five years ago so I probably deleted it. Not sure why -- I'm usually a digital hoarder and surely it would've come in handy the next time I need to buy a car. The line items were similar to what @T.H.O.U. listed above. Some costs were flat fees, others varied by dealer or location. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2752901 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 10:22:37 +0000 josina 2752901@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I would figure out exactly which vehicle you want, and then shop online to see what is out there / where others are priced at.<br /> We bought our Traverse last year, and the first dealership had a set price and didn't budge at ALL on it even though they were overpriced, they just kept trying to sell me on the monthly payment. Seriously over an hour negotiating and they did NOTHING.<br /> We ended up getting a nicer one with the AWD we wanted, for less money at a different dealership. DH just walked in, said he would pay asking w/ tax/title/license included, but wanted $X amount on our trade in, they took it and we left an hour later with the SUV. We did pre-approve with our bank and wrote a check that day. The dealer said upfront he didn't think he could beat the rate, and it was easier to work with our current bank anyways. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2752900 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 10:20:31 +0000 T.H.O.U. 2752900@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Modern Daisy: I had to have a lot of phone conversations and then ask them to please follow up with an email with the numbers so I could review with DH. I also used the "I have a newborn baby and can't just drop in to the dealership" as an excuse a lot. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2752899 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 10:18:02 +0000 MrsBrewer 2752899@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Modern Daisy: Wow how annoying! I'm hoping to be able to negotiate online now. I almost wonder if it's different if you go there first to look at the vehicle, leave, then negotiate via email....hmm?</p> <p>@nanilani: Ha! That's seriously awesome! I was originally an engineering major, then switched to accounting! Do you still have your spreadsheet?! I would love to see what costs you had in there! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2752898 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 10:12:52 +0000 nanilani 2752898@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: I'm a numbers person too (engineer here). I walked in with a spreadsheet and the guy was like "Wow, you're . . . prepared." Something tells me he was able to pull off his shenanigans with other young women who may have been overwhelmed by the numbers.</p> <p>@Modern Daisy: That's so aggravating. It is 2017, right? Why are they unequipped to handle business online? They just want to get you in so you form an emotional attachment to the car so you buy it then and there. Good luck finding a car for minimal hassle! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2752894 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 10:03:57 +0000 Modern Daisy 2752894@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I've been at shopping lately and I haven't been able to get anyone to negotiate online at all! I've contacted about 6 dealerships so far and the all REFUSE to talk price if I'm not physically there. I've only been to two, and still haven't bought a car lol, but got two totally different quotes for the same car. And the price does actually drop after you leave.</p> <p>Go in knowing your credit score and with a financing quote so you can take that out of the equation. But don't let them only quote you a monthly price - they all tried to do that to me and I forced them to show what the car actually COST. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2752893 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 10:03:48 +0000 MrsBrewer 2752893@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@T.H.O.U.: That's interested about the tag transfer. I had no idea how that worked. That's really not something that they can change though, is it? It sounds like that would just be a set fee, right? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2752884 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 09:55:30 +0000 T.H.O.U. 2752884@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: The cost of the tag transfer will vary depending on how much time you have left on your registration (or something like that if I remember). Tax amount again should be pretty fixed based on your local tax rate. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2752883 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 09:55:20 +0000 MrsBrewer 2752883@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@peachykeen: Wow that is quick! That's ideal because with baby #2 here due in under 8 weeks now.....I'm sort of on a time crunch :wink: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/car-buying-question#post-2752881 Wed, 28 Jun 2017 09:54:21 +0000 MrsBrewer 2752881@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@nanilani: Ugh! How shady of that dealer.....That's great that you were aware and caught them in that though. I'm an accountant, so luckily numbers are my strong suit. I will definitely try to catch them in any games they play. </p>