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The single most powerful negotiating tool possible
By Kevin M
The single best tactic we could possibly use in negotiating a deal for a car is painfully simple and at our disposal any time we choose to use it. Here it is: If you don’t like the deal they’re offering, just get up and leave!
Call it your nuclear option, but it’s the one action that’s guaranteed to stack the negotiations in your favor no matter what else is happening.
When is the right time to pack up and leave?
- When you feel pressured
- When you feel confused
- When you’re certain you’re paying more than you can afford, even though the dealer says otherwise
- When you sense based on your research that you’re being given something less than the best deal available
- When you feel like the sales staff is ganging up on you in the classic car dealership ambush
- When that little voice inside is screaming “something isn’t right” (the little voice is never wrong)
Continue reading Your Nuclear Option at a Car Dealership →
By Kevin M
Most of us dislike confrontation. In fact, unless you’re certifiably neurotic you’d probably rather deliver a speech to a large crowd rather than engage in face-to-face confrontation. OK, that was a bit over the top, but I’m going somewhere with this…
Confrontation comes in many forms—disagreements, disputes, debates, arguments, and of course even fisticuffs. But nestled snuggly right up there with the rest of human conflict are contract negotiations. Only the stakes are usually quite a bit higher with contract negotiations, since you can be bound by the terms of the final agreement for years or even decades.
Most of us are keenly aware of this fact, though we might not ever admit it to ourselves in any direct way. We just prefer doing just about anything to negotiating a contract. Call it contract paralysis or what ever you like, but unless you do it for a living, there’s a part of most of us that prefers to shy away from wheeling and dealing. After all, we could lose…
Contract negotiations can run the gamut from simple and tame—like working with a tire dealer who wants to sell you a set of tires for your car more than you want to buy them—to the higher stakes variety where we feel overmatched. Perhaps nowhere are us mere mortal types more heavily outgunned than in a car dealership.
The car dealership ambush
Continue reading Never Go Into a Car Dealership Alone! →
By Kevin M
 Ever notice how the advertised price of a new car is never the price that you actually get? Have you also noticed that once you settle on a price for a new car with a dealer, that it tends to creep higher and higher before he actually hands the keys over to you?
In previous posts I’ve discussed the dealer dog-and-pony show that’s designed to create enough confusion to weaken your resistance, and that’s a big part of the reason why you’ll pay more. But there are more tangible reasons too.
Continue reading Lower New Car Prices by Refusing Useless Options →
By Kevin M
Have you ever decided to buy something—furniture, an appliance, even clothing—but walked out of the store thinking “I can get that same item in another store for less”?
Why is it then that so often we don’t shop around when buying a car? I can think of a few valid sounding reasons: 
- We don’t feel qualified to make the purchase so we throw ourselves on the mercy of the dealer
- We think, “it’s the same car; all dealers charge mostly the same price”—then hope we’re right!
- We’re overwhelmed and thankful for anyone who will step in and make it easy for us
- Your friend Fred bought his car at this dealership and they took care of him, so they’ll take care of you
- You need a car now and don’t have time to shop
- You just want to get it over with so you can get on with your life
Now at a given time and place each of these may satisfy us that we’re making the right choice by relying on a single dealer to get us a fair deal, but each also has the potential to put us right where the dealer wants us. And that can cost us thousands of dollars more than we need to pay.
Job One in working with car dealers: make it clear that you have options!
Continue reading Never Lock Yourself into Working With One Car Dealer →
By Kevin M
When ever we buy a car, a process known as “haggling” is set in motion. From a car dealer’s perspective, this process has two over-riding objectives:
a) To charge as much as possible for the vehicle they’re selling us, and
b) To pay as little as possible for the vehicle we’re trading in.
Our job in the exchange is to bring about the exact opposite outcome in both cases.
As simple as that may sound on the surface, making it happen is anything but! The dealer has the cars, the slick marketing campaigns, the fast talking staff and, in most cases, superior knowledge.
We can’t do much to counter their fleet of cars and in-your-face marketing, but one area where we can level the playing field is with knowledge, particularly as it pertains to valuations. Value is, after all, mostly a function of simple math that most of us can have even if we aren’t automotive experts. It’s often a matter of knowing where to find it.
If you know the value of the car you’re buying, and the car you’re trading or selling, you’ll know when it’s time to close the deal—or when it’s time to pick up and walk.
Continue reading Know the Value of the Car You’re Buying – and the One You’re Selling →
By Kevin M
Last week we talked about the importance of having your financing ready before going to a car dealer. Today I want to cover another form of advanced preparation that’s equally important—having your down payment in place.
When ever we go into a car dealership—or any business—a series of negations begins. While we might want to believe that buying a car is a single transaction, it’s really a composition of several sub-transactions, including obtaining financing (if necessary), negotiating options or setting a value on your trade-in.
The best chance we have at getting a good deal on the overall purchase then, is to handle as much of the deal before we get to the dealers store—and without his help!
Continue reading Have Your Down Payment Ready Before You Buy a New Car →
By Kevin M
Whenever it comes time to buy a car there’s a strong tendency to go with the one stop shopping dealerships offer. But take advantage of that perceived convenience, and you may very well pay far more for the car than you should.
Dealerships hawk ridiculously low interest rates on their financing, so low that it often looks like the preverbal no-brainer to just go with what ever their offering.
Why not just rely on apparently low dealer financing, and save the hassle of applying through a bank or credit union?
Continue reading Why You Need to Get Your Car Loan BEFORE You Buy a Car →
By Kevin M
A friend of mine spent several years working for a prominent local car dealership in the area, and though I’m not a “car guy”, I got a chance to learn about some of the inner workings of the business from a guy who was living it. And that’s what they do in the car business, by the way—they live it.
If they’re in sales or financing, they’re on the job from the moment the store opens until past closing (there’s always a lagging customer or paper work that needs to be cleaned up). If they’re serious about the business, they work at least six days a week, and rarely take vacations.
Looking at the schedule this guy kept, the first thing I learned about the business was that I didn’t want to work in it. I had a life, and I wanted to keep it.
But the second thing I learned was a curious phrase he often referred to: upside down. If you’re not familiar with the term, it refers to a customer who owes more on his or her car than the vehicle is worth.
Now in my simple mind, this customer looks to be the worst type of prospect a salesman or finance manager can run into. It looks like a clear case of customer-dead-on-arrival, right?
Hardly. The car dealerships LOVE these people!
Continue reading Are You “Upside Down” on Your Car? →
By Kevin M
What does energy use in China have to do with your personal financial situation here in the Western World?
Many of us prefer to believe this is an issue best left to politicians or economists, but hardly worthy of serious analysis or concern by the rest of us. After all, things will play out the way they will right?
Maybe not. We spend time and money planning for any number of future outcomes—our retirement, our health, our careers, paying off our mortgages, our children’s futures—why not map out and plan a viable energy future? World leadership hasn’t done such a good job of this so far, and if energy follows the pattern of the last few years with steadily rising prices over the long term, it won’t be politicians and economists who will suffer the brunt of the problem—it’ll be us.
Continue reading China is the No. 1 energy user – what does that mean for your car? →
By Kevin M
Perhaps more than any other expense I have to pay, I most dislike (OK, despise!) paying for car repairs. It’s not that I expect our cars to run maintenance and repair free, year after year, but I can’t stomach the idea that every time we bring one of the cars to the shop we get hit with charges of $500-$1000.
We just had a recent experience with this, and I stepped out of character and went the full price repair route to handle it. Maybe I need to do that from time to time just to remind myself why it is I’m always looking for a better way.
Now, be forewarned, I’m not a “car guy”. My interest in car repairs is strictly from a financial standpoint; cars are one of the biggest expenses the vast majority of us have, and I’m always looking for- and experimenting with- ways to save money here. But back to the story…
Continue reading Save Money on Car Repairs by Thinking Outside-the-Box →
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General: Any information in regard to money, credit, personal finance, or in regard to any other monetary topic, provided or shared on OutOfYourRut.com is presented for information and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. It is intended to provide general information only and does not constitute personal financial advice in regard to your specific circumstances...MORE-->
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