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Search CarBuyingTips.com Buying New Cars How To Buy New Cars Buy Cars Online First Time Car Buying Tips Extended Auto Warranty Tips Hybrid Car Buying Tips Canadian Car Buying Tips Top 10 Car Dealer Scams Military Personel Car Buying Our Reader's New Car Deals Auto Finance Auto Loans, Tips & Scams Auto Refinance Tips & Scams Bad Credit Auto Loan Tips Used Car Loan Tips Get Your Credit Report Online Used Cars Used Car History Reports How To Buy Used Cars Help Fight Odometer Fraud Selling Your Used Car Used Car Classifieds Auto Auction Buying Tips Car Insurance Car Insurance Buying Tips Auto Leasing New Car Leasing Tips ALG Residual Values Car Leasing Software Reviews Government Sites Attorney General Sites DMV Sites - All 50 States Drivers License Sites Take A Break New Car Dealers - Ratings Rate Your Dealer Experience Free Spreadsheet Downloads Humor: Alternate Car Names RV Buying Tips & Scams How To Jump Start A Car LoserCars.com Crash Of The Month Gallery Furniture Buying Tips	Chapter 2: Discount Car Buying On The Internet Getting new car Price Quotes, Researching New Car Prices & Used Car Prices This is the most important chapter, it links to all the discount car buying sites where you'll research new car prices and used car prices, which new car buying services list your actual buying price online, and how to price demo cars dealers try to push on you with 6,000 miles on the odometer. We'll review the excellent Fighting Chance consumer advocate car buying advice site with car prices, rebates and dealer incentives. If you want information on used car prices, used car buying and selling tips, read our used car chapters: Click Here To Read Our Tips On Buying & Pricing A Used Car & Avoiding Scams. The AutoCheck Vehicle History Report is the best tool to prevent scams for used car buyers. Click Here To Read Our Tips On Selling Your Used Car. Tip: Invoice Price applies to new cars only, not to used cars. For used car pricing, you should use Kelly Blue Book Values or eBay completed auction prices as your guide The Best Way You Can Save Cash On A New Car Is With Competing Quotes We'll review car buying sites like InvoiceDealers, Yahoo!Autos, Edmunds.com, MyRide.com and CarsDirect to lookup how much dealers pay for cars, and get free car purchase quotes. Get quotes now from all of them and compare. You can use these sites if you're leasing too, they also list new car prices, used car prices, and dealer invoice prices for new cars. Now you'll know what dealers pay for new cars. Don't drive all over town wasting time at dealers. Do your car pricing online and get quotes emailed to you from dealers. You should never enter a dealership without "The Folder" with your price quotes to compare. You must check all sites, you never know who has the best price on your car. You would feel foolish if you bought a car and found out it was $1500 less at InvoiceDealers. A few minutes of research now saves you thousands off your new car, leaving you more money for your family vacation. In Chapter 4 we'll cover exactly how you calculate the dealer's cost of the car and how to calculate a fair offer for your new car using our Buyers Offer Spreadsheet. There Are Two Types Of New Car Buying Sites 1) Sites that sell directly to you and list all the new car prices online. CarsDirect is an example of this. 2) Free Referral services with a network of thousands of dealers offering discounted internet volume car prices. These services list new car prices and used car prices online as well. These are the ones we reviewed above, like InvoiceDealers, Yahoo!Autos, Edmunds.com, MyRide.com and CarsDirect. How Free Car Pricing Services Work Referral services provide a discount new car selling price through a network of over 2000-5000 dealers, no tricks, no gimmicks. Member dealers get tons of internet referrals from free online request forms that you and I submit, so they give a better price. These services can get you a lower price because they typically hook you up with a non-commissioned fleet manager, or internet manager. If You Don't Like to Haggle Over New Car Pricing... See your No Hassle new car price online before you go to the dealer Drive Your dream is offering friends & family pricing to our Car Buying Tips visitors Exclusive to visitors of our site, the Drive Your Dream Auto Buying Program gives you special friends and family pricing, it leverages volume buying power of large companies, employers, or membership groups. Drive Your Dream allows you to choose your car and configure options online, and get an instant price quote from a local dealer in the network. This works best for you if you dread haggling over new car pricing and want to be backed by a company supported by 44 million customers. It's lightning fast and easy to use. I fully configured and priced out a Lexus GX470 in 60 seconds, and my no obligation, No Hassle Price came in at $49,915, an impressive $6400 savings off MSRP, 3 minutes after I started. I also priced a Dodge Grand Caravan at $5100 below MSRP and a Honda Odyssey at $2645 below MSRP. You might see different pricing depending on market conditions and demand for your vehicle. Your No Hassle price will be at or below Kelly Blue Book "New Car Blue Book" Value. Your official quote certificate appears online clearly itemizing invoice price, MSRP, your Total No Hassle Price, and your savings off sticker price. It has the internet sales manager contact info and address of your Drive Your Dream dealer. You then print out your No Hassle Certificate, which can be used for nearly every vehicle on the dealer's lot. With your new car quote in hand, call your dealer contact, make sure your car is available in your configuration, and set an appointment to test drive and buy your new car. No more all day mentally draining haggle sessions, life does not get any easier than this, and you did not have to visit a dozen dealers to bring home the gold. This should be your starting point for new car shopping to compare all your other offers to. How We Reviewed the Sites That We Recommend We've been researching car pricing sites since 1997, so you don't have to. We know their VPs, we used them ourselves, we receive feedback from thousands of CarBuyingTips.com visitors using them, and guided friends to success with them. If they are not listed here, they aren't worth using. It costs you nothing to get a new car purchase quote, and there's no pressure sales. The sites we recommend are honest, have withstood years of intense scrutiny, and successful usage of thousands of our daily visitors, as shown in our Visitor $avOmeterTM Savings Database. TIP: When filling out the forms for your car pricing quotes, remember to enter your full email address properly! If your email address is user@aol.com, don't just enter "user", you must add the full "user@aol.com". They need to be able to email your dealer contact info to you.

If you're buying a Ford...
Check out FordDirect to get a free quick quote on any Ford vehicle like Ford Mustang, Ford Ranger, Ford Expedition, Ford Focus or Ford trucks. Use them to search local dealer inventory, build and price your new Ford, or search pre owned inventory and request a price quote from your local Ford dealer.

How Much Did Your Car Dealer Really Pay For That New Car?

Now that you have gotten your free new car price quotes from the above sites, which site had the cheapest price for your car? How do you know who will have the best price? We never know, it's different for each car. That's why you need to check all the online sites for a consensus of what you should be paying for your new car. This is a typical $avOmeter email I get back from our visitors after they get their quotes:

Save Money On Your Auto Loan: You'll pay lower interest rates financing through lenders such as Up2Drive. You get online approval for your new or used car loans in minutes. They Fed Ex your check. You can apply today, and pay for your car tomorrow, it's that quick. Finance your car in advance and avoid dealer warranty and window etch loan scams. For more information about saving money with online financing read our chapter on Car Loan Financing Tips and Scams.

Why You Need To Use Free Car Buying Sites like: InvoiceDealers, Yahoo!Autos, Edmunds.com, MyRide.com and CarsDirect

• You can typically save more money than you would by haggling with slick commissioned salespeople
• Competing quotes. Enter a new car dealer with half a dozen decent quotes and they can't argue with your data
• Free services, you don't pay money except to the dealer when you buy your car
• You bypass commissioned salespeople, deal directly with an honest non commissioned fleet manager
• Without these quotes as a reference, I guarantee you'll pay too much at the dealer and lose thousands
• If you decide not to accept their price, their quotes are still useful to get you a better deal by using them in your "The Folder"
• If you are a weak negotiator, these services are the only method I would recommend for you to buy your car
• These sites list dealer invoice cost, MSRP, option pricing, rebates, incentives, reviews and photos

Don't worry about your private information and security
Don't worry about leaving your email and phone number, it's safe, they don't sell it to advertisers. They don't hound you about buying a car, they may email you or call once to give you a price, but that's it. These aren't greedy lot rats who hound you all week for a sale. If you don't like the price, they won't waste time on you. They need to get the deal done quickly with little effort.

Advantages of Online Auto Buying Services:

• Painless way to shop that can save you thousands, you're in and out, most deals are done in a half hour, they'll usually show you factory to dealer invoice
• You still get any rebates that are available, take your car to any dealer for manufacturer's warranty service
• These quoting services are free to you, and there is no obligation for you to buy at all
• The dealer can handle your trade in, or you can sell it yourself for more money
• The paperwork is ready when you get there, just sign and drive. Some dealers will even bring the car to your house
• Quotes on new cars usually range from $250 below invoice to $500 over invoice, right in your target zone
• You deal with no-commission fleet managers not sales people, so there's no tricks, no wasted extras

These services will cut your time spent on car shopping in half, because the deals are usually done in under an hour.

Warning about 0% APR loans from GM, Ford, Chrysler.
The 0% APR loans are available only to very few people with perfect credit, on car loans usually 12 to 36 months. Most of you planning 48 or 60 month loans cannot get 0%. Remember, the ads say "with approved credit". Also, you either get the 0% APR or the rebate, not both. Calculate which works out cheaper. Read Tips for getting good car loans for your backup plan.

All About Edmunds New Car Pricing

Edmunds is a useful car information site with car prices, reviews, holdback listed by manufacturer, and photos for most new and used cars. Many people erroneously spell it Edmonds car info, but it's really Edmunds Auto, with a "u". What makes Edmunds more useful than Kelley Blue Book is that just like Fighting Chance, it lists current factory to consumer rebates, as well as secret factory to dealer incentives (Edmunds calls it "marketing support" that car buyers don't know about. Even your salesman most likely does not know about it, but the sales manager does. If you are aware of a secret factory to dealer incentive on your car, you can negotiate a lower price on the car, and often times the dealers accept. This is why invoice price is NOT dealer cost. Edmunds also has a useful Town Hall feature, where you can post a car related question and it will be answered by either a moderator or other car buyers in the Town Hall. Keep in mind Edmunds is a free site, so often you have outdated information, or if your car is too new, it won't be listed yet. That's why we like Fighting Chance the best of all the car pricing sites. So we recommend you get the car pricing and rebates from these sites and come back here to CarBuyingTips.Com, and load those values into our Buyer's Offer Spreadsheet, found in our Free Download Section. Please don't email me asking why Edmunds has the wrong data or your car is not listed there, I don't know why. You get what you pay for. Go ask Edmunds why it's wrong.

Extended Warranties
Dealers will try to sell you an extended warranty, they make good profit on them. As with financing, you must shop for extended warranties before you buy a car to compare with the dealer's warranty pricing. I'll bet you every single time the online sites with better policies and longer coverage terms will have cheaper prices. For an extended warranty, try Warranty Direct. I Review both of them in the section on How To Buy An Extended Warranty And Avoid Scams. You want to get an online warranty quote before you go to the dealer, so you'll have something to compare the dealer's extended warranty price with. Never show up at a dealer to buy a car without a free quote from an online warranty site.

Other Car Buying Methods

Auto Brokers:
Some brokers don't require a deposit, but pay your deposit by credit card so you can cancel if it's a scam. Deal only with a broker who accepts credit cards. I still think you can get a good deal on your own, if you're a shark. Brokers can get some cars for cost, then charge you $800 on top, usually a decent price. Their fee is built into the price, so you pay a check to the dealer, and the dealer pays the broker. If you are trading in, the broker is at the mercy of what wholesale auctions people will pay. Fleet managers sell to brokers at invoice because there's no hassle, it increases sales volume and bonus incentives, etc. The best way to find a broker is word of mouth from trusted friends.

ADVANTAGES: Usually a good price, sometimes you don't pay dealer prep & ad fees, car is delivered to your home.

DISADVANTAGES: Some are paid by dealers, some critics doubt you are getting a good deal. But often you ARE getting a good deal.

I recommend that every single car buyer try sites like InvoiceDealers, Yahoo!Autos, Edmunds.com, MyRide.com and CarsDirect services first, you don't know who has the lowest price. If the car price is not within the 5% over dealer cost guidelines that you'll see in this article, then it's time to haggle. On cars with no backlog you should be able to get a price of slightly less than invoice price, to no more than $500 over invoice. I've advised many users to negotiate with the dealer to give up the holdback as well, and surprisingly, many of the dealers do.

GM Employees plan, Ford A-Plan, or any other car manufacturer plans.
The key to getting a good deal with these employee plans is to still do your homework and not to assume you'll be treated any different than a regular car dealer customer. Check the employee price on-line through your office, and compare it to the invoice price and MSRP before going to the dealership to make sure it is a good deal. The dealer will of course try to get you to take a high APR loan and lots of unnecessary extras. To the dealer, you're just another bum off the street who wants a discount.

How To Get Your Credit Report
If you are going car shopping, get your credit report instantly online right now so you'll have it, and apply for car loans online now so you'll know now whether you are qualified. DO NOT apply for a car loan unless you have your credit score in hand. You can get your credit report instantly online from Experian, Equifax or TrueCredit. Be sure to get your credit score with the credit report. If your credit score is below 550, don't bother applying for a car loan until you repair your credit first. Learn how to repair credit at our other site DebtWizards.com.

Your credit score will not drop if you run your own credit report
Many people mistakenly think their credit score will drop if they run their own credit report. Salespeople keep you in the dark about you own credit report so they can use your ignorance to charge you higher interest rates. You can verify this urban legend about your credit score at Experian, Equifax or TrueCredit.

Tips To Save You Money On Car Loans: You'll pay less interest financing through Up2Drive, with lower APR than banks & approval online in minutes. You can get new car loans, used car loans, they Fed Ex your check. You can apply today, and pay for your car tomorrow, it's that quick. Finance your car in advance and avoid dealer warranty and window etch loan scams.

Loan/Lease Calculators:
Read all about ALG Residual Values. You'll need this vital data to calculate your lease payments, and look up dealer cost for cars and trucks. Every person who leases use the same type of leasing software that the dealers use. Without it you're sailing the ocean of confusion, and they'll swallow you whole. I would not in a million years lease a car without using software first.

How To Price A Dealer's Demo Model with 6,000 Miles - Is it New or Used?

Nobody gets a good deal on a demo car. That's why I do not recommend buying dealer demo cars, and because no pricing data is available and you can't easily valuate it. There's a loaner car on the lot with 6000 miles which the sales manager drove for a few months and they are pushing you to buy it, spouting off about what a great deal it is. Why do they push it so hard? Due to the mileage, they can give you a slight discount to pacify you. One former salesman told me some demos are referred to as "roll-backs" that car buyers purchased but had to bring back when car financing fell through. They are regularly sold again near full price. The dealer makes extra profit on it twice. In most states there are no laws about labeling a car as new or used, except that once it has been titled, it's used. So dealers can legally claim their demo with 5000 to 10,000 miles is "New".

My formula is to assume the car is a year old, which it probably is close to that if it has 5000 miles. The problem is, there is a reason why it was a manager's special with 5000 miles. Was it wrecked? Used by employees? When you are about to buy a "manager's special" car with mileage, you should run an AutoCheck Vehicle History Report o see if there are any records of it being in a wreck, repossessed, sold at auction, odometer rolled back, etc. I just don't trust high mileage "new cars". You might find nothing, but spending a few dollars for the report is a lot cheaper than $6000 later on unseen damage. Car buyers have emailed me who found "new cars" they were about to buy with 5000 miles had been in a wreck and the dealer did not tell them. Also, the AutoCheck report tells you when the dealer received the car, a very important negotiating factor.

How do you determine what the selling price should be? That's the problem, no one knows. Here's my logical valuation method. A car drops $3k in value the first minute that it's used, ask any insurance agent. Then take off $0.15 per mile just like they would do to you on a lease. So here's 2 methods I came up with to price a demo car:

Demo Model Pricing Method #1:

Your Price = MSRP - $3000 - (number of miles x $0.15 per mile) if the car is less than 6 months old.

For a loaner with 5000 miles, the car should be no more than:

Your Price = MSRP - $3000 - (5000 miles x $0.15 per mile) = MSRP - $3750.

Not a penny more. Most people get $2000 -$3000 off MSRP negotiating the selling price of a new car anyway.

Demo Model Pricing Method #2 For Year Old Car:

Your Price = MSRP - 20% - ( # of miles x $0.15 per mile) if the car is over 6 months old.

I based this on car residual depreciation, which drops 20% in value the first year. Ask for maintenance records too, and make sure the car had 2 oil changes. Most cars require an oil change at 1k and 5k miles. They should do an oil change BEFORE you sign, no verbal promises of a free oil change later. ANY excuse for not having maintenance records, the deal's off.

Go To The Next Section
Chapter 3: Do's & Don'ts at the car dealer, new car dealer fees explained

Jump to any chapter. I suggest you read each chapter in order.
Chapter 1 Get your credit report, how to get a car loan, scams, online car loans, first time car loans, budget & loan excel spreadsheets, credit repair.	Chapter 2 Reviews of internet discount car buying sites, new car prices, find dealer's invoice cost. Get a new car quote.	Chapter 3 What to bring to a dealership, what to say, how to act, what not to do, what to look for at the dealership, and a glossary of all dealer fees.	Chapter 4 How to read dealer invoices, finding dealer's cost, how much to offer the dealer, buyers offer spreadsheet, examples, trade-ins.
Chapter 5 Negotiating tips, dealer scams & tricks to watch out for, dealing with aggressive salespeople, choosing between rebates or low APR loans.	Chapter 6 Close the deal, avoid needless extras, scams in the business office, extended warranty scams, options, buying warranties online.	Chapter 7 Actual misleading dealer ads, and what to do when you've been ripped off, customer satisfaction surveys, how I bought my Lexus.
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