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Free Spreadsheet Download Section

In This Section:

Welcome to our Free Spreadsheet Download Area. Here you'll find awesome spreadsheets we created to make your life easier as you research your next vehicle, we even have a great one for your Pocket PC! These appear all over the main CarBuyingTips.com, but are all collected here for your convenience. These spreadsheets cover budgets, loans, leases, used car bill of sale, and making your offer to a dealer. Use these spreadsheets with your new car price quotes from sites like InvoiceDealers, Cars.com, Yahoo!Autos, Autos.com, Edmunds.com, MyRide.com and CarsDirect. Learn more about car financing on our section on All About Car Loans and Auto Financing.

About These Free Downloadable Excel Spreadsheets

These Spreadsheets will not work with Excel versions older than 1997
Don't convert them to earlier Excel versions like 7.0, 5.0, or earlier, they WILL NOT even open up. Most of these spreadsheets have an "Instructions" tab at the bottom of the screen. Click on it for instructions for each spreadsheet.

How To Download These Files
The best way to save these files is to right click the image or link for the file and choose the menu item "Save Target As". Some browsers will work just by clicking on the images and saving them. If you have a problem opening the file, it either means you don't have Excel97, or you need to use the "Save Target As" method to download the spreadsheet. Mac and Powerbook users who are running Microsoft Office 98 (Apple Version of course) or later can download and use all these spreadsheets.

Copyright Info
You may print these spreadsheets or save them to your disk under a different name, or email them to a friend, but do not post them on another site, as they are occasionally updated and improved. Please do not incorporate these spreadsheets into any product for sale, or post them claiming they are your designs, which they are clearly not. For your protection, the spreadsheets are password protected so you don't try to mess with the formulas. You can only enter data where you are supposed to.

How To Get The Lowest APR Car Loans

Remember, new car financing is just another product a car dealer sells you. For the lowest APR, use sites such as Capital One Auto Finance and HSBC Auto Finance. You get approved in minutes for new car loans, or used car loans, they Fed Ex your check. You apply today, and buy your car tomorrow, it's that quick. It's a safe way to finance your car in advance and avoid dealer warranty and window etch loan scams. You better know what APR you qualify for before you buy, not after.

We are the web's first car site to support your Mobile PDA!
Download our Car Loan Spreadsheet for Pocket Excel. This awesome spreadsheet analyzes 4 car loans at once. Check the dealer's math on your PDA! It works on Pocket PC. It may also work on Palms if you use a good converter for Excel. Right click the link above, do a "Save Target As" to your desktop, drag it to your PDA sync folder. Enjoy! If you download it, please email me your opinion of it.

Note: This spreadsheet is the only one on the site than can be used on PocketPC.
The others are too complicated to convert to Pocket Excel. The other spreadsheets require a real PC or notebook computer.

Be sure to read Our Review Of Lease Software with ALG Residual Values. We review top software available. We like to use Expert Lease Pro and Lease Wizard because both are simple to use. In Expert Lease Pro, choose your car from the menu. It lists the dealer invoice cost and MSRP for the base model and options. Check off the options and it supplies you with invoice and MSRP pricing. Look up the residual value of your car using Expert Lease Pro's Automotive Lease Guide (ALG) residual values. Select the sales tax info, and interest rate, and the software tells you what your payments will be. It's used by Attorney Generals to sue crooked car dealers.

Click Here To Download The Budget Spreadsheet.

Budget Template

Budget Spreadsheet Because I like you folks so much I created this Budget Excel spreadsheet for you so all you have to do is enter your bills, and the car payment you would like to have, and it will tell you if you'll end up saving money at the end of the month. Choose a car payment that allows you to have a positive net cash flow at the bottom line. It is in Excel 97 format only. DO NOT convert it to Excel 7.0, 5.0, or earlier, because it WILL NOT work. The format and formulas will be messed up and unusable. To download, just right click on the image on the left here, and choose "Save Target As". It's best to edit the files using Excel, not in your browser window.

Will not work for PocketPC.

Used in: Chapter 1

Used Car Bill Of Sale Template

Used Car Bill Of Sale Form This useful Excel spreadsheet form is actually 2 forms in one. The first spreadsheet is a Used Car Bill Of Sale, which takes the guesswork out of trying to figure out what information you need when transferring title of a car from the seller to the buyer. The second form is a Deposit Slip form, similar to the Bill Of Sale. The deposit slip is used as a written confirmation between the buyer and the seller itemizing the selling price of the car, the buyer's initial deposit, and how much the buyer still owes on the used car. The deposit buys you time while you go to the bank to get a bank draft. This form REQUIRES EXCEL97 or later. To download, just right click on the image on the left here, and choose "Save Target As". It's best to edit the files using Excel, not in your browser window.

Will not work for PocketPC.

Used in: How To Buy A Used Car Chapter

Click Here To Download The 4 Scenario Loan Spreadsheet.

Loan Calculator Template

4 Scenario Loan Spreadsheet This spreadsheet is one of the best ones I've ever created. It compares 4 different loan scenarios at once, giving you an at a glance summary of all 4 scenarios on a single 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. The four sections are all color coded for easier use. Can't decide whether to take the rebate or the low interest rate? Want to increase the number of months in the loan or play what if games with the down payment? This spreadsheet is just the tool.

Will not work for PocketPC. Use the special PocketPC version above.

Used in: Chapter 1

Buyer's Offer Spreadsheet Use This Spreadsheet To Calculate Your Offer To The Dealer
Blank Template Offer Spreadsheet	2002 Toyota Tacoma Example	Lexus RX300 Example	Please Note: Some cars that are really in demand might not sell at a discount at all. This spreadsheet provides a good starting place for negotiations, but remember market conditions always dictate the selling price. This spreadsheet helps you work up an offer to the dealer. The core strategy of this entire site comes down to this offer spreadsheet. Fill in the base price, and all the options, rebates, incentives, destination charges, etc. from the car pricing sites that we tell you to use. The spreadsheet strips out wasted fees, determines the dealer's true cost, and offers 3% - 5% fair profit above that. Then print it out, take it to a dealer to negotiate, or fax it to several local dealers, one of them will bite. The print area is set to print only the necessary part to fax to a dealer. To download, just right click on the images on the left here, and choose "Save Target As". It's best to edit using Excel, not in your browser window. Used in: Chapter 4 Will not work for PocketPC PDA.
Lease Monthly Payment Calculator Spreadsheet
Lease Template	BMW Example	This spreadsheet calculates lease payments. It's based on the FTC's Regulation M Model Lease form with enhancements. I highly suggest that you practice with it on an old lease. This spreadsheet will make your life much easier. The enhancements I made are the inclusion of the money factor, cells for other closing costs like dealer acquisition, different sections are colored for easier reading, and fields to calculate excess mileage penalty. Mileage penalties are added to the total cost of lease to show you how much the entire lease will cost you. This is what dealers never tell you. Another great feature: all the fields are named. Instead of cryptic cell formulas, click on any total in the spreadsheet, and it names all the items that make up the total. This helps you see how payments are calculated. You can do your calculations without being connected to the internet, so bring your notebook PC with you to the dealer and check their numbers right there. Many readers have used this spreadsheet right there in the finance office and caught dealers cheating. Of course my lease spreadsheet does have its limitations, so use real lease software like Expert Lease Pro or Lease Wizard. Will not work for PocketPC. Used in: The Car Leasing Chapters

Here's an email I got from a visitor after they used the lease spreadsheet above. I get one like this all the time:

Jeff:

I thought you would like to hear this.

I took your lease spreadsheet on my laptop to the dealer and plugged in their numbers right at the dealership. Doing this identified several hidden charges like VIN etching and a missing $1000 reduction in the car's price per the advertised price. The spreadsheet exposed a $60/month discrepancy which lead to identifying the hidden charges and missing discount. Ultimately the extra charges were dropped and the calculations were made to match. At one point the finance manager began questioning where I got the spreadsheet, but didn't get into questioning its accuracy. In the end, I got the best deal I think anyone could have, or at least the most accurate. Nice work on the spreadsheet and thanks for the good work.

You'll notice in the lease spreadsheet I made no cell for you to enter MSRP. You never want to see MSRP listed on the lease, because you want a negotiated cap cost that is less than MSRP. Never let the dealer even use an MSRP field on the buyer's worksheet. Tell them if they enter MSRP anywhere, even for reference purposes, you are walking. My buddy and author James Bragg says that "The reason God gave you feet was to show salesman your heels". The only thing MSRP is used for is calculating the residual value. But the spreadsheet just allows you to enter the calculated residual value. Once you let the dealer write MSRP on the lease form, he has his foot in the door and can start playing around with the numbers and fields, and gosh darn it, mistakes can occur such that they charge you MSRP, even though you just spent an hour negotiating the cap cost down. The dealer might put MSRP on the form, saying he just uses it to calculate the residual, but don't let him. Tell them to calculate the residual value and enter it on the form instead. For more information on ALG Residual Values and other leasing software, see Expert Lease Pro.

Click Here to get ALG Residual Values

CarBuyingTips.Com Reader Car Deals Database
Our Savings Database shows how well other readers of this article have done. When people email us to enter their savings into the $avOmeter, we add the car to our database showing MSRP, invoice price, final negotiated price, and buyer's savings off MSRP. This helps future readers buy their cars.

When you email us about your savings, please tell us the make, model, options, along with the invoice, MSRP, and selling price that you negotiated down to.

*Go on to the first section:* New Car Buying Tips: How To Buy A New Car & Avoid Scams
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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