How to Negotiate a Car Deal.

[MMR]

As a business student, I like to add these:

- Always do the background research on the car you are looking at, find out what are common problems and things like that with the specific car you are looking at and of course look for those when looking at the car.

- Have the car inspected before you even start to negotiate the price.


Find out; (may want to write these down on a piece of papir)
- What are the salesmens strenghts? (e.g. he makes a living of trying to trick people in to bad payment deals and might be good at it, so beaware of what you are signing)
- What are the salesmens weakneses? (e.g. car sales are going bad, he might need this deal more than you'd think.)

- What are your strenghts? (e.g. buyers market and it's your money, if you are not happy with what he is selling then sipmly out it this way; NO DEAL!

- What are your weakneses? ( e.g. you may not know the full back ground of the car, where does it come from, how well has it been maintained etc.)


Basically look for arguments to bring the price down and keep these in mind when you are negotiating.



- Like they say in the video; find out what the true value of the car is worth, but if its 18k, don't offer 17k for the car, thats not negotiating, thats what he expects you to do, I'd say start your bid at 15k instead.

- And keep in mind, this is a one time deal, you are not there to make friends with the salesmen and not trying to get social accceptance from him either. This is a buyers market and the buyer is in charge, so try to get the best out of it as you can.


What to look for when buying a used car?
Watch and take notes of these videos. Lots of good info.

pretty much the same video, but alittle different:

[mygreengt]

Nice post.

[PRPVinyl]

1. If buying a car from a dealership take a non-partial friend that will look out for you, have them drive not you. If the deal does not look good to the freind he should say so and tell you that it is time to leave.

2. know fairmarket value of car. New or used there are several different sites that will give you this information. KBB.com and Edmunds.com are but two of them. Ask your bank or credit Union if they have a buying service, they have professional negotiators working for them that are non partial and have only your bottom line at interest.

3. If buying used from a private party spend the money for a CARFAX report. While not everything gets rteported to CARFAX if it is on there it can be a red flag the owner doesn't want to tell you about and can be a negotiating chip.

4. If financing, know your credit score. Better yet go to your bank or credit Union and get pre-approved so you know what your payment will be for a given amount. If the dealer is trying to get you into a car and asks what kind of payments are you looking for, it is time to walk away. Make the dealer tell you the price of the car, not what he paymnet will be.

5. If buuying new ask around on forums that you are active on if there is anyone with X-Plan(FORD) or corporate partner(Chrysler/GM) discount PINS available. This also goes back to the Bank/Credit union buying service.

6. If buying from a dealer, new or used, plan on going away with out the new car that day. If they make it seem that you will not find a better deal, there probably is a better deal just around the corner.

MAtt