Topic: Tell us about your expierience buying a car.

[Stev-o]

Or it didn't happen!   Good read, BTW.

[Duanob]

One mistake I will never make again is having the car inspected by a reputable mechanic. Sometimes dealerships are the worst. Even a Toyota Certified doesn't mean shyte. We bought our Honda Civic Hybrid from a Tpyota Stealership. I wanted to tke the car across the street to the Honda place to get inspected. He said it was Certified by Toyota. I should've inquired what that actually meant but I thought it sounded strange. But we bought it and it turned out it had been in a wreck that never showed up on Carfax. I'm pretty sure the sale-jerk knew about it. Scum Suckers anyway.

[Stev-o]

Car fax is a sham.  Most likely your Honda was repaired in a mom and pop shop and they didn't take he time to report it.

[greenjeans]

Nobody likes buying cars, but I kinda like it.    I negotiate for my parents, siblings and a few friends.

First off - take a couple hours and do your homework.  Know what you are looking for and how much is a "fair" price.   
9 times out of 10, I have financing in place before I make a single call or email.

I only talk to the sales manager or used car sales manager.  Not wasting time with the guys that have no authority or are just learning the game.
I am polite and do not use a demanding tone.

I keep my communications short and sweet.   "I am interested in one of your vehicles (stock number) - I have financing in place ready to go.
I would offer you X amount - no more.   I am ready to buy today.  If you can not meet that price, I understand and will continue to search"
I also add that I do not have much if any time to come in and negotiate.   Just get the car ready and my bank will call your bank and we can be done.

Believe it or not, most salesmen hate "the game" as well.    I'll always add, you can sell me that car in 10 minutes and have the rest of that time to sell another car to another client.   Most appreciate the time savings as well.    Anytime they start with the song and dance, cut them off and tell them that you do not have the time.

You have to be realistic too.  If you are buying a new car you can't expect to get 10 grand off a 30k car...     Also watch the fees for paper work etc.
Most states have limits as to what can be legally charged.    Those can be negotiated as well.   Last time, they tried to charge me $300 for paperwork.   I told them I understand that they can charge some, but since I did most of the legwork for them and saved them hours of negotiation I'd give $100 and that felt like too much.   Of course they said no, and I told them that believe it or not, I would walk out for that difference.

Be upfront and curtious with the salesmen from the get go.  Saves everyone time.

[lostmykeys]

 Greenjeans,You made a very point.You can always get more bees with honey than you can vinager.
 However customers like you are few and far between as most customers want to get stupid and try to outsmart a salesman at his own game.
 When you add a stupid salesman to that situation,nothing gets sold.
 Car salesmen can become biased #$%*s and hate the car buying public and cut their own throats as salesmen because they cant hide this from the customer, even if they try.
 I sold cars for eight years and saw both sides.
 One thing that really blew my mind was this.
 The customers that beat you up on price and were the biggest #$%*s and got the car for 100.00 bucks over were still a pain in the ass after the sale.
 The customers that I made the most money on were the best and they sent thier friends to me.

[CBGBs]

I just bought an 08 Honda Element from a dealer. I've always bought from private sellers in the past. The salesman was very personable. We liked the car and talked them down about $600.  We had two demands. There were a couple plastic fasteners missing on a couple interior bits that we wanted, and we needed the haze of wax removed from all the black plastic fenders. We created a document with those conditions and came back days later to inspect the fenders. We werent confident that they had removed the wax so we told the manager to keep it and do more work on it. They started to get impatient with us. Days later we came back to find the car looking great but when we went to pick it up they had lost the keys. So it had to be towed to a dealer and we demanded that a new remote be provided with the new key and that it be working, so it all had to be programmed. Gave us a working key and a non programmed remote with 2 of the 4 fasteners that we needed. Then there is the loan..... We had the dealer set up the loan and when they let us drive off the lot with the car we were expecting some paperwork to arrive in the mail. That never came. I called them when the payment should have been due and they directed me to a bank to make a payment. The bank had no loan on record for me and the Element. I called them and told them to handle it and get back with me. I had to call them back after a few days and went back to the bank to get the same response. I went into the dealer to demand a new temp tag and figure out the loan. They told me that they went to the head of the account and it would be personally handled in the morning. I wasn't impressed.
Today I was able to goto the BMV and plate the vehicle but I still need to get to the bank and see if I can make a payment.

[mark]

As long as you have keys and tags there's no need to worry about the little bs details.

 

[72 yellow]

Wife and I wanted to purchase a new van.  Our trade in was a old Mercury Cougar with dead power steering and really bad brakes. You had to pump the brake pedal several times to build pressure.  The salesman was a arrogant a-hole.  He looked at the car from the showroom and said in a snarky voice "I won't give you anything for a trade-in on it, so don't ask."  We didn't really care so we said nothing as we just wanted to get rid of it.  When we picked up the van, he asked for the keys to drive the Cougar over to the used car office which was housed in a temporary trailer.  We watched as he threw it in reverse and backed up, slammed it into Drive and headed for the trailer.  The brake lights came on, then off, on, off,on, off, and on.  He crashed into the concrete bumpers which kept him from going  through the trailer.  He returned to the showroom white as a ghost and asked "Why didn't you tell me the brakes were bad ?"  I looked at him and said "You didn't ask".  We left with the van and never returned there. 

[74cb750]

There is an old saying:
"Used car salesmen know lots of people, but have few friends"

I helped a friend negotiate the sale of a used MGB.
Next day we arrived with the $ in hand and the salesman
tried to pawn off a different MGB saying my friend had signed for the 2nd MGB
which was worth $$'s less and in worse shape.

What a sleezeball.

[speedy gonzalais]

2003 Peugeot 206 47,000 miles paid 175 pound for it with a head gasket fault intending to fix it, on closer inspection some one had just put oil in the water, weather it be the woman that owned it or her local garage trying to pull one over on her il never know.

[lostmykeys]

74cb750,a true friend would never allow his friend to buy an MGB,unless he was good with the electical nightmare that these cars possesed even when new.