Anyone buy a new car in the last month?

bucky

bucky

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So the wife and I are looking to buy a 2022 Mazda CX-5 Turbo. How are the deals at the dealerships. Are they still marking up the MSRP? I’m not used to paying full MSRP let alone more. We are planning on a 3-4 week road trip in late Aug so I’d like to get it sooner than later. I’d be happy getting it for MSRP out the door but that might not be realistic these days. I’m preparing to do battle this weekend pray for me.
 
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We bought a Nissan Pathfinder about a month ago. We found a dealer that "only" charged MSRP/invoice. It seemed pretty straight forward, but they played the typical games on the backend. Their initial offer for our trade-in was insulting, and they want to sell extended warranty, paint sealant, etc. After 2 hours we got what we wanted.

There were several dealers within an hour's radius that were charging thousands of added premium above MSRP.
 
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I know I will not get a great deal in this market. Even the dealers offering Msrp all seem to have huge add on items. $1700 alarm, $1345 protection package, $849 service protection. One dealer has a $395 clearpro package buried in the registration fees. Some have huge fees just for them to fill out the paperwork. They all charge more if I pay cash which is what I’m doing. I have to go through all this shit not including having to negotiate a trade in.
 
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All lot of that stuff is added on after the vehicles arrive from the factory. If you can find one that hasn't landed at the dealer yet, you can work the deal without those things.

As for paying more because you're paying cash, I'd negotiate on the 'best out the door price'. This will always be available only if you finance thru them. Get a copy of the finance contract; if there's no early payment penalty, finance it, make one or two payments and then pay it off.
 
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It's totally dependent upon the local market, but the key is to research your area and find a dealer that's willing to look long term instead of short term profit. The long term dealers will want to create a relationship with you and foster your loyalty. Where we are at we saw anywhere from $3k to $5k markups over MSRP for the vehicle we wanted (2022 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid). A couple of dealers touted "MSRP".

The one we went with did add a roof rack, carpeted floor mats, and another thing I can't remember. It added up to around $900 on top of MSRP, but it was for things I didn't mind paying for. I also was able to use a Veterans discount that Hyundai offers subtracting $500 for that. I warned the salesman that I'd be bringing a check from Navy Federal, and that they'd be wasting their time trying to finance me. He said that would be no problem.

When we went to the dealer to pick the car up, it was less than a two hour process. I did get an extended warranty, but because I had done my research beforehand I talked them down from $4k to $1,600 for that which we paid for outside of the financing. I could have gotten it for a couple of hundred dollars cheaper online, but I figured this was my goodwill to them for treating us fairly in this crazy market.

Best of luck. It's a crappy time to buy.
 
As for paying more because you're paying cash, I'd negotiate on the 'best out the door price'. This will always be available only if you finance thru them. Get a copy of the finance contract; if there's no early payment penalty, finance it, make one or two payments and then pay it off.
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When we bought our Nissan, we were going to pay cash, but got the best price when we financed. The dealer's sales manager asked us to make at least 5 payments and then pay it off. We initially agreed.

After we got home, I replayed the transaction in my mind. It pissed me off, so I called the bank that financed us and paid it off immediately. We paid the lower amount, and the dealership couldn't do anything.
 
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The issue with financing and then paying it off is that the interest is front loaded so I will still have to pay a lot of interest. I have not financed a vehicle in 20 yrs. I did a quick numbers crunch with their 72 month plus $4500 down financing and it comes out to $5K in interest.
It is hard to find a salesman in SoCal with more than 6 months at the dealership. I ordered my F250 from a salesman in ND who worked at the dealership for over 10 years. It is hard to find a salesman around here that with take a order because they do not get a commission until the vehicle arrives and they do not think they will still be working at the dealership when it comes in.
Thanks for all your support. Information is key to dealing with the dealership scum. My best negotiating tool are my feet.
 
I’d say the only deals are things Ford X-Plan / FCA or other group based discounts, ordering from a friendly dealer and being willing to wait. Always do your homework and get an outside financing quote from a credit union or relationship bank before you walk in the dealer door.

The chip shortage has significantly shifted the car dealer experience towards the Tesla model.

Going to be interesting to watch, I worked at a high volume dealership through high school and college, we sold 80 cars (mostly Prius and corollas) the day cash for clunkers went live.
 
The issue with financing and then paying it off is that the interest is front loaded so I will still have to pay a lot of interest. I have not financed a vehicle in 20 yrs. I did a quick numbers crunch with their 72 month plus $4500 down financing and it comes out to $5K in interest.
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I agree with your math. In our case, the payoff at the first payment was about $60 interest. The dealer discounted the sales price much more than that to finance.
 
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Agree, it can get the dealer over the hump sometimes if you agree to finance with their bank, I’m typical willing to do that as long as they match or beat the competitive rate my credit union offers. Just be sure there aren’t any early payment fees, ‘new account’ fees, or any other finance charges you wouldn’t otherwise be on the hook for by using your bank.

The ‘new bank account fee’ was new to me when we purchased my wife’s car a few years ago, the dealership claimed the bank /credit union they used required it, I called BS and they ultimately waived it.
 
IPerkWVU said:
Always do your homework and get an outside financing quote from a credit union or relationship bank before you walk in the dealer door.
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X2.

When I was in the market I had pre-approval letters and depending on year of the vehicle, a very low interest rate. I want to say I had a 120-day window before my credit was ran again too. Once I found a truck worth acting on, before chatting with any salesman, I simply called the credit union (a close friend works there) and said "here is what I am interested in". They reviewed it, gave it the thumbs up and said they could lock in my rate and I walked into the dealership and said "I can write you a check". They tried like hell to get me to finance with them for 3.5% and I kept having to repeat myself "I have a better rate elsewhere". They had a hard time believing I was able to secure a loan that beat their interest rate.

Plus, no fee for early payoff!
 
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bucky said:
The issue with financing and then paying it off is that the interest is front loaded so I will still have to pay a lot of interest. I have not financed a vehicle in 20 yrs. I did a quick numbers crunch with their 72 month plus $4500 down financing and it comes out to $5K in interest.
It is hard to find a salesman in SoCal with more than 6 months at the dealership. I ordered my F250 from a salesman in ND who worked at the dealership for over 10 years. It is hard to find a salesman around here that with take a order because they do not get a commission until the vehicle arrives and they do not think they will still be working at the dealership when it comes in.
Thanks for all your support. Information is key to dealing with the dealership scum. My best negotiating tool are my feet.
Click to expand...
I only finance if it is 0% interest, that aside I would never, ever, finance a car where you couldn't pay early to avoid the interest, that is just robbery.

I also only negotiate price before either financing or trade in values are discussed... IMO, one should not impact the other at all. Charge me extra to pay cash? I walk... refuse to give me a good trade in without changing the already negotiated car price? I walk...

We bought my wifes new Subaru a few months ago, they wouldn't drop below MSRP, but I got MSRP (most dealers in the area are asking for over MSRP these days), I got $500 above blue book for my wifes trade in (At good quality), and I got them to allow me to charge 2k of it to my credit card so I could get 3% cash back on it.... I paid for the rest with a check then went home and paid off the card immediately.


Yeah, you have to be firm, and be prepared to walk, but it can be done.
 
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