On the coat tails of the other post about buying their wife a car, I am going to start looking for my first car bought on my own. I have had the help of my parents or my brother and so I am pretty clueless going in and that leads to losing a lot of money. Any advice helps as i've been reading a bunch of random reddit posts. I don't really want to go through the headache of private selling and buying even though I know that will get me the most back. Looking at trading in my mazda 3 for year or 2 used audi q5 or bmw x3. Any thoughts about Texas Direct Auto? Some random things I've gathered so far: Haggle based on out the door price. And on the same note, don't let them try to confuse you with monthly payment amount or screw you over by extending years Good place to start is get trade in quote from carmax, and you can use that to your advantage at TDA. Come in with financing already pre approved from your bank/credit union. On that note, I'm only with Chase and I doubt they have the best rates. Would it be wise for me to open up an account at a local CU then? Potentially a good place to start now a days is via internet sales department and use their quotes, if they even reply with one, against each other.
All good device. I’ve heard bad things about Texas Direct Auto as far as the way they treat you. They are wildly popular I believe and because of that I’ve heard they treat you as if they don’t need your sale. All hearsay though. The number 1 thing that helped me in the room right before I signed to complete the purchase was that I downloaded a car finance calculator app. I typed in the down payment, interest rate, car price etc in the app at the table in front of the guy and my monthly payment didn’t match up to what the dealer had on paper. I asked about the difference and the guy said “oh, I thought you wanted the extended warranty”. I told him I specifically said I do NOT want it so he eventually took it off. It STILL didn’t match up and I noticed he had me down for prepaid maintenance as well. So just make sure they don’t add any unwanted add-ons like extended warranty, maintenance, dent options, etc. on the final paper work. Also, all of that can be haggled as well if you did want those options. If you get GAP insurance through them it that too can be haggled.
Buying a used car vs a new car are two different experiences. (you're looking for a used if I understand you correctly) What you are going to find is dealerships will have little interest in selling you a used vehicle, much less 'haggling'. You first need to decide whether you're going to buy certified preowned or used w/ existing warranty. If you decide to go with certified preowned, you may find that purchasing a new vehicle will have little cost difference. If you decide to go with used, then you may as well consider looking in private sales also. You have three variables, and all three will make a difference on how 'good of a deal' you get. The price of the vehicle, financing and trade in. Work it in that order with the dealership. Do not discuss any financing terms or what vehicle you're trading in until you settled on the price of the vehicle. Once you agree to a price, then you can let them see if you can get better financing. Once you get to that point, then discuss the trade in. If you allow all three variable in the discussion at once, they will simply manipulate it to their advantage. As its evident you have no idea on what to expect with financing, they will find a better deal for you. Just keep in mind they will marginalize whatever financing you come to the table with. Dealerships get kickbacks from financing. If you come in with 4% from your bank, they will beat it by a fraction ... when realistically they could beat it by a full percentage. Do not show them your financing terms. Let them come to the table first. (best not to tell them you have a prequalification until they show their numbers) You're going to get fleeced on your trade-in. The trade-in is where they will make up the difference of all of that 'haggling'. This is my advice: Understand the sales staff is inexperienced. Let it be known up front you will not tolerate any BS. Let them know if they make an unexpected change during the process, you walk immediately. Let them know if they make you 'wait' for a sales managers approval, you walk...and make sure you walk out after the given time. If you're willing to stand around for an hour or two while they speak to 'managers' or 'financing dept', they know you have your personal time invested which will wear you down to accepting a different deal. Your best negotiating power is immediately walking out when they begin to jerk you around. Your worst negotiating power is allowing them to carry it on for hours. Personally I would buy brand new over certified preowned. If I am going to buy used, I will buy from a dealership that is not of the particular make of that vehicle. A Honda dealership has incentive to move a Toyota trade-in sitting in their lot if you have no interest in a Honda.
Look up NADA book values. Find clean trade on the car you want and add $500. As far as tour trade in shoot for clean trade. When they do the write up on the pricing of your car just flip the paper over and write will do business now for sale price of car as (write the number your rsearched earlier) and a (clean trade of your vehicle ) trade in for my current vehicle and sign it. Don’t tell them how you got to these numbers because they will bring out BS book values with fake additions added to the price. You should be able to get within $500 of these numbers and won’t have to waste time Going back and forth. Some other tips. Don’t be afraid to walk away. It’s the end of the month, they’ll call you in a day. Look at the car fax and see how long the dealership has had the vehicle. If it’s less than 2 weeks they’ll be less likely to haggle, but if it’s over 30 days they’ll be willing to take a loss to get it off the lot. DM me if you have any other questions.
I bought certified pre-owned and I disagree with @Space Ghost that it will have little price difference between new car vs certified pre-owned. I've bought two certified pre-owned. One was a Honda Accord Touring, had 31k miles (2.5 years old) and I paid $24k and walk out was $26k. I had a 1.9% interest loan. Brand new that car would have been $33k plus. Considering I got an extra 1.5 year warranty plus extended the power train to 100k, I say I got a damn good deal. Same with my Nissan Maxima SR I just purchased, it has 15k miles, and I paid $25.5k walk out. Brand New it would of been probably $10k more. Personally, I consider that good savings especially since I plan to run the car into the ground (my accord was totaled otherwise I would still have it). It seems like you have a pretty good idea what to do. Tell the dealer you don't care about monthly payments or how many years you have the loan. I went and told them, I want final walk out price. I negotiated from that standpoint. Never become emotionally attached to the car, no point until you buy it. Be willing to walk out if they are taking their time, I don't play those games. Make sure you look at the cheapest terms you can find and be approved going in that way you can always negotiate from that standpoint if you need it. Make sure you test drive whatever car you plan to take. If possible go at the end of the month or even more importantly end of the year when they are trying to move inventory. I stuck to certified pre owned since it extended the warranties and I still got a damn good car. During financing, I rejected all the extra crap they want to sell you. Make sure you know what those things are and whether you want any of it that way you aren't thinking about **** except closing the deal during financing.
I’ve had some good experiences at TDA. Of course, I’d like to say it also depends on who is helping you in the finance department. I’ve had one experience where they were able to work with the bank and negotiated the price down on the car for me without asking. The rest of the time, it was a no haggle price deal. The only unusual experience I had was when I bought a 3 series and couldn’t get it the same day due to inspection. Once ready, I picked up the 3 series, but it had a different car (5 series) on the state inspection sticker. They resolved the issue after a week or so. I was also told from other dealerships that TDA are pretty generous with their trade-ins compared to other dealers. Just be sure to go into every detail when looking at the used vehicle.
1.) Pick out the car you want in the parking lot. 2.) Walk straight up to the desk of the first salesman you see 3.) Pull your wang out and slam it on the desk of said salesman 4.) Demand the price you want to buy the car for (doesnt matter how much or how little) 5.) Sign papers 6.) Drive home to the lamentation of women on your brand new car radio.
Do not buy a used (or new) Audi - take some time and sell your car don't trade it in for a fraction of its real value. A used BMW isn't a great idea either - nor is financing your first car, but you have the right information on financing if that is the route you choose. I'm guessing you are young - apologies if I'm wrong - one of the fastest way to get yourself into a financial hole is to finance a used high end vehicle.
damn how did you get 1.9%? that's pretty nice! I don't necessarily mind the monthly payment amount but I feel like I'd want to get it paid off within ~5 years. Any pros/cons against longer or shorter? I think CPO would be the safest route for me but I also read some where if you get a good inspection and get a good car that's barely used, you might as well get non cpo used and enjoy the savings. haha np i know it seems like i am but no i'm close to 30 with steady income. just embarrassingly inexperienced, so everyone's advice is appreciated.
I've bought and traded in 7 cars from TDA over the last 16 years or so. I will say that they used to be amazing and now with the acquisition by Vroom they've lost their appeal by a lot. That said, still the best cars and the best prices in the used market. Just don't expect that great customer service they used to have. Now you get what you pay for, lowest price, high volume, used dealer so don't expect any more than that. Find your car, get in, get out, and you'll be good. Also get a quote for your trade from TDA. I was given a decent online quote via email and pleasantly surprised when they gave me $500 more during actual trade. This was 15 months ago.
German cars are insanely expensive to fix. I wouldn’t recommend driving one outside of warranty. Japanese cars are still expensive to fix, but more dependable.
I would just be sure you understand the market and the prices offered around the city, and surrounding cities. Research the hell out of it and not only bmw/Audi dealerships. If it’s a non-dealership sometimes you can get a better deal because they aren’t as familiar with that market. Know and understand the relationship between prices, mileage and packages. With all that info you will get a feeling for what a reasonable price Pre-owned certified is nice to have but it typically adds a couple /three thousand more on the price. If you can find a car with low enough mileage and age I think that mitigates some risk of buying a used car. I’ve never negotiated the finicing aspect but so I’m not sure if you’re able to get somewhat of a better deal in house
My wife and I bought our certified pre owner Audi Q7 driveout for 62k with 10k miles. By being a certified pre owned, it pretty much gave me a extended warranty until 100k miles. If I were to purchase new it would have been 72k plus TTL plus the price of the extended warranty ($4500). So probably near 80k out the door. So I would definitely disagree with one of the posters who said there is a small difference between buying new and pre owned.
