The best way to get the best deal is to see is by taking some time to research what people are paying on car forums related to that brand/make. I've gotten $2000 lower than TrueCar for my parents' Accord a few years ago doing this. You really shouldn't have to buy a car through a dealership. Several years ago, I bought my '04 TL while living in Dallas and never saw the salesperson until I went to pick it up in Houston. Everything was done through email. Of course, they were barely dealing on those cars since it was so new at the time, so it's not like I got thousands off or anything. :grin: As for your experience with the new car buying program, I'd report them to the insurance company and act pissed about it. At least they'll know.
Something I do to find the best prices for certain models is check Autotrader. Search without a proximity limit, find the lowest prices in America and start from there. Some prices will be bull**** because they will include every single incentive that exist when your probably don't qualify for any (except factory rebates for everybody). So if you see one dealership with the first 5 or 10 cars with the lowest price, it's probably BS, keep strolling down and once you see a diverse mix dealerships then those are probably real prices (you can also check the description or call the dealership and ask). Screw getting the best deal at your local dealer, or Houston, or even Texas, I want the best deal in America!
Well, I was trading in a car and the deal was started Thursday via email and done the next day. And, I did get a good deal. Looking at TrueCar...I got a great price. I didn't get the best price out there but I don't care. And, there is all the add-on stuff that colors what people are paying for that TrueCar doesn't account for. The sh_t process and just researching the car to get is stressful enough. I didn't enjoy any of it. I just wanted to get it over with.
Gonna buy today, most likely. Waiting on one last dealer to email me back his best offer. It's amazing how many in my area refuse to talk price through email. Oh well. My wife loves the Rav4, especially in the purple color. Probably will go either LE or XLE trim, AWD.
Yep...they want to hook you over the phone and get you in. As I mentioned in my post a few back, they want to get you in because then they think they have you and can go to work on you. But, in actuality, they lose out in a lot of cases imo. Consumers don't want the hassle and, if the dealer isn't nearby, then they don't want to drive 30+ miles just to talk price, either. I had several telling me they wanted to talk to me to personalize the experience. I don't want to be personalized...I want your pricing offer and then I'll decide who I want to deal with. That's what the internet program is supposed to be about or so I thought. I shouldn't have to talk to anybody until they shoot me their offers. I'm not sure how you were doing it. What I learned is these dealers (Honda, at least) have the same damn email forms that include MSRP, fair market price, and drive-out price. It's a standard template email. Yet, out of the four dealers, only one sent me the offer form and the others decided just to hound me over email/phone. Too much hassle. One finally sent me the form with bs prices after he knew I bought the car. I entered what I wanted in model, features, etc. to start the process. It went out to them, they had it, and didn't give me their pricing. They resorted to using salesperson tactics.
Exactly. I ended up buying her a Rav4. It's being driven to my house as I type. I emailed probably ten dealerships of different makes. I got 3 reposnses back talking price, I believe. I ended up getting in touch with the son of a coworker of my wife's, who sells for Toyota. We talked price, through 18 text-like emails. He sent me a PDF with the invoice, and gave me his best price. As far as my research shows, I got about the best price her could give. I felt comfortable, so I had him email the credit application. 20 minutes later, he told me I was approved for 0% for 60 months. I told him if I drove in to sign the papers, I needed him to deliver it to my house, and he said he would. Took me 15 minutes to sign the papers, and now I'm waiting on delivery. That's the way car buying should work. I made the guy some money while maximizing his time, and he made me a no hassle deal, turning a major purchase into something that I can equate to grocery shopping. He's earned my business for the next time I'm in the market. I'll be picking my wife up at work in it in an hour and a half. She has no idea I bought it.
We recently picked up a '16 MDX by going through the online process. We utilized Edmunds and TrueCar. A few dealerships only wanted me to show up to discuss actual prices. I had one who offered me a decent price, another that I finally got it out of her via phone (I wasn't going to drive to Spring to hear their offer). We ended up going with the first guy who responded, as his offer was a good $500 less than any of the other dealers. Much less stressful, than dealing with them in person and having to jump through their BS. Basically, we just wanted their best offer....and I went in just to pay cash and pick it up. Great experience with the guys over at John Eagle Acura.....Much better price than what we were getting in the Austin area where we first started our research before looking @ Houston Dealerships. I'm in sales, but I hate dealing with other sales people. I'll be attempting the same process later this year to replace my Truck.
Not in Houston. I bought a base AWD. Right at 25. May not have been the best deal, but I added on a few things and needed to make a purchase. She decided to name it JJ.
Hopefully this question fits in here: My Dad is finally retiring, after way too many years of hard work. He's worried about having something to do in retirement. He is in pretty good health, but has no real hobbies. He has spent his life working to provide for his family and to spend time with his kids and grandkids. But, he loves cars. And he is an engineer, so understands how things work. He especially loves the old style roadsters. I was thinking of buying him an older roadster type car that needs a little love to clean up and get moving. But I don't want it to be terribly difficult, or too expensive (think retirement and fixed income). Unlike my Dad, I have no mechanical capabilities or knowledge. I like cool cars that go fast, but I can't maintain them - that's what I pay mechanics for. So that means I know nothing about them. Is an older, decent shape roadster (Spyder, Old Jag, etc) a fun retirement gift? Or would that be a ton of work for a 70 year old? If it is a decent idea, any thoughts on simpler cars that could be fun to drive? Less computers in the engine, the better. Thanks
It would be a ton of work and money. But if you do the labor and he does the pointing it would work out.
How do you like the Porsche? I'm thinking of getting the new 2016 Base that starts around $48k - with options at $60k. I have been riding my Jetta 2002 since I bought it new out of high school, my first and only car. It has been great to me although every part inside is falling apart
My dream car is the "Mach 5".... A close second is .... Spoiler The problem with this car would be finding a "Flux Capacitor" and getting 1.21 gigawatts of power... ....... ....... .......
Yeah, that's what they basically are preying on. You get tired of it all and say "ok, whatever, I give up... take my money". :grin: I'm weird about buying cars. I drive my cars for a long time, but can't wait to go through the buying process again. I just find the whole thing fun for some reason. I know... weird.
Did you ever get a new vehicle? I remember you were considering a replacement for your TL awhile back?
Got one back in August 2014 after driving the '04 TL for almost 250,000 miles. Ended up getting a TLX (yeah, I know... boring). Great car except for the transmission. I get about 36-40 mpg on trips from Dallas to Houston. With the VCM and 9-speed transmission, the highway mileage is insane. I ended up choosing among a Q50, ATS, IS 350 and TLX. The Q50 and ATS had all kinds of issues on release though they were my first choice, the IS 350 had pathetic mileage and I wasn't a fan of the techno-origami looks or the looks of the controls. That left the TLX. Unfortunately the 2015's have transmission issues that Acura has decided to fix on some of them, but not all. Pretty lame as I seem to be among the ones they're not going to fix. lol. I've pretty much decided I won't be buying Acura again as a result.
My friend purchased a 2016 tlx and her car has transmission problems too. Same goes for my other friend and her 2015 crv. Don't know what's wrong with Honda and their auto transmissions. Even my dad had problems with his og tl when it first came out. If it were me and if those were my choices, I would've picked the lexus. Yea the engine is old, horrible fuel economy and weak 1/4 times, but at least it's reliable. Why didn't you take a look at the German counterparts? When I was in the market a year ago I decided a bmw was the best overall package. Good fuel economy, good looks, best performing engine/transmission and got a good deal too.
I also considered the TLX, and so did my brother in law. So I test drove it and the transmission was jerky and not smooth. The dual clutch transmission felt unfinished. The interior felt cheap and the dual displays was weird. Especially the one to adjust AC etc. Finally gave it to the german car craze and leased a 5 series. Transferred that lease 1.5 years later and bought the A6. Both cars were amazing compared to the TLX. Brother in law ended up getting the Q50. I think he likes it but I heard it has infotainment issues.
Weird. The 2016 TLX's have better transmissions. BTW, when I was waiting for the TLX to be released, I kept telling friends "the only thing I worry about Hondas is the damn transmission". I took a risk and got bit. The catcher is the transmission isn't even built by Honda. The 9-speed in the VC is a ZF transmission. The 4-cylinder TLX uses a Honda transmission. The issue with the 2015's isn't transmission failure or anything, but a harsh shift from 2nd to 3rd. Acura has tried to fix it via software updates in the 2015's, but can't seem to get it right. In many people's cars they've actually replaced the transmission and this seems to have solved the problem in almost every case I've seen. The new transmission and control modules have new part numbers meaning there's something different about the transmissions. So those of us whose transmissions they haven't or won't replace are somewhat pissed because for whatever reason, they won't replace ours (probably for cost reasons). I haven't seen the harsh shift being reported in the 2016 models, but they all do some wonky shifts. I've driven a 2016 and it seemed way better in terms of shifts. Yeah, if I could go back, I'd probably go with an IS 350 or IS 350 F-Sport. I love German performance and design, but I don't trust German cars out of warranty. There's a lot of crap that goes wrong and the costs to repair are expensive - a double-whammy. There are lots of people on the forums I frequent who don't buy their Audi's (for example) after their lease is up for that very reason. If I recall correctly a lot of them have already had turbo problems before 50k miles. I sit in 60 mile round-trips for work in Dallas traffic, so I rarely get to exercise the performance aspects of a car until I take a roadtrip outside of the city, so as I've gotten older I realized 0-60, 1/4 mile, etc. times don't mean all that much to me. I want a "jack-of-all-trades" type car and Acura usually qualifies for that. The other thing is I drive a lot and for me a car has to be reliable for 100k because, to me, that's only the halfway point of my ownership. We'll see what happens with my TLX. It's an awesome highway cruiser, though. The DCT is only in the 4-cylinder TLX, not in the V6. The original 4's had jerky transmissions, but I hear software updates fixed that. The AC control never bothers me because I just leave it on AUTO and 72 degrees. If I need to change it, I just either use voice controls or tap the control up or down for temp, but I hardly ever mess with it once it's set. I think most interiors in the under-$60,000 segment look kind of cheap in one way or the other. Acura's look like a pseudo-luxury family-hauler, German center stacks (and now Lexus') look like something from the 1980's or something. I like BMW's seats, but don't like their controls for the 1970's/80's look. All of these cars have issues, whether it be no value, weak "luxury", or reliability. BTW, I love the dual screens because the stereo controls and display are still there while the map display stays on, as well. Yeah, my issue is I can't lease a car. I buy the car outright and drive the wheels off of it. As I've gotten older, I want to spend some money on a classic car I can use as a highway cruiser for the roadtrips I take. The segment I keep buying in really does nothing for me anymore other than serve as a transportation vehicle since they're all a dime-a-dozen - they're everywhere. One of the guys on the Acura forum I'm on came from an A6 to a TLX after his lease was up and he's not a fan of either, now. I found that funny. lol. This was #1/#2 on my original list of cars to buy when it was released (along with the ATS), but the release of the Q50 was horrific with scary problems with electronics, steering, etc. I had almost 250,000 miles on my car at the time and couldn't wait for them to fix the issues. I'm not sure where they stand with their problems now, but Infiniti isn't the company it used to be in terms of quality/reliability, but I don't think any car company is. The Germans have gotten a bit better and the Japanese have gotten a bit worse with the exception of maybe Lexus... they're still good. Now if they can just stop designing cars that look like a crackhead origami master designed them ... :grin:
