Ok, so does anyone here have the inside info about how car dealerships really operate and how they "really" make their money? When you bargain with a dealer and they claim that they are going so low as to give you a car at nearly its invoice price (and you verify it based on the invoice available online) and are only making a few hundred dollars on the sale ... is that really true? Or is reality that if you have a 21K car -- the manufacturer makes it for 14K -- sells it to the dealer for 15K but slaps a 19K invoice on the sticker? I went to VW dealership to look at the Jetta and I dont think they know how to do math. For a Jetta that they are selling for $21175 (before any negotiating) their initial financing estimate for 60 months was slightly over $400. Then after some negotiating it was brought down to something like $360. That doesnt sound right at all...those are the kind of monthly payment you would expect for 48 months after you add up the cars price + TTL. I dont know what the hell they were calculating. I used financing calculators at Honda, Nissan, and Toyota websites and to get payments at $400 or higher for 60 months at 2.9 APR the total car price had to be at $25000 or higher. By any chance..are there any 2007 Jetta owners (2.5 with options or Wolfsberg) if so...what are your monthly payments on it?
Answer: Don't buy a Jetta. From what I've heard, you should pay around $300 over invoice. If you finance, you're always going to end up paying more than the price of the car. The best offer I could get on an S2000 with $10,000 down was $400 a month for 6 years, which worked out to $5000+ over the sale price--and I was going to trade in my Accord for $16,000. Needless to say, still in the Accord.
I have an Accord ... its a nice car but I don't want another Accord. They haven't done a good job of redesigning it ... especially on the inside (in my opinion). I was also looking at Nissan Altima. The Jetta looks really nice though, has tons of features that come extra on other cars and drives nicely.
There is a fascinating account of what it's like to be a car salesman here at Edmunds.com. It may not be a huge help to you, but it's a fascinating read.
The Volkswagens have gotten a bad reputation for unreliability. I have a friend that works for Clear -Lake and he says you could not give him one. If you check Consumer Reports they don't think much of them either. The factory will sometimes give the dealers an incentive of up to $3,000. below the invoice price to sell the cars. Sales are slow for VW so start below invoice. I buy 2-3 cars every 2 years plenty of practice. Too many kids and grandkids. Buy a Consumer Report and do your homework! You can can get the dealers invoice at Edmunds.com or AutoTrader.com
1) FYI : they've completely re-designed the next Accord coupe. It looks slick from the pics I've seen. Here are some concept pics - not sure if this is close to what it will look like in the end : http://www.leftlanenews.com/2008-honda-accord-coupe-concept-unveiled.html 2) Secondly, I wouldn't touch a VW with a 10-foot pole. 3) Lastly, to your question about how dealerships really make their money? In their service bays : see 2) above.
Now I heard bad things about VW as well but all the negative things I have heard and read is in regards to their earlier models. I have seen more positive than negative feedback regarding their new generation models. What exactly is wrong with the new Jetta?
I haven't been following newer models much lately to be honest, but go do a search on the JD Powers webiste for models and how the 2007 Jetta is rated. It ain't pretty. Basically it amounts to a "a looks good, performs well, but is crappy quality" result : http://www.jdpower.com/autos/car-comparison/compare.aspx?ratings=1 I also briefly looked up the technical service bulletins on the Jetta - there are over 60 of them for the 2006 year. Not all TSB's are necessarily bad, but a lot of them are a result of complaints of things like rattles, buzzes, build failures, etc. I think I saw their 2005 (?) Jetta had something like 140+ TSB's. Again, not all are necessarily a bad thing - I'd have to look at each one individually. Until VW has a few years of good cars being produced, I'm not touching one of their cars.
JDPower website is good..some of the rating are kind of misleading. Like -- Overall Quality - Design: Taken from the Initial Quality Study (IQS), which looks at owner-reported problems in the first 90 days of new-vehicle ownership, this score is based on problems where controls or features may work as designed, but are difficult to use or understand (i.e., overly complicated controls/features that are difficult to operate due to poor location). Ok - read the manual and there wont be anything hard to understand. I took a test drive and overall everything is pretty simple to operate..there are a few things that you may not know about such if you tap the instrument stick for turning (right or left) instead of clicking it all the way it will blink the turn signal 3 times....
