[Need Advice] Is right now the best time to Purchase a Vehicle?

This is no joke, but this is why you should take more than one set of keys and also deal on the trade-in car separately from the new vehicle.

 

that's why i always advise taking a photocopy of your DL to the dealership and hand THAT to them.

 

I would never trade my car in to the dealership I was buying from. Actually, I would never trade my car in at all. With tools like Craigslist, there's no reason you can't sell it for more than what a dealership would give you for it. Hell, like I said earlier, Carmax usually pays more than the bluebook value whether you buy a car there or not.

Next time I buy a car, I'm going to:

1. Sell my old car privately beforehand and apply money to down payment
2. Get a loan (for the shortest term possible) from my Credit Union beforehand so I'll have cash in hand at the dealership
3. Shop on-line beforehand (most dealerships have an internet sales department)
4. Negotiate via email with on-line sales guy to get lowest price possible before setting foot in the dealership
5. Buy used only
6. Decline the financing, decline the warranty

 

Actually leasing isn't always a bad deal (unless you just want more car than you can afford).

I have owned two cars. My last one was an 03 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I had to finance it for 5 years but it started breaking down after 70,000 miles with about 6 months of payments left. So I sold it for $7,000 (Carmax gave me the best deal as it had been in an accident) and owed $3,000 so I netted $4k.

I used the $4k down on a lease for a 4Runner (I did tons of calculations and homework before deciding on it) and paid about $150 a month less than I would have had I bought it. I put the $150 a month that I saved (the key here is to lease a car you can afford to buy) away each month and when my 3 year term is up, I am using it as a down payment on new lease.

If I had bought the 4runner, I would still be paying $150 more each month for a 4-5 year old car, while I pay the same amount for a brand new one.

Now, it works for me because I will always have a car payment. I pretty much have to finance for 5 years and do not want a car for that long, so I will always have a car payment. With a lease, I pay about the same but get a new car every 3 years. (we own my wife's car...I would never lease two vehicles)

Leasing works if: you don't plan on keeping a car after it is paid off, you drive under 15K miles a year, and you don't do it to get more car than you could normally afford (because you don't have any money saved up from the difference in monthly payments you would have made buying it)

It's defintely not for everyone and can be a TERRIBLE deal

 

FTW. This is exactly what I'm about to do... step by step, save for the fact that I'm not selling a vehicle first.