Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

  • Home
  • About
  • Melissa Recommends
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Powered by Genesis

Haggling or No Haggling When Buying a Car?

January 28, 2019 By MelissaB 4 Comments

Recently, for the first time in 12 years, my husband and I found ourselves in the market for a car.  My husband hates negotiating, so the chore of haggling for a car fell on me.  I had the misguided notion that the Internet would make price negotiation easier, but that assumption was wrong.  Instead, I found that negotiating the price of a car is harder now than it was 12 years ago.

There is definitely something to be said for car dealerships like CarMax that tote a no haggle price.  But which is better?  Haggling with traditional dealerships or going with a dealership that doesn’t play games?

For us, the answer was the latter.

We started our car search ready to haggle and get a good deal.  Instead, all we got was frustration!

The Frustration of Haggling

Haggle or no Haggle when buying a car?
Should You Haggle for a Car?

We religiously searched the Internet to find cars in our price range.  We found one, called to confirm it was still there, and then made the 45 minute drive only to find out it had been sold.  I doubt if it was even there when we called, honestly.

Next, we went to another dealership, this time two hours away, to snag a good deal that we found online.  However, unbeknownst to us, the dealer had an advertised Internet price, but below it, he had a disclaimer—plus dealer fees and extras.  Well, the dealer fees and extras ended up being $2,700 more than the advertised price.

Still, we wanted the car, so we tried to negotiate, but they would not budge much.  After a few rounds of haggling, they were only willing to knock $1,500 off the dealer fees and extras, which would have had us paying $1,200 extra beyond the Internet advertised price plus the fees for the plates, taxes, etc.  No thanks.  Of course, once we drove home, they called us and were willing to negotiate some more.  They still wouldn’t agree to the price we wanted, and we didn’t want to drive two hours again to get the car.

By this time, we were fed up with our car search and the sales people’s tactics.

No Haggle Dealerships

Back we went to the Internet.  A week later we found a car that was a good deal.  We called that dealership and asked the important questions:

Is the car still available?

Do you take any extra fees on to the advertised Internet price?

Yes, the car was available, and no, there were no additional fees.

We loved the car, and after our weeks of searching, we knew it was a good deal.  The salesman almost immediately offered us an additional $600 off the advertised price, but he wouldn’t negotiate after that.  That put the car right in our price range, and we happily took it.

If you like to haggle, that might be the right technique for you.  However, I found the process this time to be very frustrating.

I’d much rather give my business to a dealership that prices the car appropriately (we checked this before we actually saw the car by checking the Blue Book price) and that doesn’t play number games.

Have you bought a car recently?  Did you haggle, or do you prefer to use a dealership that doesn’t play games? 

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: Cars Tagged With: buy a car, car, car buying, haggle, negotiation

Car Trouble Part 4: Almost Done

May 16, 2011 By Shane Ede 2 Comments

If you need to catch up (It’s been since early March since the last update) here are parts 1, 2, and 3.  And this, this is part 4.  And yes, there is likely to be at least a part 5.

When we last left off, we had bought the suburban, and the other car had yet to even have the motor torn down to see what was wrong with it.

We finally got an estimate and gave the go-ahead to work on the engine of the Alero.  It came back at about what we thought it was going to be.  And the grand total of about $3400 was pretty close too.  It’s a pretty large number, but we breathed a small sigh of relief for no more surprises there.  In order to pay for the repairs, we had to take a new loan out on the Alero.  We owned the Alero in full, so it kinda sucks having to take the title in and sign paperwork for a loan on a car that you used to own.  On the other hand, it’s nice to have that asset to use when needed.  Imagine what the result could have been if we had still owed on the car!

Fixing the CarWe’ve also taken a couple of longish trips with the suburban.  And with the price of gas, we’ve felt every mile of them.  But, for those trips, the necessity is there.  We’ve now taken two trips that have included the whole family, even the dog.  It’s pretty nice to not have to try and find someone to watch the dog while we’re gone, or to find a kennel for him while we’re away.  In the case of the kennel, the extra cost in gas easily pays for itself.  We’ll be taking a long trip next month to see my parents.  It’s well over 900 miles from here, and it generally takes us a full day (with a motel room in the middle) to get there.  We’ll take the dog with us.  I’m sure the savings on kennel won’t overcome the extra cost of gas on this trip, but it will still be nice to have him with us.  Aside from a few pangs of regret when I fill it up, I’m glad we ended up getting the Suburban.  And, even the gas isn’t that bad, it’s just that the tank is twice as large as either of our cars’ tanks.  It adds up so much quicker.

Since we have the Alero back, and it works, it’s time to thin the herd.  We’ve decided to sell the Cavalier.  Based on what it books out for, we think we should be able to get enough out of it to pay off the loan we took on the Alero.  If that happens, we’ll be back to owning the Alero outright again, which will be nice.  We’ll still have a payment on the Suburban, but it’s worth the upgrade.  We haven’t listed the Cav just yet, but put a big sign in it’s window and then parked it at the parking lot at work.  The parking lot has wonderful frontage to the main intersection in town and can’t be beat, since I don’t have to pay to park there.

Surprise.  We parked the Cavalier there Friday night.  Today, (Sunday) I went and showed it to a couple who liked it.  They’ll be going to the bank tomorrow, and as long as they can get the financing to buy the car, they think they’ll take it.  If all of that goes through, it could be nearly the shortest sale time of a car ever!  I guess we priced it right!

Hopefully, we’ll find out whether they are going to take the car tomorrow, and if they do, be able to pay off the loan on the Alero on Tuesday.  With that puzzle piece out of the way, and barring any unforeseen other car issues, that could set us up for the final installment of the car trouble series later this week!  I can only hope!

photo credit: dawnmichele

Shane Ede

I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.

You can also connect with me personally at Novelnaut, Thatedeguy, Shane Ede, and my personal Twitter.

www.beatingbroke.com

Filed Under: Cars Tagged With: car, car repair, car trouble, cars, used car

Cash Back Rebate or 0% Financing?

March 12, 2010 By Shane Ede 3 Comments

Let me begin by saying that I don’t see any real value in buying a car new.  You’d be better off waiting a year or two and buying the same model after the initial devaluation happens.  If you insist, however, and you have to choose between a cash back rebate and 0% financing, here’s how it breaks down.

I’m taking liberties here and using a few assumptions.  The first, and most important, assumption is that you’ll use the cash back rebate as an addition to your down payment.  I’m also assuming a 5 year loan because that’s pretty standard for a new car loan.  I’m assuming that you’re going to use the cash back rebate as an addition to your down payment, because you’d be an idiot not to.  No really.  Why would you buy a $20,000-$50,000 car that will lose at least 10% of it’s value the second you sign the dotted line and then also take the $2500 (Or however much) in cash?  Also, if you do take it in cash, will you drop me a line?  I’ve got some ocean front property in Oklahoma to sell you.

Assumptions aside, the deciding factor here is the interest rate.  The lower the interest rate if you take the cash back, the better that side looks.  Somewhere around 5.8% they are about even over the life of the loan.  Of course, if you make extra payments that will change things as well.  If you can get a rate of 4% or so, the difference is pretty good and you should use the cash back and run with it.  At something like 8%, however, you’d be pretty silly to not take the 0% financing.

In the end, there are several variables that need to be taken into account such as trade in and sales tax.  And this is far from a scientific study I did here, nor is it meant to detail exactly how to buy a car.  What I would suggest is using a loan amortization calculator and punching in the numbers.  For this little experiment, I used a calculator built for just such a calculation at interest.com.

Shane Ede

I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.

You can also connect with me personally at Novelnaut, Thatedeguy, Shane Ede, and my personal Twitter.

www.beatingbroke.com

Filed Under: General Finance, Personal Finance Education, ShareMe Tagged With: car, car buying, car loan, interest, interest rates, new car

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Improve Your Credit Score

Money Blogs

  • Celebrating Financial Freedom
  • Christian PF
  • Dual Income No Kids
  • Financial Panther
  • Gajizmo.com
  • Lazy Man and Money
  • Make Money Your Way
  • Money Talks News
  • My Personal Finance Journey
  • Personal Profitability
  • PF Blogs
  • Reach Financial Independence
  • So Over Debt
  • The Savvy Scot
  • Yes, I am Cheap

Categories

Disclaimer

Please note that Beating Broke has financial relationships with some of the merchants mentioned here. Beating Broke may be compensated if consumers choose to utilize the links located throughout the content on this site and generate sales for the said merchant.

Visit Our Advertisers

Need to change careers? Consider an Accounting Certificate Program from WTI.