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Does anyone have the experience of getting quotes for a new car on line?
How exactly did it work?? Did it make the buying experience better / cheaper?
If you where going to buy a new car what would be the choice?
I need a new car. Have the cash to buy it outright. Like it to be say under $17K. Super good gas mileage is important. Want A/C and some creature comforts. Maybe something like a hatchback type model so it is easy to load junk. 2 doors are Ok with a big trunk or hatch door. I generally prefer a standard shift transmission.
I tend to hate cars with tons of gizmos, don't even like power windows. Reliability is more important than gagets. Maybe a nice radio and CD player standard. Automatic seat belts are nice. I hear there is now something called electric power steering, anybody have any experience with it??
Right now I have a 1993 Dodge Colt. Been a super lil buggy. I have had to do just about nothing but change the oil. Only has like 40K real miles but is starting to rust on the underside which is usually what kills them. Probably time to think about changing horses. I don't know if I trust it on very long trips anymore.
Something like that class of car to replace it. Thinking maybe a Ford Focus, or Toyota, or Nissan or maybe even a KIA or Honda with a model that might compare to the Colt or be like a step up in class.
Finally A/C is available in many smaller compacts and I want A/C this time. I don't drive it all that much. Maybe 3000 miles a year for errands but this one will probably get more longer trips, so being able to carry a fair amount of luggage and one dog in style.
I have heard you can buy a car on line and just have it shipped to a dealer near you. In general I do not want all that service stuff to maintain it. They ***** it up more than help. I get a full service manual and learn the car inside and out. If it needs to be fixed I always have managed.
Just my idea is narrow the choices down and then try to go somewhere and test drive a few to see what the sheetmetal and feel is really like.
Don't get a Kia they are crap. Can't go wrong with a Honda or Toyota. I have owned two honda accords and they are the best. My husband works for ford and says the focus' are good little cars. yet we still drive hondas and toyotas.
as far as online buying ? Never done it. I did "shop" online for my husbands used honda accord. We checked the recycler and carmax and found it I think in the recylcler then went to the dealership to buy it. check your local dealerships website for that option. But check other places too so you know what the going price should be. Most dealership will price match.
Does anyone have the experience of getting quotes for a new car on line?
How exactly did it work?? Did it make the buying experience better / cheaper?
If you where going to buy a new car what would be the choice?
I need a new car. Have the cash to buy it outright. Like it to be say under $17K. Super good gas mileage is important. Want A/C and some creature comforts. Maybe something like a hatchback type model so it is easy to load junk. 2 doors are Ok with a big trunk or hatch door. I generally prefer a standard shift transmission.
I tend to hate cars with tons of gizmos, don't even like power windows. Reliability is more important than gagets. Maybe a nice radio and CD player standard. Automatic seat belts are nice. I hear there is now something called electric power steering, anybody have any experience with it??
Right now I have a 1993 Dodge Colt. Been a super lil buggy. I have had to do just about nothing but change the oil. Only has like 40K real miles but is starting to rust on the underside which is usually what kills them. Probably time to think about changing horses. I don't know if I trust it on very long trips anymore.
Something like that class of car to replace it. Thinking maybe a Ford Focus, or Toyota, or Nissan or maybe even a KIA or Honda with a model that might compare to the Colt or be like a step up in class.
Finally A/C is available in many smaller compacts and I want A/C this time. I don't drive it all that much. Maybe 3000 miles a year for errands but this one will probably get more longer trips, so being able to carry a fair amount of luggage and one dog in style.
I have heard you can buy a car on line and just have it shipped to a dealer near you. In general I do not want all that service stuff to maintain it. They ***** it up more than help. I get a full service manual and learn the car inside and out. If it needs to be fixed I always have managed.
Just my idea is narrow the choices down and then try to go somewhere and test drive a few to see what the sheetmetal and feel is really like.
You can go to edmunds or kelly blue book and get the dealers cost on any new vehicle. With that info in hand you should be able to buy most new cars for no more than $100 to $200 over dealers cost, directly from your local dealer. There are exceptions like hot new models or exotics but that shouldn't come into play given the type of vehicle your looking at. In your price range I would suggest the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Nissan Versa and possibly the Hyundai Elantra. The Toyota and Honda are time proven reliable cars. The Hyundais' reputation as a brand has gotten much better over the years. Their warranty is excellent. I would also suggest looking for a 2006 leftover. There are still many of them around and most have excellent rebates designed to move them. You may actually be able to get a little more car than you anticipated for your money if you go with a leftover. You may ask why I didn't metion any American made vehicles and my answer is I don't think any of them (Ford Focus, Chevy Cobalt, Pontiac G5 or Saturn ION) can compare with the quality of the others. (Before anyone jumps on me let me state that we own 5 cars and 2 motorcycles in my house all U.S. manufacturers, and I always buy American products when possible). If you do opt for possibly an American made vehicle and you find a leftover I think you'll be able to get a phenominal deal. It's your decision to make. By the way another car I didn't mention is the Mazda 3 which also gets good marks. My suggestion is to go to the dealer and haggle (unless you just don't want to be bothered). I love to go and beat a salesman down, to me it's a challenge and I never walk away with a deal that I didn't expect to get. A little advice, if the salesman / women has to keep going in to ask the sales manager about prices tell them you want to deal direct with the manager instead, and cut out the salesman. This usually gets them boiling. If your not comfortable with doing that bring some one along that is. Remember the dealership always wants you to pay the most and you want to pay the least. when you walk in and they ask how much you want to spend, tell them as little as possible. Never, ever tell them a dollar amount. Anyway Good luck in finding a vehicle.
My Mom and Grandma have had toyota corollas for as long as I have been on earth (31 years) and they just love them. The only reason I don't own one is that they are too plain looking for me.
Check the websites and find out exactly what you want and what options you want and you can even write it down and just hand it to the salesman. That way you don't get talked into buying something like gps or ? that you don't need.
I forgot to answer about the electric power steering. I may be wrong but I think only Honda uses it. The benefit is it does not draw power from your motor. A car with EPS and electric cooling fans will draw less horsepower which equals better MPG
This was what I orginally had intended to look at pretty serious. At the time they were not available. Might be now. One of my relatives works for Toyota in some fashion, maybe he can also get me a better deal.
This has a low price, high gas mileage and most of the features I want. I guess the economy model with the two door version has no power doors, windows which is fine with me.
About the only extras that seem worth it are the tach and rear window defroster. H,mmm why would that not be standard on a manual tranny??
Wondering about those instruments in the middle but they say it is because they only have to do one design to sell it anywhere in the World. Right hand drive design is the same. There is a lil shelf, glovebox under the steering wheel.
I haven't seen any of these local.
I know Nissan and maybe Honda was supposed to have something to compete directly with it. The engine HP is the same as my Colt and the weight is about the same. Sort of looks like the concept of the old Omni / Horizons in being a basic buggy designed primarily for people riding mostly in the front seats but that fold down feature of the rear seats making a large flat deck has great appeal. I had like three of the Omni's, one of my brother-in-laws still has one and will not get rid of it.
I know these were sold in Europe for a number of years and have been extremely popular. Does this look like a good car for the money? Is very well down into my price range.
Wonder exactly where are they manufactured to be sold in the midwest???
Maybe time to get into this buying the new car serious. I have heard the month of December is the best month to buy a car because the dealers usually don't get much business due to Xmas sucking up all the spare cash.
Yup I bargain hard. Will even lay down and bang my heels on the ground. Ball and squall. Best trick I ever found is pretend I must buy cash but am a wee bit short. Once I even took a lot of change and pretended to be borrowing lil bits here and there to just make the price, can I give you $300 in these coins. Actually the price is only the start. I never get the comprehensive insurance, don't need it if you buy cash. Never actually had one stolen, (couple attempts) and never any bad accidents where it was totalled. The big thing is add that kill switch, saved my bacon a couple of times on an old Datsun. They never had a prayer of finding it.
The toyota corolla is built in california in one of the cities in the big valley. So if the yaris is based on the corolla one would think the yaris would be made there too. Had a ford focus for awhile and it is a comfortable and easily manauverable little car. My dad bought that car for me and would not let me have the stick shift, He had the idea that kids are more likely to crash cars with stick shifts. It was still a peppy car but i did not think the fuel economy was the best. I am thinking about a honda too but am not sure if the very high RPM engines are going to be long lasting. The small hyundai four door hatchback is low priced and may be available with crank windows.
I have purchased at least 8 different vehicles online. By this I mean that I have done the majority of negotiating online. In all but one case I eventually took my car to the dealer for trade-in and to pick up the new car. In that one case I made the entire deal over the net and had the car delivered to me. Then we did the paperwork at my house and the driver took my trade-in back to the dealer.
The process that I use: I decide what kind of car I want by reading reviews, taking test drives and talking to others. I always buy new, never used. Once I decide what brand and model, I start picking out the options. I always buy vehicles fully loaded, so that part is easy. You can get all the prices on the vehicle and the options and your trade-in from KBB.com and Edmunds.com. Edmunds even tells you what other buyers in your area are paying for the vehicle. This is nice because it lets you get a real handle on what you should pay between the invoice and the MSRP. Once you get all that info, you then make up your emails with exactly what you want and what you are trading. Most dealers now have internet departments just for this type of purchase. If you get a shady dealer's reply who just wants you to look at what he has and won't address your specifications in the letter, mark him off your list. You will see that it is easy to get down to two or three dealers in a short time. On my last purchase, I was so close on prices between two dealers that one of the dealers said that he would drive out to my house and actually look at my trade to see if he could offer me a little more to close the deal. He did and we ordered the new vehicle equipped the way I wanted it right from the factory. Almost every vehicle that I have purchased had to be ordered because I am fussy about getting all the goodies and the color that I want. Even if you want to spend more time at the dealers than through email you can use the internet as a tool to gain all the knowledge that you can about the vehicle and pricing.
In that one case where I had the new car delivered: I had written a dealer in Tucson regarding his best price. He said that the MSRP was the price because the car was in demand. A dealer in Flagstaff wrote back saying that the car company was offering the dealer an incentive and that allowed him to sell the car at invoice instead of the MSRP. Both prices were shown on Edmunds.com. I confronted the Tucson dealer with this info and he refused to negotiate. I called the Flagstaff dealer and said that the only thing stopping me from buying from him was that I didn't want to drive all the way to Flagstaff. He delivered and new car and took my trade back with him.
My husband works for Toyota/Cadillac dealer and whenever we trade in our truck for the newer one on the lot he goes online, compares other dealership prices and then negotiates with the people he works with to get them to sell him at the lowest cost he found online. On top of that, they have to give him his employee discount too so they really hate it when they see him coming in looking to trade up.
But did you know most dealerships who have trade ins usually keep a list of trade ins that they just want to sell at whatever cost if it's been sitting too long on their lot? My boss just bought a Honda trade in where my husband works and they knocked $4000 off it because it happened to be on that list (of course customers don't know about a list) and it was an excellent car for the price they got it for. Because we referred my boss over and they did buy a car, my husband should have recieved $50 for the referral. Well, come to find out, the dealer only made a profit of $35 on the car so we couldn't get the $50 referral payment.
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Thanks All
