Car buying

[govmentchedda]

I think we're conflating the terms "broker" and "haggler" incorrectly here.

[Steve of phpBB]

I would just assume a broker has relationships with dealers and they essentially takes a percentage of what you could have negotiated down for yourself. Probably still worth it to a lot of people who don't want the hassle, but I don't think I'd ever trust they were working for me.

This was the husband of a teacher at the school where my wife worked. The first car he got for us was from a private seller. It's possible the seller also had a deal with the same guy, but I doubt it.

[blundercrush]

Car brokers make a lot of sense when you want to buy old, very fancy cars, that generally speaking only rich white people know who actually has them. Vetting the history of those cars is orders of magnitude more important.

For regular cars...I don't get it. I HATE haggling but now that car prices have calmed down from 2021, I don't think it's particularly useful, I would try and see if you can find the same car in different areas and see the price difference.

I flew down to San Diego to buy a 911 because at the time they were ~5-10k cheaper in Southern CA than in WA. I wouldn't go that far for a normal car.

[P.D.X.]

I flew down to San Diego to buy a 911 because at the time they were ~5-10k cheaper in Southern CA than in WA. I wouldn't go that far for a normal car.

Did you purchase it beforehand or just show up for a test drive pretending to be nonchalant like you hadn’t just flown 1k miles?

[P.D.X.]

I would travel for a CarMax deal, other than that... I ain't letting the dealership know I'm traveling.

Just requested a vehicle be shipped to my local Carmax for me to test. Can you tell me what you like about them?

[Nonlinear FC]

Like most folks, I just hate all the bullshit that old school car dealerships pull. I've read the articles and listened to various podcasts... I know what they are up to and I just don't want to play the stupid, timewasting, soul-sucking game.

Carmax cuts out all that crap. The price is the price. The inventory is listed online and they don't bait-and-switch you like so many old school joints do.

[Steve of phpBB]

Like most folks, I just hate all the bullshit that old school car dealerships pull. I've read the articles and listened to various podcasts... I know what they are up to and I just don't want to play the stupid, timewasting, soul-sucking game.

Carmax cuts out all that crap. The price is the price. The inventory is listed online and they don't bait-and-switch you like so many old school joints do.

They also give a decent price if you’re trying to unload a used car and don’t want to sell it yourself. We sold my mom’s car to them after she died last year.

[Shirley]

CarMax is easy, but their prices usually are a bit above what you can get elsewhere. I always use edmunds.com to calculate an expected price. They have actual data from actual sales, so it's much better than Kelly Blue Book (which is intentionally biased towards dealerships). Use Edmunds to calculate the expected purchase price and then use cars.com and the like to find your car.

[The Sybian]

I forget which website I bought my last car through (Rass can find my post), but it was a better deal than any dealership would have gotten me. No hassles or haggling, or wait in 10 minutes while the sales guy spoke to the manager. Just scheduled a time, and the car was waiting for me.

They absolutely want you to finance, and my previous car, they would only cut me a deal if I financed. Sales guy gets more commission, and dealership gets something from Honda. I financed and paid it off the next day, and it saved me a grand or two.

[P.D.X.]

CarMax is easy, but their prices usually are a bit above what you can get elsewhere.

This is what’s tripping me up. Paying more for the ‘convenience’ of not needing to haggle is a weird selling point.

[HaulCitgo]

Exactly what they're selling though. Value depends on how likely you are to get bilked elsewhere and how bad.

[P.D.X.]

‘Pay us more so you can be sure you’re not getting bilked.’ People buy that huh?

[HaulCitgo]

In fairness probably the right choice for most. If we don't understand this stuff what hope does Joe have to out negotiate a trained and experienced car salesman? Especially since few have the ability to self finance.

10% there for the taking but you gotta have knowledge and patience and options to get 7% of that. That same 10% not to pay 30% more probably solid value

[blundercrush]

I flew down to San Diego to buy a 911 because at the time they were ~5-10k cheaper in Southern CA than in WA. I wouldn't go that far for a normal car.

Did you purchase it beforehand or just show up for a test drive pretending to be nonchalant like you hadn’t just flown 1k miles?

A return ticket was...maybe 250 day of at the time, I could quite credibly test drive the car and if I didn't like the price, walk. when looking for performance cars that old, you have to be willing to invest in the purchase of the car, even if some of it is sunk cost.

[P.D.X.]

Update... Ended up driving (one of my parents' cars) down to Santa Fe to look at the truck. Test drove it, it checked out, and then sat down to hash out a number. Got them to come down a bit from the sticker price after conferring with the invisible My Manager. (note to self: driving 7 hours then sitting down to a financial negotiation is not optimal) Told them I was a going to order a 3rd-party inspection and they were shocked(!!!) that I wouldn't just trust their own 1,459-point pre-sale inspection. And no, there was no way they could 'hold' the vehicle for me while this happened. So yeah, they were pushing for the hard close but I didn't bite. Ordered the inspection from lemonsquad.com and drove on back up to Boulder. Inspection happened super quick and i got the report like the next day, and immediately flew back down to SF, the dealer picked me up at the airport and then we finalized the sale. So yeah, probably saved $1.5-$2k over a Carmax purchase, (which likely evened out due to time/travel, just didn't have the time to wait for as-perfect a truck to show up in their inventory). Other than the hard-sale tactics after the test drive there was minimal BS.

Next project: pick up a couple sheets of birch plywood and copy these

[mister d]

Wait, did you drive there and back the same day?

[HaulCitgo]

Wait, are you intending to be homeless?

[P.D.X.]

Wait, did you drive there and back the same day?

Stayed the night and ate delicious food both trips.

[P.D.X.]

Wait, are you intending to be homeless?

Always good to have a backup

[mister d]

Stayed the night and ate delicious food both trips.

What did you have? New Mexico is high on my list of US spots to visit and most of that is because I'm imagining the food is excellent.

[P.D.X.]

Soft blue corn tortilla tacos at La Choza (sister restaurant of The Shed) and then mahi mahi tacos at Tune Up.

[Giff]

Soft blue corn tortilla tacos at La Choza (sister restaurant of The Shed) and then mahi mahi tacos at Tune Up.

We love La Choza. Always a stop when we are there.

[sancarlos]

Stayed the night and ate delicious food both trips.

What did you have? New Mexico is high on my list of US spots to visit and most of that is because I'm imagining the food is excellent.

I’m flying to Albuquerque tomorrow to check in with my aging parents. The food is a bright spot.