Lmao. People say, "..and it will last us a really long time," but what they mean is for the few years before they sell it or trade it in.
Its hard to buy a 2003 car in 2007 and say "I'm gonna keep it for 10 years". I recently had to have work done on the Jetta that was a recall. They also found 5 other things that needed to be taken care of. I know dealerships always find something and thats how they make their money, but I'm hesitant to keep a car too long that I have to pour money into because then my return when I do trade it in, is masked by the money I put into it to even get it to that trade in. The Jetta served me well and was a great little car. But it did have 5 years and 66k miles on it. I know 66k isn't really high by used car standards, but everyone once in a while its nice to have a new car, that you know no one owned before you. We found out that the Jetta had bad hood damage that was hidden from us, when we went to trade it in. When it was appraised the dealership found out it had been repainted, and this was the first we heard of it. It wasn't reported on the carfax report either, so we'll never know what happened there. We did buy it from a dealership that "refuses" to sell cars with any body work done to them. So you know, in the end, a used car will always be a gamble. I know new cars lose their value, but there pros and cons to used and new, and new was the right option for us.
(This response sorta responds to various people on here)
you have it from day 1... you take care of it from day 1... you document all service and work from day 1... and it can last 20 years. there is nothing wrong with that
isnt it a shame america doesnt make cars people want anymore?
i am totally pro american product.. and when i get a new car here soon i am looking at a Nissan Altima
Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Subaru, and Suzuki all have factories in the US.
No "American" car company actually makes a car that is truly US Made. Most of them are assembled overseas, and the ones that are assembled in the states are made of imported parts.
Easy...just say, "No," until they offer what you want. It can take up to 7 hours of them coming at you with every excuse and every bluff they can think of.
They can also have you waiting in the lobby for an hour at a time as they "Talk it over" with the manager.
Sometimes when I'm bored I'll go to dealerships and give them a number that I know they will never accept and see how close to that number I can get them to go.
On average, it takes between 2-3 hours for them to give me their lowest number. And that's with me knowing how to quickly counteract their usual run-arounds.
Edmunds.com is a great place to learn how to spot dealership games.
One thing to keep in mind is that car salesmen are trained and paid to rip you off. If they are not ripping people off, they are replaced with people who do. This is the case with all dealerships.
If you did not spend at least a few hours at the dealership drastically altering their initial offer, you got ripped off.
as sponger said, they made us wait forever in between their offers. He's run to the manager, and they sit there and crunch out number and then come back, and we'd be like, uh... thats not what we said, and he's look at the floor and try not to kill us, and then go back.. it felt like eternity. We won the battle though. We would have walked out, and I told him straight on that we didn't want to waste his time, and we weren't playing games, we weren't going to buy something for the wrong price. It took him a few times to get the picture. They pulled money from all sorts of places. I know the dealers get kick backs and stuff, and they can throw all that in. I told him about my knowledge of that too. At the end of the day they were there an hour and 1/2 after it closed because they dragged their feet. We gave them a number, I can't help that it took the 7 hours to get the point. haha.
Comments
Its hard to buy a 2003 car in 2007 and say "I'm gonna keep it for 10 years". I recently had to have work done on the Jetta that was a recall. They also found 5 other things that needed to be taken care of. I know dealerships always find something and thats how they make their money, but I'm hesitant to keep a car too long that I have to pour money into because then my return when I do trade it in, is masked by the money I put into it to even get it to that trade in. The Jetta served me well and was a great little car. But it did have 5 years and 66k miles on it. I know 66k isn't really high by used car standards, but everyone once in a while its nice to have a new car, that you know no one owned before you. We found out that the Jetta had bad hood damage that was hidden from us, when we went to trade it in. When it was appraised the dealership found out it had been repainted, and this was the first we heard of it. It wasn't reported on the carfax report either, so we'll never know what happened there. We did buy it from a dealership that "refuses" to sell cars with any body work done to them. So you know, in the end, a used car will always be a gamble. I know new cars lose their value, but there pros and cons to used and new, and new was the right option for us.
(This response sorta responds to various people on here)
i am totally pro american product.. and when i get a new car here soon i am looking at a Nissan Altima
you have it from day 1... you take care of it from day 1... you document all service and work from day 1... and it can last 20 years. there is nothing wrong with that
Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Subaru, and Suzuki all have factories in the US.
No "American" car company actually makes a car that is truly US Made. Most of them are assembled overseas, and the ones that are assembled in the states are made of imported parts.
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=272825
Easy...just say, "No," until they offer what you want. It can take up to 7 hours of them coming at you with every excuse and every bluff they can think of.
They can also have you waiting in the lobby for an hour at a time as they "Talk it over" with the manager.
Sometimes when I'm bored I'll go to dealerships and give them a number that I know they will never accept and see how close to that number I can get them to go.
On average, it takes between 2-3 hours for them to give me their lowest number. And that's with me knowing how to quickly counteract their usual run-arounds.
Edmunds.com is a great place to learn how to spot dealership games.
One thing to keep in mind is that car salesmen are trained and paid to rip you off. If they are not ripping people off, they are replaced with people who do. This is the case with all dealerships.
If you did not spend at least a few hours at the dealership drastically altering their initial offer, you got ripped off.
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=272825
as sponger said, they made us wait forever in between their offers. He's run to the manager, and they sit there and crunch out number and then come back, and we'd be like, uh... thats not what we said, and he's look at the floor and try not to kill us, and then go back.. it felt like eternity. We won the battle though. We would have walked out, and I told him straight on that we didn't want to waste his time, and we weren't playing games, we weren't going to buy something for the wrong price. It took him a few times to get the picture. They pulled money from all sorts of places. I know the dealers get kick backs and stuff, and they can throw all that in. I told him about my knowledge of that too. At the end of the day they were there an hour and 1/2 after it closed because they dragged their feet. We gave them a number, I can't help that it took the 7 hours to get the point. haha.