Vehicle Shopping/Buying
 

Does anyone have any advice, tips, or suggestions to buying a new/used vehicle?
Do I haggle like I'm in the EC tunnel?
Will I really get a better deal with cash vs finance?
Are there any other decent search apps besides cars.com and autotrader.com?
If the car market really is crashing, should I wait to buy?
When will I know it's the right time?
Anyone who's got some experience with this I'm all ears(eyes)!

If you're buying one privately from someone make sure you see it at their home. In my experience if you buy it at a neutral location (some parking lot) they might not be as honest with any issues ;)

You sadly do have to haggle unless you want to get screwed by a dealer. Certified used is always a better deal than new. If you’re financing, work that out before going to a dealer, and always refuse anything extra they offer you

No idea about the market crashing. I doubt prices drop any time soon but I don’t have a crystal ball

So I've bought two cars from dealers in the last 8 months. The last several years, inventory has been shit and prices have been high, particularly for used cars. Recently, that has no longer been the case, and the prices of all cars have come down, but particularly used cars relative to new ones. The gap is much larger than it was, but still small compared to the beforefore times

Let's say you're going through a dealer, you may need to haggle to get the price down depending on how you approach the process. Some tips:

1. Don't let them cook you. Some dealers will give you a few concessions preliminarily to hook you and then try to make you wait a long period of time to build up a sunk cost impetus when the real negotiations begin. Be ready to walk the fuck out and don't come back if they try this. imo it's better to get an agreement on bottom line price on the phone before you ever come in, if possible.

2. Make sure time is on your side, you need to be able to walk away-- if negotiations come to an impasse and you don't have the price you want, you need to be able to say "Hey, I'm really interested in this car but the price isn't where it needs to be, I'll leave you my contact information and feel free to give me a call if you can come down to $x", something like that. I said this when buying my wife's car and they immediately took off $1k and we had a deal.

This is another good one for a dealer, when buying my wife's car I said something like "Hey, my wife and I go through cars like crazy, we've bought 3 cars in the last 2 years and I'm going to be looking for a new car here in the next few years too, so if you can come down on this we'll be coming back year after year", something along those lines.

3. If buying a new car, one of the easiest strategies is simply to find a specific model you like and call nearby dealerships and bluntly say something like "I'm willing to pay $x out the door for this car, please give me a call if you have something available". This was my brother in law's strategy and he got the price he wanted within a week or two. He flatly refused to negotiate beyond his figure and only came in when they were willing to sell a car out the door at his price.

4. If financing, make sure you have your approval from your bank before negotiating the purchase of the car. (One time I had a dealer try to lie and say I didn't qualify for financing from any banks (my credit is 780 lol), only through their company's financing.) With your financing in hand, you can compare to what the dealer offers-- sometimes they will have promotions/incentives or manufacturer rebates that can result in a better rate than the bank/credit union can offer.

Be extremely wary of buying cars from places like Carvana, KBB, Carmax. They are pretty undiscerning about what they'll buy and resell, compared to a reputable dealer. While you do have the option, when buying from these companies, to take the car in and get it inspected, and return the car if they find it unfit, it's a fucking hassle. Buying a used car from, for example, a toyota dealer, you get a pretty good warranty and they're not going to certify a mess of a car that's under warranty and they're going to have to fix.

You won't. But I can tell you right now is a dramatically better time than 9 months ago.

Incredibly great advice guys! Truly appreciate you taking the time to write out some suggestions and tips!

I bought a new car in 2020 and unfortunately my wife totaled it (nobody got hurt! Just my poor car) so I think I want to buy a new one with the insurance money in cash to avoid a car payment.
I've heard that if you have cash you have more negotiating power, but I'm just not sure how to weild that lol.

I kind of like Lunes brother in laws strategy with just honing in on a vehicle type and offering my price to all of them until someone bites. Haggling the price before I even show up sounds great.

Thanks again everyone for the suggestions!

So after days and days of car shopping, I've come to the conclusion that idk why people buy used cars. You can get the new model of the same car for just 3-5k more + i get a warranty. (Although those certified pre owned do have great warranties)Maybe its not like this for everything? but at least that's how it is for family sedans in my price range rn. Might as well wait and save up for a new one at this point.

yea, the used car market already started to suck before covid, and then the pandemic really killed it. it's nothing like it was 10-15 years ago.

Get a Honda accord or civic unless you need AWD for some reason

I’m a big believer in certified pre-owned because I have been a frugal brown man for nearly 60 years now, but I haven’t seen what the market is like these days

Dont forget to log out of your white middle class male twitter account before revealing that!

A lot of good feedback here, but there is one thing I've learned along the way.

Buying a car in cash generally gets you a higher purchase price. Dealerships are more inclined to give better pricing on the car when financed because they add a premium to whatever financing option you get. Let's say your actual borrowing rate comes back at 7%. They'll often add a 2% or more premium to that which they'll keep for themselves.

If you do plan on paying cash, I recommend financing at whatever terrible rate they give you which will allow you to negotiate a better price. Then, when you get your first bill, just strike a check for the entire balance.