The Slickdeals Approach to Negotiating the Price of a New Car (Updated July 22, 2010)

Quote from thelnel52 : Quick update- last weekend, I stumbled across a site called "CarWoo [carwoo.com]!" It seems to hold your hand through a lot of these steps. Basically, you enter what car you're looking for, add your own personal info, and then choose to reach out to different dealerships in your region. The pricing isn't instant, but within a day or two, dealers start emailing you offers. From there, you can counter-offer, ask clarifying questions, etc. I tried it out in Las Vegas for a 2012 Mazda CX-9, and within a couple days I had two different offers (both from Southern California dealers). Both offers were a little better than what you can see from TrueCar. I didn't get to the counter-offer, point, but it's very cool that you remain somewhat anonymous throughout the process.

Did you have to provide information over phone?

Quote from themoleculoman : Did you have to provide information over phone?

No, there have been no phone calls so far. As I understand it, all the dealers have is my first name. It's only if I accept an offer that they get my phone/email, etc.

Quote from thelnel52 : No, there have been no phone calls so far. As I understand it, all the dealers have is my first name. It's only if I accept an offer that they get my phone/email, etc.

Oh, I meant from the website

Thanks for everyone insights!
I was thinking about doing this email bid approach but including trade-in. I think the dealership profit potential is larger on this part of the transaction as the price they could pay for a used car might be more squishy than flexibility for new car. I am looking at Subaru and Honda cars which are extremely common and don't seem to have much variance below invoice price on truecar.

Has anyone tried emailing dealerships asking for an OTD price for new car given a specific trade in?
How did this work for you? Any tips?
I think the bid request email would have to detail new car desired with options plus mention trade in make, model, mileage, vin with request for total out of pocket price.
I assume a couple pics are needed by dealership to give best estimate. It is likely this will be conditional on an inspection.
It doesn't sound like anyone is lumping these two car transactions into a single request via recommended bidding email approach. It is just hard to get a dealership to give any kind of quote for a used car (without detailed in person inspection)? What is the drawback to trying to get a single quote for the difference in cars?

My general impression:
Selling used car:
sell directly on craigslist = most profit
sell to Carmax = not near me
trade-in when purchasing a car = 3rd most
sell to used dealership = 4th most

My work schedule makes it difficult to arrange time to sell a car directly. Current car is a 2003 Jetta GLS 1.8T so I have moderate expectations on value. I was thinking targeting:
truecar price below average for Honda CR-V 2WD EX-L - KBB value for average condition 03 Jetta trade in
Is this reasonable? What are drawbacks to this approach?

Quote from greatjuan : Thanks for everyone insights! I was thinking about doing this email bid approach but including trade-in. I think the dealership profit potential is larger on this part of the transaction as the price they could pay for a used car might be more squishy than flexibility for new car. I am looking at Subaru and Honda cars which are extremely common and don't seem to have much variance below invoice price on truecar. Has anyone tried emailing dealerships asking for an OTD price for new car given a specific trade in? How did this work for you? Any tips? I think the bid request email would have to detail new car desired with options plus mention trade in make, model, mileage, vin with request for total out of pocket price. I assume a couple pics are needed by dealership to give best estimate. It is likely this will be conditional on an inspection. It doesn't sound like anyone is lumping these two car transactions into a single request via recommended bidding email approach. It is just hard to get a dealership to give any kind of quote for a used car (without detailed in person inspection)? What is the drawback to trying to get a single quote for the difference in cars? My general impression: Selling used car: sell directly on craigslist = most profit sell to Carmax = not near me trade-in when purchasing a car = 3rd most sell to used dealership = 4th most My work schedule makes it difficult to arrange time to sell a car directly. Current car is a 2003 Jetta GLS 1.8T so I have moderate expectations on value. I was thinking targeting: truecar price below average for Honda CR-V 2WD EX-L - KBB value for average condition 03 Jetta trade in Is this reasonable? What are drawbacks to this approach?

The first step I would take is taking a look at clearbook.com. That shows an expected trade-in price that apparently factors in the black book, which is a better indicator than blue book. Then, there's no reason that you can't include your trade-in on the emails, but I would really push to keep things itemized. If one dealership is willing to give you $5k for your trade-in but is $2500 more on the new car, while another is $4k on the trade-in with the lowest price on the new car, you can always just sell the car to the first dealership and buy from the 2nd. You could also use those prices against the various dealers. They all look at the same black book and go to the same auctions, so they should all theoretically be fairly close to each other when it comes to the price they're willing to pay for your car.

Quote from thelnel52 : The first step I would take is taking a look at clearbook.com. That shows an expected trade-in price that apparently factors in the black book, which is a better indicator than blue book. Then, there's no reason that you can't include your trade-in on the emails, but I would really push to keep things itemized. If one dealership is willing to give you $5k for your trade-in but is $2500 more on the new car, while another is $4k on the trade-in with the lowest price on the new car, you can always just sell the car to the first dealership and buy from the 2nd. You could also use those prices against the various dealers. They all look at the same black book and go to the same auctions, so they should all theoretically be fairly close to each other when it comes to the price they're willing to pay for your car.

That first dealer won't buy your car for 5k without you buying one of their for $2500 more unless that's Carmax. I think they offer yo 5K with their profits from the 2500 higher price figured in.

TheInel, have you tried costco pricing for the Mazda cx-9?

Quote from Superocean : That first dealer won't buy your car for 5k without you buying one of their for $2500 more unless that's Carmax. I think they offer yo 5K with their profits from the 2500 higher price figured in. TheInel, have you tried costco pricing for the Mazda cx-9?

I didn't try Costco pricing- have you had pretty good luck with them?

Quote from thelnel52 : I didn't try Costco pricing- have you had pretty good luck with them?

They were pretty good and found a dealer in so cal for subaru $300 under invoice. If the vegas dealers don't have good costco pricing check utah az and so cali especially since there's not many mazda dealerships. Also each area of the state may have different costco pricing. NOt all costco prices are the same, The northwest had different prices than the so cal subaru dealers.

Okay Slickdeal folks I got an offer to buy a Camry SE fully loaded (leather+ nav+convinience packg + PROTECTION PACKAGE + PREFERRED ACCESSORY PACKAGE + PWR TILT/SLIDE MOONROOF)
for 27K OTD. Is this a good price to go for ? by the way I am SoCal.

Quote from rocco24 : Okay Slickdeal folks I got an offer to buy a Camry SE fully loaded (leather+ nav+convinience packg + PROTECTION PACKAGE + PREFERRED ACCESSORY PACKAGE + PWR TILT/SLIDE MOONROOF) for 27K OTD. Is this a good price to go for ? by the way I am SoCal.

What's the MSRP? I tried to build about that car and it looks like it's about $29,300. If that's the case, then $27k OTD sounds very good.

If you haven't done so already, it couldn't hurt to check out truecar [truecar.com] and carwoo as well.

Quote from thelnel52 : What's the MSRP? I tried to build about that car and it looks like it's about $29,300. If that's the case, then $27k OTD sounds very good. If you haven't done so already, it couldn't hurt to check out truecar [truecar.com] and carwoo as well.

The MSRP was $28835 and I got this offer through carwoo. Thanks

Okay im confused so what number do we to go buy when buying? invoice? and what should you offer..example invoice says $15000 on truecar...whats a good deal?

Quote from aaba78 : Okay im confused so what number do we to go buy when buying? invoice? and what should you offer..example invoice says $15000 on truecar...whats a good deal?

invoice is a rough estimate - it depends on the car/demand/incentives/hold-backs - you shouldn't offer, you should make the dealers compete with each other and have each of them offer you the lowest price that they are willing to sell for instead.

Quote from aaba78 : Okay im confused so what number do we to go buy when buying? invoice? and what should you offer..example invoice says $15000 on truecar...whats a good deal?

It really really depends on the car, specifically the market for the car. If the car is hot and the dealer is selling them as they come on the lot, there won't be much room in the price. If it's close to a redesign, selling slowly, etc, there will be more room for negotiation. That's the value of services like carwoo and truecar [truecar.com] (and Edmunds, etc.). With Truecar and Edmunds, you can see what the cars are selling for in your area and get a very good idea of a starting price. With Carwoo, you can receive offers and actually negotiate.