Can I take you with me when I buy my new car? I live in New York.

This was a great read thanks

I'm no expert, but I've bought quite a few new cars over the years and these are some of the rules I follow.

Tips to the noob car buyer

1. Do your homework.
Research all available resources and know the actual invoice price for the car you intend to buy and the realistic value of your trade-in (if you have one). Find out before you go to the dealer whether there are cash, financing, or other incentives.

2. Thoroughly inspect and test drive the actual car you are going to buy before you enter any negotiations.

3. Remember: You are in charge of the negotiations.
The dealer needs to sell the car. That’s how they stay in business. You may need a car, but you don’t necessarily need THAT car.

4. Don’t settle.
Never take less for your trade or pay more for the car than those values that you went into the dealer knowing (See item 1). If the dealer won’t give you what your trade is realistically worth then the price of the car will have to come down to compensate. It’s the difference you’re paying, new price vs. trade, that’s important.

5. Always be willing to walk away.
Not too quickly, but there are lots of other dealers and other comparable cars out there. Don’t show too much emotion and fall in love with a car. Showing a need puts you in a compromising negotiating position. Show that you may WANT to buy their car but you don’t NEED to buy their car. If you don’t get the deal you went in looking for…try somewhere else.

6. NEVER sign any agreement or place any deposit/down payment until negotiations are over and the FINAL pricing including finance rate is agreed to.
Again, the dealer needs to sell you the car. The only time I have put any money up-front was when I special ordered a vehicle from the factory. Even then I only put down $500 and secured the whole deal prior to the order contingent on approval of the vehicle on delivery. The vehicle was delivered about three weeks later. Inspect, test-drive, and then signed the papers and finalized the deal.

Even this so-called "final pricing" may be subject to change depending on what kind of document you signed. I recently detailed my horror story where I had all the necessary paperwork for a final sale as described here, only to see at the bottom it said "conditional based upon lender financing". This basically made the entire deal a farce and enabled the dealer to just scrap it at their whim and re-write another.

I pounded and hammered away at both my salesman and sales manager about "is this the final price? Is this my actual monthly payment? Is there any way this will change? Have all fee's been included? I will not get any surprise "last second" bills?" I practically annoyed them to death REPEATEDLY asking these questions. One week later they call me back after I had the car and said they had to adjust the deal.

I am totally agree with your oppinion.this post is very encouraging to people who want to know these topics.

So, I have a question, since I've not purchased my own car ever (still driving the one my parents originally bought for me eight years ago).

I have always been told, "No, don't put money down." on a new car, by my Dad. Yet, I see many people doing so to bring their payments down and such.

Is this a good thing to do?

I've always thought that it was kind of a waste, since you're putting money down on something that's going to depreciate by that amount (or more) the second you drive it off of the lot.

Edit: Not sure if I should put money down and sell my SRT myself or use as trade-in either. Probably safer to sell myself to get quite a bit more out of it.

You should put money down to the extent that you save money on interest. If you're getting a very low interest rate, it doesn't make much sense to put money down.

I have bought many new cars. The last three have been over the internet from out of state dealers and one of them was delivered. The other two, I picked up. The most memorable purchase was a 1989 Toyota SC. I negot. for 6 hours and finally got them down to my price. It was raining cats and dogs and I was their only customer for the day. They bought me lunch and a pack of cigs.

Here's how I would buy a 370z.

Go in the Auto Dealership knowing the following. 1. Your credit 2. Your down payment 3. Cost of the car on Invoice value.

Go and offer them a deal. Don't negotiate one. Say, here is what i would like to offer you. I have such and such credit, and here's my downpayment and here's my offer price.

DO NOT DISCUSS MONTHLY PAYMENTS!!

It's that simple, but yet it took me 2 hours to go through. I just didn't go into discussion or negotiaton about anything else. I just said, here's my offer. I went to three other dealerships already and just looking to see who accepts. If they don't agree, you leave. But it's about offering the right amount price.

I Live in California, and purchased the 370z in 2011. It's stick shift, sports package. no leather. No GPS. and If I remember correctly, offered 31K for the car. Anyway, the tax came close to 3grand I think, plus a few hundred for other stuff. OUT THE DOOR I PAYED 35,200 for it I belive. Which is not over priced, but also not the greatest bargain either. But was just right for me to accept. I prob. could have gotten it for 34,200, if I really tried hard enough. But it's stressfull process and wanted to take it home already.

Downpayment: $16,000
Credit rating: Excellent
APR qualified for: 3.4%
Monthly TERM: 48 Months
OTD 35,200
2011 370z Sports Backage/Silver/Stick Shift

I got 0% financing on my z but I still put 9k down. It was just personal preference. I just wanted to take a little chunk out of what I owed. I had the money saved at the time so I just did it

Yeah, I had to walk out yesterday. They want to give me like 2100 for my SRT, so he went and said that they were going to put all of these add-ons on the Z (first price he told me was 37,150 mind you) and it totaled 38,800, then he said he'd bump it down to 37,784... I was like, wait a minute...

There's no way I'm paying sticker for a car, nor am I going to let them put 1500+ in adds that I don't want, nor do I need.

I had one dealership refuse to even ask for a picture of the car that they were going to get, on top of them wanting me to sign before ever seeing the car - then he told me that I should have just ordered it a long time ago then (being that if I ordered now I wouldn't get it until mid-Jan). Sometimes these salesmen are just ********.

What month did you get the 0%? Thats what I'm looking for..

It was back in march of this year. I don't know if they do it every year... It might have been a one time promotion type of thing. Others might know better.

Usually there are never any incentives or offers on the Z, but surprisingly for a few months 0% was offered which has never been done before.

Yikes.. not liking my chances then. :shakes head: