Toyota 4Runner Forum - Largest 4Runner Forum

Toyota 4Runner Forum - Largest 4Runner Forum (https://www.toyota-4runner.org/)
-   Off Topic (https://www.toyota-4runner.org/off-topic/)
-   -   Buying New Vehicle (https://www.toyota-4runner.org/off-topic/285372-buying-new-vehicle.html)

MrSeth 04-25-2020 05:13 AM

Buying New Vehicle
 
Sooo... for as long as I can remember, I've always sold one car to buy another car, and each car I've owned was 100% paid for BUT now I want to keep my 4th gen, but also pick up a new daily.

How does one go about doing this?

I'm assuming you save up enough $ for a down payment, then there is some sort of loan program through the dealership that you pay off?

I also am assuming one can get a loan from a company to purchase a private party sale vehicle from say Craigslist?

What have you done? What are your recommendations?

I'm only looking to spend probably $18k-$20k on a "new to me" vehicle- have no idea where to start.

TIA!

Oldmanb777 04-25-2020 09:57 AM

Usually wherever you bank is the best place to start looking for a loan, but don't stop there. Shopping for a loan is as important as shopping for the car. Better yet, finance it yourself, pay yourself the interest, not the bank. That takes a bit of time a patience. Put your car payment into a saving account of some sort. Put it to work for you. Then when you have enough, go pay cash for your vehicle. Cash is an amazing bargaining tool as well. Then start the process all over again. that way you don't pay for the same car twice.

JLTD 05-01-2020 09:59 PM

Love the financial stuff above.

A few years back, I saw the best writeup of how to buy a new vehicle to save $$. I copied all the posts and saved for a rainy day.

Here it is, hope it helps!! (Entertaining read as well)

---------

A Before we carry on, a few things I wanted to mention:

1. These tips will only apply to NEW vehicles - Read on, you will see why.

2. Know what you want - Dealers take advantage of people that don't know what they want. Most hate, absolutely hate people that walk into their dealership knowing what they want. I have had dealers turn me down when I approach them with what I want.

3. Do not settle for less, do not settle for more. What? don't settle for more? - WHY? - You will understand once you read thru the following process.

4. 95% of this process will be done online, so being internet savvy is a PLUS.

5. Think about how far are you willing to travel - Out of state? Across the country? Or to the opposite side of your state?

Now that I have this introductory nonsense out of the way, let's carry on.

First order of business:

Make sure you know what you want. Head out to the dealer, look at the different packages, colors, etc. Once you know what you want, do NOT change your mind. Take your time. It is here where it all begins and if you change your mind, you will have to start over. Don't worry about the price, you wont be buying from there anyway.

After you have decided what truck package/color you want, take a peek at the sticker. Yes, the nasty ass sticker.

Make a note of the following:

1. Stock number: Usually a four digit number - See where it says "year/model" on the sticker? - Number "7553C" is the stock number for this truck. That's the number that the dealers use to search for trucks with similar configurations at other dealers - If VIN is not available.

2. VIN number

3. Take a picture of the sticker, make sure all the information is well focused and readable.

Go home - :bikewhoops:

Once you are at the comfort of your home - Create a new email. Do NOT use your personal email. Do NOT use your work email - I will explain why.

Once that email is set up, search for the Truck you wanted on the dealer's website - search it using the VIN or the stock number. Take screen shots, download pictures, save the link.

Remember the five tips mentioned at the end of the last post? - Numero 5 - How far are you willing to travel for the right deal? When I was shopping for my trucks, I was willing to travel ANYWHERE within Texas. If you are from Texas, you damn well know how large Texas is. Yes, I was willing to travel from Houston to El Paso if the price was right.

You are now at the point where you need to know where and how far - In my case, I picked anywhere in Texas - This will be your search area.

Fire up google maps: You will now need to locate EVERY dealer within your search area.

Zoom over metropolitan areas - in my case I did San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Victoria, Abilene, Lubbock, Amarillo, Corpus Christi

Take a note of all the dealers in this area. All of them. Here comes the fun part.

Make a list of alllll the dealers within your search area. All of them. Every. Single. One. of. Them. - I had 150 dealers on my list when I first started - USE EXCEL!!

Starting with the first dealer - visit his website - go to the internet sales section and look for anything that will lead you to contact email for the online sales.

It can be under "contact us" or in some cases you will have to pick a random Tacoma and select something like "Get today's price" or "I am interested in this truck"

The point is to reach out to the dealer and getting your email in HIS inbox. Whether if its thru an ad that advertises Camrys or an ad for hookers and blow. Get your email to them.

In the body of the email - Let them have it - Give them the VIN, Link, Stock number and let them know exactly what you are looking for:

"Hello, my name is Ramon.

I am looking to purchase a brand new 2015 Toyota Tacoma - I am looking for stock number 5885C in the Silver Sky Metallic Color. This is a 4x4 truck with the offroad package.

Here is a link of the truck I am looking for: -copy paste link of the truck you looked at from the first dealer-.

I am looking for nothing more, nothing less. I want a truck just like this."

I did this 150 times. Yes. I sent that same email to 150 dealers across the Lone Star State.

Notes:

1. Keep a template of the body of the email - It's easier to copy/paste the email every time you send it vs typing it over and over again.

2. If you feel nudes will help you get the deal, this is the time to submit them.

3. Keep it all organized - things are about to get hairy rreeeeeaaalllly fast - In your excel sheet - organize dealer name, location, email information, special notes, etc.

4. Do NOT include your phone number. Do NOT - unless you want it ringing off the hook - Make up a phone number or give them a dummy phone number if it wont let you submit.

Once you are done - go get some coffee, grab a beer. Whatever.

After a few hours - check your email - It will be inundated with replies. - This is the reason you need to create a new email JUST for this. Don't forget, by sending them an email, you are also signing up for their junk mail. You don't want to spend the rest of your life unsubscribing from their junk mail, just because you didn't want to create a "dummy" email.

It will contain many variations of the following 5 types of email:

A. Automated Response: "Hello, thank you for submitting your inquiry, a sales representative will contact you shortly"

B. Automated Response: "Based on the information you submitted, we have the Camry you are looking for! For just $495, this Camry can be yours!"

C. Real Person: "Thank you for reaching out, when can I call you??, Please provide your phone number"

D. Real Person: "Yes, I can offer you that truck for $28k"

E. Real Person: "Yes, I can offer you that truck with a bull bar, steps, and a spacer lift"

Let's start shifting thru the emails:

A - Delete these, hopefully the dealer will reach out to you soon. Basic automated response.

B - A Camry? WTF? - YES. Believe it or not, after inquiring about a TACOMA - they offer me a CAMRY. WTF!? It WILL happen. How the hell do they offer you a CAMRY? I do not know. Reply to the dealer with your original inquiry - Copy paste your request -

C. - Finally, a human being - and he wants to talk to you on the phone. No. Reply to them - "thank you for responding to my email, I do not want to talk on the phone yet, lets arrange this via email - Can you get me the truck I want?"

D. - Ahhh now we're talking - Respond: "Are you sure it is exactly what I asked for?" - Copy and paste your request again - Don't want the dealer offering you Caca de toro when you want Caca de Chicken.

E. - Meh, - Respond: "No sir, I want this exact truck. If you want to sell me that truck, take off the bull bars, steps and spacer left. I will only accept the options shown on the link I provided"

Stand your ground.

Don't settle for less, don't settle for more. Dealers will want to sell you a different package or sell you a TSS model when you want a sport. Or offer you a Camry because they have a blow-out sale.

Stand your ground.

Got it?

Okay, good.

Once you start exchanging and responding to emails, you will notice three types of dealers:

1. the dealer that wants to work with you

2. the dealer that wants to upsell another vehicle

3. the dealer that doesn't care

After these dealers notice that you know what you want and you will not budge, they will start giving you numbers. Remember that excel sheet where you were organizing all your dealer information in a nice chart? Here is where it comes handy - place all your offers in those charts.

This process will take about 3 - 4 days - enough time for all the dealers to reply, get thru all the BS automated responses, etc.

Once you feel satisfied with the amount of offers you have, separate your entire list into smaller groups.

From my original 150 dealers I emailed, my list of legit dealers that had given me an offer boiled down to 50 dealers.

I split the list into groups of 25 - two groups.

Remember High School football? Playoffs are done in brackets - teams competing with each other on opposite ends of the brackets until only two teams are left for the state championship game.

In my case, I got the lowest price out of the first group, and emailed all the dealers within that group - "Thank you for making you offer, but Toyota from xxxx has offered $28,000 for the truck I want"

I repeated the process for each dealer in the second group, using the low price found in that specific group.

You will get four type of responses:

1. I will offer $27,500 - Yes!

2. Sorry, I cant do that - Bye Felicia

3. You are going to drive all the way over there for that price? - Yes sir, distance is not an issue.

4. No response - Good, weeds out the dealer that doesn't care.

Once I received everyone's response - My list of 50 dealers boiled down to 30 dealers that had replied with a lower offer.

Pick the lowest offer out of the 30 dealers.

Repeat the process again:

"Thank you for making you offer, but Toyota from xxxx has offered $26,000 for the truck I want"

You will get the same type of responses as shown above.

Repeat the iteration, over and over again. Let the dealers weed themselves out. You will get to the point where there will only be two or three dealers trying to get your business. These guys deserve a cookie. These guys are no BS dealers. Respect them. Really. If they've been responding to this point, they want your business.

That's how you get the lowest possible price!

The dealers will pretty much be on a bidding match to earn your business to sell you the truck you want.

Once you are down to the last two or three responsive dealers do a few more iterations - until you get the lowest price.

How do you know its the lowest price?

You will get the following responses:

1. That's below invoice.
2. I am losing money.
3. Is that with a trade in?
4. There is no way you are getting that price, send me the vin again.
5. Send me another round of nudes please.

The rest is self explanatory.

Here are a few final notes and tips.

1. Sometimes the dealer will offer the truck for less than what they paid for, in hopes that you will buy their extended warranty, paint protection program, or carpet protection stuff. Careful, don't fall in this trap.

2. Print out the email - you don't want to show up at the dealer and have them be like '"oh that wasn't us" - Happened to me.

3. Once you selected a dealer - Tell them to send you pictures of the truck. Proof that they have it.

4. When I bought my 2013 Tacoma, they tinted the windows AFTER I negotiated the price. I never asked for tinted windows. Remember when I said - don't settle for more?

Dealer - Thank you for coming in Mr. Ortiz, your truck is ready and here is your paperwork. We went ahead and tinted the windows, hope you like it.

Me - I didn't ask for tinted windows.

Dealer - I apologize, my tinting team didn't get the memo - its only $295 more. We can work it into the financing :)

Me - Rip it off.

Dealer - Sorry, we cant..

Me - Rip it off, I wanted no tint.

Dealer - Were in Texas, tint is a necessity Mr. Ortiz.

Me - I can install my own tint. Rip it off, or ill take my business elsewhere.

Dealer - You can have the tint for free.

importman 05-02-2020 11:12 PM

Wow, someone put a lot of time and effort into that. Really interesting. But since I never buy new it won't help me. I'm not looking for anything right now anyway. Thanks for posting it though.

Mass 4runner 05-03-2020 02:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldmanb777 (Post 3478622)
Usually wherever you bank is the best place to start looking for a loan, but don't stop there. Shopping for a loan is as important as shopping for the car. Better yet, finance it yourself, pay yourself the interest, not the bank. That takes a bit of time a patience. Put your car payment into a saving account of some sort. Put it to work for you. Then when you have enough, go pay cash for your vehicle. Cash is an amazing bargaining tool as well. Then start the process all over again. that way you don't pay for the same car twice.

Good post, but just to clarify, cash is NOT an amazing bargaining tool at all. Quite the opposite. Dealers make good money setting up financing and even if you are paying cash for the vehicle, keep this to yourself until the price is finalized. If you walk into a dealer waving cash it will absolutely hurt your deal.

Mass 4runner 05-03-2020 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSeth (Post 3478578)
Sooo... for as long as I can remember, I've always sold one car to buy another car, and each car I've owned was 100% paid for BUT now I want to keep my 4th gen, but also pick up a new daily.

How does one go about doing this?

I'm assuming you save up enough $ for a down payment, then there is some sort of loan program through the dealership that you pay off?

I also am assuming one can get a loan from a company to purchase a private party sale vehicle from say Craigslist?

What have you done? What are your recommendations?

I'm only looking to spend probably $18k-$20k on a "new to me" vehicle- have no idea where to start.

TIA!

Check the auto loan rates at your local credit union. They can be very competitive and if your credit is OK they'll work with you. If you then end up buying at a dealer they will usually be able to match or even beat the rate you got since they will have relationships with local banks, credit unions, etc.

Oldmanb777 05-04-2020 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mass 4runner (Post 3482871)
Good post, but just to clarify, cash is NOT an amazing bargaining tool at all. Quite the opposite. Dealers make good money setting up financing and even if you are paying cash for the vehicle, keep this to yourself until the price is finalized. If you walk into a dealer waving cash it will absolutely hurt your deal.


Your right. I should have clarified that. I almost never buy from a dealer, and only have bought new twice in my life. If buying from a dealer, they make good profits on selling loans. Private party just wants less hassle, so cash works better than waiting for loan approvals.

LandCruiser 05-04-2020 12:32 PM

What is the process of buying a new vehicle under the bat virus?

Wife's JGC is getting wonky after being improperly repaired after a major accident, and each time the body shop returns it, it's worse and she needs a new car.

JLTD 05-04-2020 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LandCruiser (Post 3483469)
What is the process of buying a new vehicle under the bat virus?

Wife's JGC is getting wonky after being improperly repaired after a major accident, and each time the body shop returns it, it's worse and she needs a new car.

Lots of places are doing "curb service" where they bring your test drive vehicle out of the lot, and you get a test drive or delivery without any human contact. Probably varies between different dealers but from what I've heard that's the way it works.

Ogre75 08-25-2020 08:47 AM

One option if applicable to you. Take a loan from your 401K, if you have one. This allows you to pay the interest back into your 401K rather than to a bank. I did this for the first time on my 4R after purchasing previous vehicles with financing at the whims of whatever dealership had the vehicle I wanted. My company provides employee pricing for several mfg's, but I've never utilized it as I've never bought a "New" vehicle.

mscot 09-22-2020 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ogre75 (Post 3536463)
One option if applicable to you. Take a loan from your 401K, if you have one. This allows you to pay the interest back into your 401K rather than to a bank.

How do you do this?

Ogre75 09-23-2020 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mscot (Post 3547087)
How do you do this?

Contact your employer benefits rep who you would work with on your 401K. There are rules that apply... only one non-emergency loan at a time, capped at $50K I believe.

FrostyMcBeverage 10-02-2020 12:57 AM

If you're buying from a private party, then depending on where you do your banking, you can go into your bank and tell them you're in the market for buying a used car, the price range, etc. and then they can give you a "promissory note" good for up-to whatever amount you were approved for. The promissory note then works pretty much like a check, so you can go shop/haggle and if you find something good and are ready to pull the trigger, you fill in the amount and hand it over...

That said, I don't know what your savings/retirement/investment account situation is, so it's hard to tell you to go out and get a loan...especially "in these times". If you have some money put away in a 401K or something and its making decent money (let's say 7 or 8%), then getting a low interest loan might make sense; a loan will keep more of your money available to invest and your investment is "outpacing" your loan. If what you have is just a chunk of money in a savings account making like 0.025% interest, it might make more sense to save what you need to buy outright, or to be able to pay a large portion of the vehicle cost as a down payment.

I hope that makes sense. I'm not a finance guy though, and there's plenty of good advice on here besides mine.

My closing advice is to just save like $1500-2000 for an NA or NB Miata and have fun doing all the stuff a 4Runner can't do until it breaks or you get bored. Then you can sell it to a youngster for probably 80-85% of what you paid, and the fun you'd have had would be well worth the $400 or so you'd be down in the end :)

Yotamaster 10-12-2020 11:41 AM

Balance out what you want/need/can afford. A new car doesn't make your life better yet an unreliable car makes your life worse. My parents told me to never "keep up with the jones's" and I mostly listened. If more people realized how many hours per month they work for their $600/payment, they'd realize it's not worth it. Brand new cars are terrible value and used cars last a long time nowadays, especially toyotas/Hondas that have been decently cared for.

Yotamaster 10-12-2020 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ogre75 (Post 3536463)
One option if applicable to you. Take a loan from your 401K, if you have one. This allows you to pay the interest back into your 401K rather than to a bank. I did this for the first time on my 4R after purchasing previous vehicles with financing at the whims of whatever dealership had the vehicle I wanted. My company provides employee pricing for several mfg's, but I've never utilized it as I've never bought a "New" vehicle.

Terrible idea IMO. You are foregoing 8-12% of gains to save 4-7%. Terrible math. People do it all the time and it's terrible unless it's an emergency and your only option.


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:13 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Search Engine Optimisation provided by DragonByte SEO (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
***This site is an unofficial Toyota site, and is not officially endorsed, supported, authorized by or affiliated with Toyota. All company, product, or service names references in this web site are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Toyota name, marks, designs and logos, as well as Toyota model names, are registered trademarks of Toyota Motor Corporation***Ad Management plugin by RedTyger