Negotiating the deal
Buying a new 4Runner at the dealership will be quite the experience. They will try to get every nickle and dime out of you so just remember, the person selling you a car is not your friend! Of course they will be nice and are nice people but their main goal is to get as much out of the sale as they can. Be kind and genuine but don't think that they will give you the best deal because they are your friend.
A couple of negotiating tips:
- Do not talk about financing, trade in, or what you'd like your monthly payments to be until you have negotiated the out the door price. If you tell them you want to trade in a car and pay X amount a month upfront, they will be able to work a deal that matches your number but you may end up with a longer financing deal and paying much more than you should.
- The car will have an MSRP but the dealer has a dealer invoice price that is quite a bit below that. They might try to tell you that is what they paid but in that, there is a dealer holdback fee of about 3% and a dealer incentive that is roughly another $1,000 they bake into the price. There are also other hidden fees that can be negotiated out.
- The dealer will try to low ball your trade it. Always shoot much higher than what you think it is worth so you can negotiate down to a fair trade in value.
- Toyota says they won't offer good interest rates on 4Runner because they are in such high demand. If you can, find a local credit union to finance the car. They can offer you a much better rate because they are non-profit where a dealership is for profit and will make a lot of money off your financing. That is why you don't talk financing until after you have negotiated the lowest purchase price. If they think you will finance with them, they might sell you the car for less because they will make their money on the financing. Maybe say you'll finance with them so you can get the lowest price and after you agree on the price, say you are financing with someone else (assuming you have that lined up)
I ended up getting my new SR5 Premium for 11% less than MSRP which was lower than another dealership was trying to sell me a standard SR5 for.
I have a lot of other tips and am happy to share them with you so you can get the best deal possible.
Just let me know!