How to Buy a Car

Service troublelights just come on if the car is from Detroit.

 

WARNING!!! WARNING!!! You've bought an American Car.

 

I'm curious if you would expand on this a bit more....specifically how does one go about developing a relationship with a salesperson? In my case, my car is nearly 20 years old and is an Acura (not a Toyota). If you were in my shoes, how would you go about it? Would it be to visit the showroom, look at the cars, meet a salesman along the way, talk shop about the model you are interested in, get his business card, and walk off with a colored brochure? Occasionally following up with some random email about upcoming things with the model of interest?

(That's what I'm envisioning what you meant, but am not sure......last car I bought was 5 years ago using the internet, and before that, was 20 years ago.....)

 

I think your invoice price is a little too high.

MSRP= $28,341
Invoice= $24,798
Profit = $3543 before incentive and holdback
2000 GMC Sierra 1500 Overview - AOL Autos

 

It is tougher in your case because you buy cars so infrequently. I obviously come at this from a much different point of view, but I would check out a couple of dealerships, find out about their csi ratings, and see where you are the most comfortable, do all of your research on what you should pay for the car and what your trade is worth and go with where you are comfortable. If you develop a problem with your car you will want ot have someone in your corner to make sure you are completely satisfied and if the dealer has high csi scores, the chances go up dramatically. The dealer screaming at the top of his lungs in the marketing about how cheap he is will try the hardest to give you a good screwing.

 

Not today, 9 years ago, yes but not today. the margins shrink almost every year.

Here is my invoice on a 2009 Malibu 1LT
MSRP $23,805
Invoice $22,922.83
Holdback $694.05
GMS $21,916.08

Here is a 2009 Chevy Silverado Reg Cab 4X4
MSRP $27,785
Invoice $26,272
Holdback $804.30
GMS $25081.73

Raising the invoice on both is 2% charge for regional and local advertising.(231.35 X2 on the Malibu and $268.10 X 2 on the Silverado)

So if I sell the malibu at full sticker I make $1,576.88 and if I sell the Silverado at full sticker I make $2,317.07.