Car/Truck Buying Experiences

Are these vehicles they actually have on the lot, or the ones that when you go to check them out "aren't here anymore"?

How does anyone know they're giving the farm away? Take 2 identical cars/trucks that arrived the same day. 1 person buys one on Friday and pays x. Someone else buys the other the same day and pays less. Or maybe pays more for the identical vehicle. Why?

What simple steps are you talking about that take the frustration out of new car buying?
Thanks for asking. I've already shared a short list a page back. There are a lot of reasons the same car might sell for a different price. Trade in versus no trade-in. Financing or leasing. Some manufactures have rebates, but you might not get these is you use a special finance rate. Dealer invoice, rebates, etc. are all available online for any auto make. It is literally the most transparent business on the planet. I can bet you, you have no idea what the cost is on the clothes you buy, appliances, etc.

A business goal is to maximize profit. There is NOTHING wrong with a dealer trying to hold margins. NOTHING.

-Rebates are automatically afforded to the buyer and are not dealer discretion.
-Invoice and even holdback figures can be accessed on Edmunds.com, KBB and other sources. The dealer will likely even provide you the invoice if you ask. I present one with every new car deal regardless.

-Use the resources available.
-Avoid dealers that engage in over gimmicky advertising. If it looks like a clown show on TV, guess what? It's a clown show.
-Look at Google reviews.
-Start your process online.
-Find experienced, successful, tenured people.
 
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Last car I bought, I think I purchased in September or October. I financed most of the price but paid it off early the following year after I knew what I owed Uncle Sam. I'd bought the gap insurance and the insurance company sent me a prorated refund. Obviously, the bank did not make much off me, maybe 300-400 bucks for 2-3 months finance charges. I assume the sales and finance guys got their commission some time between purchase and pay off. Do they have to disgorge anything back to the dealer, finance co., insurance co., etc? Or is that just cost of doing business, as I assume not many people do what I did?
There are charge backs on early payoffs except with credit unions.
 
Last car I bought, I think I purchased in September or October. I financed most of the price but paid it off early the following year after I knew what I owed Uncle Sam. I'd bought the gap insurance and the insurance company sent me a prorated refund. Obviously, the bank did not make much off me, maybe 300-400 bucks for 2-3 months finance charges. I assume the sales and finance guys got their commission some time between purchase and pay off. Do they have to disgorge anything back to the dealer, finance co., insurance co., etc? Or is that just cost of doing business, as I assume not many people do what I did?
If you financed through a bank or credit union, they probably broke even or may have even lost money since you paid if off so quick. Loans have what is known as a cost of funds (COF). It may have cost that lender $900 to finance the loan for example. The money they use to finance it comes from a source with an interest related expense to it; whether they fund it through internal deposits or use borrowing to finance it. Obviously it's cheaper to fund through internal sources where the margin is typically 1.5-2%, but if it is funded through borrowings, the margin is only around .15 - .50% depending on what the yield curve looks like.
 
Thanks for the responses. It was something that had not occurred to me at the time but for some reason this thread made me wonder. It was a weird situation where I wanted a new 2017, the 2018s were on the lot with 2017 inventory dwindling, and I needed to stay as liquid as possible for few months because of some uncertainty about tax liability. The finance guy I worked with seemed fine. As I posted earlier, my salesman was a trainee who didn't last long. Can't imagine getting fired and a couple months later getting a call that I need to pay back a chunk of the only commission I ever earned. I hope that didn't happen.
 
Last car I bought, I think I purchased in September or October. I financed most of the price but paid it off early the following year after I knew what I owed Uncle Sam. I'd bought the gap insurance and the insurance company sent me a prorated refund. Obviously, the bank did not make much off me, maybe 300-400 bucks for 2-3 months finance charges. I assume the sales and finance guys got their commission some time between purchase and pay off. Do they have to disgorge anything back to the dealer, finance co., insurance co., etc? Or is that just cost of doing business, as I assume not many people do what I did?
 
Bought a truck tonight. It’s finally over.

That's the best "story" you have? Surely you have pictures or something else to share. With your lack of details we will just assume you got the root put to ya.
 
That's the best "story" you have? Surely you have pictures or something else to share. With your lack of details we will just assume you got the root put to ya.
I’m the OP lol
 
I know...just giving you a hard time. Let's see this truck.
I haven't picked it up yet but i'll post one that looks like it.

maxresdefault.jpg
 
Noice! Oh... we will let you know when it’s over.
Haha true. I guess I am not technically in the clear yet since I haven't picked it up. But they were extremely reasonable on price, gave me $2500 more on trade than I wanted, and only charged a doc fee of $299. Really pleased with this place.
 
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I’m going to buy a car tomorrow. I went to the local dealership about a one of their certified pre owned and found one I was interested in. Then I found one in Knoxville that has less than half the miles but it’s the same price. Only drawback its one year model older and the interior color isn’t our top choice. The dealer here told me that miles don’t matter on a certified pre owned vehicle 🙄🙄🙄
 
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I’m going to buy a car tomorrow. I went to the local dealership about a one of their certified pre owned and found one I was interested in. Then I found one in Knoxville that has less than half the miles but it’s the same price. Only drawback its one year model older and the interior color isn’t our top choice. The dealer here told me that miles don’t matter on a certified pre owned vehicle 🙄🙄🙄
What was the mileage on each vehicle?
Are both manufacturer certified?
 
I always figured "certified pre-owned" was just a clever way of selling an extended warranty without giving you the option of declining it. In other words, if they mark up the price a thousand dollars for it being "certified" and say it's on them if certain things go wrong, it amounts to the same thing as selling a plain old non-certified car for a thousand less and then selling you a thousand dollar warranty.
 
I always figured "certified pre-owned" was just a clever way of selling an extended warranty without giving you the option of declining it. In other words, if they mark up the price a thousand dollars for it being "certified" and say it's on them if certain things go wrong, it amounts to the same thing as selling a plain old non-certified car for a thousand less and then selling you a thousand dollar warranty.
That would be exactly wrong.
 

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