How to Get the Best Price When Buying an Automobile

By: Trevor Mulholland

The following steps are designed to help a car buyer get the best price deal and gain the advantage over most automobile dealers in the United States, such as Audi Oakland, Mercedes, Ford and other automobile brands.

The first step in negotiating with car dealers, such as Ford, Audi Oakland, Mercedes brands, etc., is to find out the realistic, fair price for a certain type of automobile. Consumers can search the Internet for free tools that they can use to determine the fair price. Some companies sell a package that include invoice pricing data and other important information, such as deals obtained by other consumers and current dealer inventories.

The next step is to request for free quotes from various web sites such as InvoiceDealers, CarsDirect, Cars, Edmunds, Autos and Autoweb. This kind of research will ensure that one is negotiating with the most number of car dealers. Increasing the number of dealers that the buyer will be working with will increase his chance of buying a car for the least price possible. It should be noted that filling out the forms for these web sites will require the customer to provide contact information.

The third step is to scout around for the best financing deal. Customers should realize that the automobile dealership is not the only source of financing when buying a car. The first thing to do is to determine one's FICO credit score, which will be used as basis for calculating the interest rate for paying the automobile loan. After getting one's FICO credit score, one should apply to online lenders to discover the best rates.

The next step is to determine the private resale and trade-in value of one's automobile. It should be noted that one will get the best value when selling the car to an individual instead of trading it in. However, another thing to consider is the amount of savings on sales tax that one can get by trading in a used automobile because the trade-in value of one's used automobile will decrease the taxable amount to be paid for the purchase of a new car.

The final step is of course the actual negotiation with the car dealership, such as Audi Oakland. Armed with the various quotes obtained from various web sites, one can get a clearer picture of an offer. The first move would be to request a cash price quote that does not include incentives, trade-ins or rebates, but includes all dealer added fees. There should be no mention of a trade-in or financing at the start of the negotiation. After getting a quote from one dealership, one goes to another dealer and mention to him or her that a dealer has offered such a price and whether he or she could offer a lower price. This should be continued until one could no longer get a lower price. The fair price calculated during the first step can be used as a guide to determine whether one is close to the best price.

Auto Finance
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 
 • 

» More on Auto Finance