Buying Automobiles
Vehicle salesman new or used have certainly earned their notorious reputations. It is an insane request for punishment to talk to a dealer without ammunition, in the form of facts, to combat the barage of sales tatics that will assault the unprepared auto shopper. Before you even consider stopping by a car lot hit the internet and grab some valuable information first. The internet has a host of sites with valuable information that can save you money, time, and limit the dealers ability to take advantage of you.
One of the first sites to look at when contemplating a vehicle purchase depends a lot on what purpose you will need this vehicle for. If you are in the market for a car, some considerations maybe capacity and weather. Will this vehicle hold all my family members and will I be able to get around when it snows? If a truck is desired what do you want it to be able to pull or what will need to go in the bed of the truck on a regular basis? If this is a recreational vehicle what terrain will you be operating it on mainly? To answer these questions it is best to go to an automakers website.
A good place to start is,www.buyatoyota.com/ResearchTools. This particular automaker offers a research tool for consumers. Another starting point iswww.ford.com/vehicles/ford-cars-trucks. This website explains truck pulling capacities in a straight forward easy to understand format. Or if you know the particular maker of the vehicle you would like to buy go to Google.com and type in the name and hit search. Most automakers are going to have their name with a dot.com at the end as the name of their website. These website makes it very easy for regular folks to find out information. They are the beginning and the ending websites because they also have links to dealer incentives, local dealer contact information and the special deal coupons. (In my experience the special deal internet coupons are gimmicks to draw the customer in.)
Do not stop at just these sites. Remember this is the automakers website their main objective is to sell you a vehicle. The next round of websites will help you get a feel for the particular strengths and weaknesses of automobiles. Before you get talked in to an automobile you only thought you wanted these sites will give consumer experience with the particular brands, models, and makes. Consumer Reports.org athttp://www.online.consumerreports.orgis the best site but they obviously know that so they charge $26.00 annually or $5.95 per month for access. It does offer more than just vehicle information. If you want to save your money for the new auto purchase then here is another good site Cars.com atwww.cars.com.
Buying a vehicle is a process. There is a lot of information out there and a lot to take in so make lists and plan some time to look through these sites. No one site is going to give you everything you need for your particular situation. Two sites you absolutely must visit are the Kelly Blue Book.com athttp://www.kbb.comand Trade-In-Value.com athttp://www.trade-in-value.com. The Kelly Blue Book site offers separate links and pages for cars, trucks, RV's and motorcyles. The NADA (National Auto Dealer Association) also has a website. Be wary of the Kelly Blue Book site, they often show a retail value, and then in small print it will say "assumes excellent condition." From there it goes on to say only 5 percent of used vehicles fall into this category. Obviously, if you're looking at a 5 year old used car, it will not fit into this category. Also, some dealers will put this print out in the window of the vehicle next to the price. Don't fall for this trick, Carmax is good for this.Nadaguides.comcan be more useful by giving ranges for different conditions, such as poor, good, fair and excellent. You can visit their website for definitions of the conditions. Once all your vehicle information is entered, and you have values there are links to things like crash test ratings, quality ratings, and reviews.
KBB.comandnadaguides.comare useful for research, but to find dealerships near you, you will need to use a search engine such as google.com, yahoo.com, or ask.com, whatever your favorite is. Type in what you're looking for in the search (like toyota dealers or used cars). Cars.com or usedcars.com can be useful if you're in an urban area. Sometimes the local sites can only be found with search engines because advertising is expensive. These local sites can be groups of smaller dealers that got together or be a part of your local TV and/or radio stations. Their listings will usually give you enough information to get values from nadaguides.com. Often they will give you the VIN (vehicle identification number, a kind of fingerprint for autos), this can be entered directly into sites like nadaguides.com and carfax.com.
Carfax.comis used to look up a vehicle's history. The drawback is the free service only gives you the number of records for the vehicle. These records can be anything from registrations at time of sale (which can be meaningless for your purposes) to crashes and damage claims. To find out what the records are, you have to pay. The last I checked, you could pay on a vehicle by vehicle basis or pay a fee for a months unlimited access. I would suggest visiting dealers you have selected as some will have these reports available for the cars they're selling.
Buying a used vehicle requires more attention and research. CarMax.com athttp://www.carmax.com/is the Walmart of car shopping. Checking there gives you a wide variety and great base. They do not specialize in one brand like dealerships. Like Walmart if you can't find it at a particular store location they will find it and ship it to you. CarMax locations are more uniform in set up and locations are all over the country. The downside to CarMax is that they are not really about negotiating prices because they can just ship the car to another location and sell it and they have the idea that they already have set the vehicle at the lowest price. Their website has unbiased information on fuel efficient vehicles. They seem to target in on what is important to economical consumers and deliver.
Cost is a major factor. It is important to get several references for price comparison on any vehicle. There are three costs to consider in addition to the actual cost of the vehicle. Finance charges and percentages, state fees (tax and registration), and insurance cost. The bigger name brand car dealers will have in-house financing.Fordmotorcredit.comandtoyotafinancial.comboth have links on the sites to research financing options.Automall.comhas a tab that gives you the option to research insurance quotes for certain vehicle models. If you have an insurance company already their websites could be useful as well. Now you have the secret weapons of car shopping. This should help level the playing field with the eager sales force when you are ready to go and seal the deal.
