Welcome to Campbell's Auto Sales
Tips for new and used cars
Don't forget not only to try and get a better price, ask for a better interest rate and better warranty. Tell them you looked at a car down the road and they offered you 7% interest and a better warranty so you are going to go back there, even if you just made it up it will usually work. Dealers can add a few % onto the interest rate and keep it them selves. If they are offering you 7%, that may mean they found you a lender at 5% and are adding on 2% because they can.
You can get financing before you buy a car, like from a bank or credit union. You will know how much you can spend and what the interest rate will be before you even set foot in a dealer lot.
The dealer may also try to sell you things like credit insurance, gap insurance, service contracts, etc.. They may make as much profit from these add-ons as on the car itself. You can buy gap insurance from your insurance agent for about half the price of the dealer, if you need it. And many service contracts have loop-holes that lets them shop out of big ticket items (engine, transmissions, etc).
It's funny how things change. 20 minutes ago the salesman was telling you how great these cars are, how good the warranty is, how many he has seen running 10 years later with 200,000 miles and the look almost as good as new. Now they are telling you should buy an extended warranty, paint and fabric protection, undercoating, service contract, roadside assistance and about 10 other things.
If you just added $65.00 a month for a service contract it would cost you over $4000.00 on a 60 month loan with interest. You would have to get alot of work done to make it pay off. The dealer isn't selling you these extras to be nice or because you might need them, they are selling them to make money. The salesman, the person who find you a finance company, closer and sales manager all make a commission off what ever you buy. The person the salesman keeps going to see when your making the deal is the sales manager, the closer is the one who tries to add on undercoating, vin etching, extended warranty, etc and the one you actually sign the papers with.
They may not tell you the paint and body may have a 5 or 10 year rust protection warranty, they still want to sell you paint sealant and undercoating. They may want to sell you vin etching (etching the car's serial number in the glass) when federal regulations already require the same number stamped in 17 locations to make it easier to identify a stolen car.
Sometime a dealer may say they are selling the car at $200 above invoice, or selling it at invoice. That may sound great, the dealer is letting me have the car for cost, but not true. There are often rebates from the manufacture to the dealer, and they often get reimbursed for freight or transportation assistance. So the invoice may show the dealer paid $22,500 plus $800 for transportation, when in fact they received a $2000 rebate or credit for the car and received $500 in transportation assistance.
Before you sign, the very last thing you should do is borrow a calculator (or use you phone if it has that function) and multiply your payment amount X the number of payments, then add your down payment and trade in credit. You may be surprised to find you are paying $34,580 for a 22,300 car. If the number is alot more then you expected, ask the closer to break everything down. How much are you paying in instrest, tax and license, and extras. Remember with interest a $500 vin etching may cost you $850 when you are done. They are required by law to show you a truth in lending form with these same numbers, but it is often has so many numbers, prices, discounts and other information you may not be able find it while the closer is sticking 10 papers in your face with a pen.
Buyer expectations. Just like there may be bad dealers, there are bad buyers.
Some buyers may spend months or even years looking for the perfect car and never find it. They have their sight set to high. They may be looking at spending very little and and wanting a low mileage newer car that is in perfect condition in and out. If this is how they are shopping they need to pick one of the 3 options (low miles ,newer ,clean in and out). Why would a dealer sell a newer, excellent running car with low mileage for a bargain basement price ? They typically would not.
Remember the dealer also had to pay something to get the car, along with it's markup to cover the cost of doing business. You may find the same car for less from a private seller (like from the paper) as they do not have the overheads like paid salesmen who have to be at work so you can stop by anytime you like whether there selling any cars or not, buyers who go out and find cars for the dealership, lease or mortgage payments for the dealership it self and insurance costs.
When buying from a private seller (like from the paper or a car parked with a FOR SALE sign) what you are saving in money you are paying for with convince and accountability. There are many laws a dealer must follow when selling a car that a private person does not. Some time these private sale cars are rebuilt wrecked cars or a broken down car patched up enough to run for a few weeks. Then you also have to extra trouble of setting meeting places and times. You will not be able to sufficiently check over a car meeting in a dark parking lot at 7:00 at night. That's one of the reasons a dealer price will be higher though, you are paying them to be there so you can come in anytime.
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