Long story short-my wife is in LA, I am in central Ohio.
Be afraid. Be very afraid. Car salesmen, much like sharks, can smell
blood in the water. Any sign of weakness and you are lunch. Car
salesmen are not your friends or buddies. Their job is to make as much
money as possible off of you.
I've never used Carsdirect.com, but I have used the information on
their site for the last three cars I've bought. Dealers are now so
tired of internet information, that they may not even argue with you
very much. You may decide to buy through Carsdirect.com or just use
the information to cut a deal. Carsdirect is nationwide, so they may
be able to help out your individual out of state situation.
<
http://www.carsdirect.com/home>
Be careful to understand Destination Charge (usually around $500) on
carsdirect.com. The first MSRP you see as you navigate the site
(usually is lined out) is without Destination Charge. The next MSRP,
on the page with Net Cost, has Destination Charge included. Just
subtract the smaller from the larger MSRP to get the Destination
Charge. The Net Cost includes Destination.
Subtract Destination Charge from Net Cost to get your "final fair
offer" to the dealer. If they can't come close to this you may
just want to go with Carsdirect.com (again, I've never used them,
caveat emptor.)
Always bargain on price. Start below your final fair offer and expect
to be bumped three times. Sit through the charade of "I'll have to
see if my boss will accept this offer." They know making you
impatient makes you lose your good judgment. When they come back after
letting you stew say "I just love the peace and quiet here, I've
never get so much reading done at work." Bump your offer $300, then
$150 then $25. Obviously, you start $475 low. Never, ever, bargain on
monthly payments. They just add another year to the payments and,
violla, the price and profit just went way up. Bring a calculator with
you if you must, and you tell them what the monthly payments are given
amount financed, term (time) and interest rate. Car dealers can get
the difference between the credit rate the bank will give you and the
rate they can sell you on. Just say no. The frown I saw on the last
salesman's face when I told him, to the penny, what the payments
were, was priceless. I bought for cash in the end, anyway.
Offer to add in the Destination Charge separately. If the dealer says
that the Destination Charge is included, be very, very careful they
don't add it in again. This "accident" has happened four out of
the last four times I bought a car. I missed it once. The dealers
argued vehemently that they were right until they, belatedly, admitted
they made a mistake.
Once you negotiate price, you are still in great peril. You now have
to face the "Finance and Insurance" (F&I) guy. He will try to sell
you the extended warranty, fabric protection, Teflon(R) paint coating,
undercoating, death and casualty insurance (maybe "required" is you
finance). There are always new gimmicks, just watch for them. Decide
in advance what you want and stick to your guns.
The salesmen live in fear of not making sales commissions. The sales
manager lives in fear of not selling enough cars to justify their
salary (and commissions). The owner lives in fear of not making his
overhead. They are the ones who should be in fear of you and you
should be kicking their buts.
Just walk out if they offer you a bad deal. I've never had to walk
out of more than two dealerships in order to buy a car at a decent
price.
Good Luck
