Strategies for buying new

Now you get it. I was afraid I was going to need to draw pictures. Seriously though, best wishes on your truck purchase.

 

+1...

This is the guy you want!

 

i bought my truck about 2 years ago...so...thanks?

 

Some of you guys seem to know an awful lot about coked out salesmans

 

Have any of you noobs seen my writeup on purchasing a Tacoma?

 

I second this. Use true car or similar service. This emails the fleet or internet manager and they deal in volume. You will get at least one or two low prices then use that to negotiate. It may already be as low but usually always some wiggle room. You can do the whole deal via email the. Just go in and sign the deal.

 

Did it involve a drugged up salesman?

 

Be informed, be patient, and be willing to walk away. I bought my Tacoma 2 weeks ago. I was searching a truck for over 2 months. I started my search in December. Couldn't really find a cheap one that I wanted (2018 or 2019 SR5 4WD DCLB). They are available, just kinda expensive imo. I'm in the NE region and they're listed at about 34-36k (cargurus listings) just for an SR5. I thought that was too much. I went to over 10 different dealers spanning across 4 states (CT, MA, NH, RI) and test drove different trucks at each of them to show that I was serious about buying. I ended up buying one in MA for $31,500 + $2,500 TTL. The 5 trucks I looked at before that they all wanted about 34.5-36k + TTL. Maybe it's just expensive where I live for a DCLB. They're still calling and emailing me about buying. They'll all say it's non-negotiable until you walk away and then they'll call you to ask you to come in to talk pricing. So being able to walk away is everything.

 

Wait for 2020

 

and women in bikini

 

Got mine in December. TRD 4x4 OR DCSB with tech package. Wasn't looking for dealer added extras as that's dumb and I was going to build my truck up anyway.

1) do your research and know what your numbers are. ie credit score, budget, trade in, down payment, etc
2) be ready to walk away
3) Costco if you're a member. (Saved almost $1000)
4) shop a neighboring state if it's feasible. I'm in socal and bought mine through Costco at a dealership in Phoenix AZ.

Final cost was $4k less than California prices and a few hundred below invoice. Only cost me some hours of internet research and a $92 one way flight to Phoenix.

Hope this helps

 

Last day of the month
Month of February If possible(less days)
If it’s raining, even better

Your mark will usually be the guy who’s trying to greet you before you even get out of your car.

 

Never buy a car in the rain!

 

Why?

Less walk in traffic = less sales that day.

If that is the last day of the month even better for the buyer. The dealership will be more motivated to discount.

 

I once went in with my wife looking for a prius on a Saturday afternoon. Just so happened they got the exact car she wanted off the truck so we ended up negotiating for 5 hours( I hate back and forth which is why I try to do it online but in this case she didn't really know what she wanted) and they had to stay open cause it was about 8pm and all the managers were getting pissed they had to stay for a potential sale. Long story short we were aboit 750 dollars off from my goal so we ended up walking. The finance manager ran out to the parking lot and said fuck it he's not losing a sale and coming home late.

 

I have spent many a late night trying to land the sale. And I have seen them fall apart in F&I a time or two. Most frustrating thing in the world

 

Buy late into the model year. Use a car buying service; I've used TrueCar with excellent results. If you have a trade in, accept nothing less than what KBB says it's worth for trade in. Dealers will try to undercut KBB by a couple thousand. Stand your ground and tell them that's your number. Be prepared to walk without making a scene. Simply thank them for their time and walk out.

 

Build up your credit.

The last car salesman I dealt with saw my ~730 credit rating and almost did one of these:

Then you tell him you're also considering a Ranger, Colorado, Ridgeline....

Put in a little extra for the down payment if possible.

 

Was in car sales for almost a decade just gonna try to clear up some misconceptions.

Not always true, I'd say actually false most of the time. That last week is gangbusters the dealership won't be desperate they'll have more leads than they can handle... the BEGINNING of December is when they're super slow and will have all the same incentives as end of the month plus more inventory, if anything I'd go BEFORE christmas while everyone else is at the malls. Waiting for the very last week you might end up screwing yourself for no reason and you can always wait, but you can't go back in time.

"big sale weekends" in my opinion are the worst time to buy... 4th of july, labor day, memorial day sales etc... they're all marketing. My old store made the MOST profit on "sales weekends" because people let their guard down.

Depends on if the store is chasing volume or gross, again you could just as easily be screwing yourself by waiting for the very last day. Good stores that hit their #s aren't giving shit away on the last day, with my store thats when we held gross the most. Beginning of the month they can be even more desperate as they don't know how it'll shape up yet. But timing any of this is like timing the market there is never a single "best time". The biggest loss I ever took on a new car was on a random Tuesday in mid-February, it was a 400 day old unit, I already had a ton of gross that month and she was really cute so....

Glad you got a good deal by a few hundred under invoice isn't worth going out of state for, you didn't contact the right dealers in SoCal if you couldn't get that here. LA region is toyota's largest single market IN THE WORLD, its also the most competitive just a matter of getting in touch with the right store. When I sold toyota it went the other way, I was shipping cars out to AZ regularly because the market isn't as competitive over there. I NEVER lost a deal to Arizona it was always them losing to me.


General advice to OP: interest rates are on an upward trajectory for the foreseeable future so take that into account unless you're paying cash. You might get an extra $1k off at the end of the year only to pay an additional $1,200 in interest.

I'd figure out what you want, keep an eye on inventory, try to find a place with multiple units of what you want and target them. If one of the cars is getting up on in stock days the dealer will be motivated to clear it off their flooring costs and more likely to discount deeper.

 

Suppose every dealer handles things differently.

End of the month for us was quantity chasing sales regardless of weather we had hit our dealer goal or not. We were constantly competing with the other Toyota dealers in the Valley for total sells. It didn't mean squat to the GM if we met our goal when Malone outsold us.


I understand FEG chasing, I regularly had the highest FEG % on the floor. But total income for me relied more heavily on spiffs/goal bonuses. I didn't really rely on FEG as much as youd think. I chased total sells heavy at the end of the month. Even if I had to give it away.

Especially when I was competing with other salesmen for bragging rights