Car Buying Tips

This year, I bought two cars. My previous car was totalled in a rear-end car accident. The claim resulted in a payout of more than what I had paid originally for my car.

[caption id="attachment_213" align="alignright" width="300"] 2009 Honda Accord[/caption]

Therefore, I bought a new 2012 Toyota Rav4 in July of this year because we needed a bigger (but not too big) family car. I didn't succeed in finding a used Rav4 in a short amount of time. So, I bought my first brand new car.

In December, I bought another car, used 2009 Honda Accord, as our second family car. This time, it is for my wife who will use this car to take our daughter to and from the school.

Relatively speaking, I got great deals on both these cars.

New 2012 Toyota Rav4 with Upgrade Value Package: $20,995 + Tax + Title + Registration = $22,700.
Used 2009 Honda Accord LX with 21K miles: $11,800 + Dealer Fees ($499) + Tax + Title + Registration = $13,100.

Below are some of the tips based on my experience with these two purchases.

• Private sellers on Craigslist are generally harder to negotiate. A lot of them ask for unrealistic prices for their cars in my view.


• Craigslist has too many listings by "car brokers" who pose as "private sellers". Car brokers are people who buy cars from private sellers and turn them around without registering the car for a quick profit. You do not pay taxes with them, but quality of cars from car brokers is a hit or miss. I walked away from one deal because the car broker didn't appear honest about the condition of the car.
  
  [caption id="attachment_214" align="alignright" width="300"] 2012 Toyota Rav4[/caption]


• Some of the car brokers also do not provide Carfax because the car may have changed hands multiple times and you may never know what may have happened to those cars.


• For me, personally, I was able to find better deals from used car dealers. Many of the used car dealers are harder to negotiate, but sometimes you get lucky when the dealer isn't able to move the cars fast enough during slow periods of the year. In case of my Honda Accord purchase, I negotiated the price down by $1200 and told them exactly how much I was able to afford out-the-door price.


• It is generally better to visit used car dealers on weekdays as opposed to weekends. They don't get enough people during weekdays and you get better attention from them.


• It is also a good idea not to finance cars from the used car dealer. You lose your negotiation leverage when you have to finance the car. If you still want to finance, then don't bring up the financing topic until you settle on a purchase price.


• In case of Toyota Rav4, I did not negotiate the price. In fact, I could not negotiate it all because this car was advertized much lower from most other dealers on this dealer's website. I was told that this was a take it or leave it deal. Be sure to check out dealer's websites before visiting them because online advertized prices are better than the initial prices they quote you if you go without this knowledge.


• If you are buying new car, make yourself knowledgeable about rebates, dealer cash, incentives, special APR, recent graduate credit etc. I wasn't aware when I purchased Toyota Rav4.

Car Buying Resources

Real Car Tips (How-to car buying guide, weekly car deals and tips)
Autotrader.com (Car listings website)
Carwoo (Get quotes and negotiate anonymously)
CarGurus (Car listings website)