REVscene Automotive Forum - View Single Post - School me on what not to do when buying a new car

320icar · 03-30-2022, 10:25 PM

1. Always be prepared to walk away. Know what you can afford and what you can’t.

2. Be aware of the finance rates. Toyota loves to push their in-house 5.99% which is crazy high. Don’t be shy about “paying cash” by getting a loan from your bank seperately and dealing with them. On those hot-hatch kind of cars, usually around 2.99% is an alright interest rate if you are doing the zero down thing. [edit] this will wildly vary between people and cars. Toyota often offers the Corolla at 0%, but the Tacoma is pretty much always 5.99 regardless of credit score. There may also be ways to get good interest rates through HELOC but that’s totally not my knowledge base, so don’t ask me anything about that.

3. The sales manager just sells you the car. They will agree with a price, etc and have you sign a something they call like a “promise” sheet. It will be what the car is, what price you agreed to, what the taxes will be, and what will be included (winter wheels etc). This doesn’t mean you have bought the car, but it’s to make sure everyone knows what’s going on and you get a copy. You will then be sat down with the ‘finance manager’. They will be the ones to do all the real paperwork and back room stuff with you, but they will also push the extended warranty, undercoating etc etc all the bullshit. Be honest with yourself on how you will be driving, tracking, modifying the car. For a lot of us there is zero point in getting an extra warranty because we will void it.

4. Pay biweekly, not monthly. You pay two more times a year, thus technically saving a bit of interest at the end of the loan. Have the loan set up to automatic debit the same days you get paid, that way by the time you’ve woken up, the car payments have gone through. That way you can’t ever miss a payment.

5. I’ll repeat myself, always be prepared to walk away. I’ll also add on to follow your gut. If something seems confusing, stop and have them explain it. If something feels wrong, follow your gut. They are salesman working on commission, their job is to bleed as much money as they can. Always be careful.

6. For something like the GR, don’t waste your time haggling. You either like the price or you don’t.

7. In the vein of “add ons”. Watch out for what they might call PPF. I had a friend buy a paint protection thing from Volkswagen, the way they explained it was that it was a full clear PPF wrap. Turned out to just be ceramic coating and he way overspent on it. Again, just make sure to use your brain and ask questions

8. Sometimes it’s not worth sweating the pennies if you’re trading in. For example, when I traded in my focus ST for my focus RS. You save the tax value of your trade in for your new purchase, so it’s just some math. Focus RS was 50k, I was offered 19k as a trade in value for the ST. The market price of the ST was about 22k, so I’m “losing” 3k by not selling privately. BUT the 19k tax-wise gets removed from the RS value, so I only get taxed on 31k instead of the full 50k, saving ~$2250, therefore making up that lost gap between private/trading in. I then also saved all the time and stress of selling privately

Experience: not lots. Bought my focus st, my RS and my wife’s flex.

03-30-2022, 10:25 PM	#8
320icar RS.net, helping ugly ppl have sex since 2001 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Richmond Posts: 8,469 Thanked 14,968 Times in 3,904 Posts Failed 471 Times in 216 Posts	1. Always be prepared to walk away. Know what you can afford and what you can’t. 2. Be aware of the finance rates. Toyota loves to push their in-house 5.99% which is crazy high. Don’t be shy about “paying cash” by getting a loan from your bank seperately and dealing with them. On those hot-hatch kind of cars, usually around 2.99% is an alright interest rate if you are doing the zero down thing. [edit] this will wildly vary between people and cars. Toyota often offers the Corolla at 0%, but the Tacoma is pretty much always 5.99 regardless of credit score. There may also be ways to get good interest rates through HELOC but that’s totally not my knowledge base, so don’t ask me anything about that. 3. The sales manager just sells you the car. They will agree with a price, etc and have you sign a something they call like a “promise” sheet. It will be what the car is, what price you agreed to, what the taxes will be, and what will be included (winter wheels etc). This doesn’t mean you have bought the car, but it’s to make sure everyone knows what’s going on and you get a copy. You will then be sat down with the ‘finance manager’. They will be the ones to do all the real paperwork and back room stuff with you, but they will also push the extended warranty, undercoating etc etc all the bullshit. Be honest with yourself on how you will be driving, tracking, modifying the car. For a lot of us there is zero point in getting an extra warranty because we will void it. 4. Pay biweekly, not monthly. You pay two more times a year, thus technically saving a bit of interest at the end of the loan. Have the loan set up to automatic debit the same days you get paid, that way by the time you’ve woken up, the car payments have gone through. That way you can’t ever miss a payment. 5. I’ll repeat myself, always be prepared to walk away. I’ll also add on to follow your gut. If something seems confusing, stop and have them explain it. If something feels wrong, follow your gut. They are salesman working on commission, their job is to bleed as much money as they can. Always be careful. 6. For something like the GR, don’t waste your time haggling. You either like the price or you don’t. 7. In the vein of “add ons”. Watch out for what they might call PPF. I had a friend buy a paint protection thing from Volkswagen, the way they explained it was that it was a full clear PPF wrap. Turned out to just be ceramic coating and he way overspent on it. Again, just make sure to use your brain and ask questions 8. Sometimes it’s not worth sweating the pennies if you’re trading in. For example, when I traded in my focus ST for my focus RS. You save the tax value of your trade in for your new purchase, so it’s just some math. Focus RS was 50k, I was offered 19k as a trade in value for the ST. The market price of the ST was about 22k, so I’m “losing” 3k by not selling privately. BUT the 19k tax-wise gets removed from the RS value, so I only get taxed on 31k instead of the full 50k, saving ~$2250, therefore making up that lost gap between private/trading in. I then also saved all the time and stress of selling privately Experience: not lots. Bought my focus st, my RS and my wife’s flex. __________________ https://i.imgur.com/4PRtABe.gif Last edited by 320icar; 03-30-2022 at 10:35 PM.